Homeschooling High Schoolers in our Classical Homeschool

I know many of you read Preschoolers and Peace because you have preschoolers. Still many of you are in the same boat I am, with high schoolers on one end and babies on the other.

I've got to tell you that even though we'd committed to homeschooling through high school, I was terrified.  It wasn't the breadth of knowledge that had to be taught or even the subject matter that made me a nervous wreck; it was the record keeping.  Suddenly grades mattered, particularly because our firstborn desires higher education and his transcript will be essential.

Let's start there.  I'm sure you know that there are many, many resources for high school home education record-keeping, but just in case you don't, here are a couple worth noting:  HSLDA and Donna Young.

I made a binder (of course!  You knew I would, didn't you?) for each of our high schoolers with the following subject tabs: Attendance, DSST/CLEP Tests, Online Courses, Master Reading List, and Field Trips.

Then, even though plans change and some people I know drag their feet through a subject like, say, chemistry (ahem), I do make a rough sketch of where we're going in the four years of high school.  Remember, our firstborn is very academic and eats this stuff up, so although I'm going to show you what his plan looks like, it isn't a plan for every one.  

Ninth Grade

Algebra II
World Literature and Comp ( plus CLEP)
Modern World History
Biology I
Theology I
PE
Logic
Latin II

Tenth Grade

Geometry
Intro Constitutional Law
Chemistry
Classical Rhetoric
British Lit and Comp
US History I  (CLEP)
Computer Graphics (Junior College course)
PE
Driver’s Ed

Eleventh Grade

Trigonometry/Pre-Calc
French I
Physics
PE
Statistics (DSST)
Economics
Law and Public Policy

Twelfth Grade

French II 
Senior Thesis
Classes through the local Junior College

Both of our high schoolers have decided they'd like to plug away at their college general education coursework while in high school, so they are taking CLEP and DSST tests as well as courses online through our local junior college. As a high school junior, our firstborn has already knocked off a semester of college work. Boy, do I wish I'd known I could have been doing this. Would have saved a lot of time and money.

Not every student is college bound. Our second born is not an academic kid, and unlike his highly focused older brother, he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. We think that's more typical, and we're absolutely ok with that. We just keep praying and trusting that God will show him in due time what He has called him to do. It's exciting! In the meantime, he wants to be a lifeguard. David Hasselhoff didn't do too poorly as a lifeguard, did he? :D

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