An Authoritative Guide to Out-of-the-Box Credits for Special Needs Homeschool High Schoolers

You can do it! Here is an authoritative guide for out-of-the-box credits for special needs homeschool high schoolers.

Out-of-the-Box Credits for Special Needs Homeschool High Schoolers

Don’t feel intimidated by homeschooling high school. Sometimes parents with teens who have learning differences or other special needs feel intimidated by the though of high school: complicated textbooks, little flexibility, feeling stifled!

Don’t worry! You can create interesting, inspirational courses for your teens that meet their needs while earning credits for high school graduation!

Allow me to share some ways our local homeschool high schoolers have created out-of-the-box credits that were:

• Meaningful to them
• Developed their skills and interests
• Helped them meet graduation requirements (if there are those in their location)

One thing to give yourself permission to adapt your teens’ high school experiences to their needs without feeling like anyone has been shortchanged. The lovely thing about homeschooling is that we can educate our teens in the manner that is BEST for them. After all, we know there’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school!

In this post we’ll discuss:

• A few helpful resources we have found
• Logging Hours for Carnegie Credits
• History Credits
• Science Credits
• Language Arts Credits
• Elective Credits
• More on Combining Credits

Here are a few helpful resources we have found. What else could you add? (We are not affiliates, btw.)

• Some Chrome extensions to aid with reading and writing are listed in this post.
• Dragon speech to text writing aid.
• Lots of resources at SPED Homeschool and check out their Facebook group, too.
• Many ideas and encouragement at Homeschooling With Dyslexia.
• Resources for Special Needs Homeschoolers, Interview with Dr. Rochelle Matthews-Somerville.
• Our friends at Homeschooling with Technology share ways to modify online curriculum (part 1) and modify online curriculum for special needs teens (part 2).
• Also, our friend Peggy Ployar talks about transition planning for special needs teens.
• Penny Rogers talks about homeschooling teens with autism
• Here are some resources for 2e teens

Let’s take a look at several core subject and several electives and discuss ways to create transcript credits that mean something to your homeschool high schoolers.

Logging Hours for Carnegie Credits to Earn Out-of-the-Box Credits for Special Needs Homeschool High Schoolers:

At high school level, and especially where there are special needs involved, you do not have to worry about exposing your teens to a “comprehensive” curriculum in any given subject. Instead, take areas of interest (or areas that you feel like are important for your teens to know about) and log hours with educational experiences that are meaningful to your teens.

What are logging hours?

Keeping track of hours can help your teens earn their credits using Carnegie units. In most states, 120-180 hours of educational experiences equals an average-level credit. Here’s a post with more information on the idea of logging hours.

For a teen that has severe struggles cut those hours to fit their needs. Many struggling learners do best with 90-135 hours. We call this a remedial credit. For more information on levels check out this post and this post.

If you are working towards 120 hours over 30 weeks for 1 subject credit, you would need about 4 hours per week of educational experiences. If you are working toward 90 hours over 30 weeks, you would need to log about 3 hours a week of educational experiences in that subject.

It is useful to make your homeschool high schoolers part of the planning process each year. This helps them feel respected and gives them buy-in.

History Credits:

For many teens, they will want to include these history topics in their high school experience (adapt to your teens’ needs):

• American History
• World History
• History Elective (State History and/or a special interest such as World Wars, Geography, Foods Around the World, Psychology)

For each of these subjects, think about the way your homeschool high schooler likes to learn:

• Reading real book

  

• Listening to read alouds or audiobooks
• Hands-on projects
• Field trips
• Videos, take for instance this video of songs that help teens memorize famous American documents (created by homeschool graduate and now teacher, Ezra Tillman)
• Movies
• Adapted curriculum
• Unit studies
  • Here are a few freebie unit study posts:
    • Memorial Day
    • Native American Heritage Month
    • Black History Month
    • Fairy Tales
    • Tall Tales
    • A catty unit study
    • Mother Teresa
    • Christmas
      • It’s a Wonderful Life
      • Muppet’s Christmas Carol
      • White Christmas

Here are some ideas for history credits:

If you are working towards 120 hours over 30 weeks for 1 History credit, you would need about 4 hours per week of educational experiences. Your homeschool high schoolers could:

• Watch one movie about a historical figure (this can be historical fiction or a biographical movie). About 2 hours.
• Watch one documentary. About 1 hour.
• Do one hands-on project: A timeline, map work, cooking, craft, art, or music listening. About 1 hour.
• Switch out a field trip for some or all of those hours in as many weeks as possible

If your homeschool high schoolers like to write:

Have them write one or more of these (and log those hours, switching these hours out for movies or other hours))

• A short story about an historical event
• A research paper about a person, event, military topic, fashion, lifestyle of a certain time period
• An essay comparing 2 famous people, 2 types of food or other topic they find interesting

Do you have teens who like to read (or be read to, or enjoy audiobooks)?

Have them read books of their choice that pertain to the history topic:

• Biographies
• Historical fiction
• How-to’s about building, repairing, fashion, cooking, manners or other topics of interest to them related to that time period
• Poetry of that time period

We have found that about 16 books will equal a credit. OR if teens like to mix and match, they could read 8 books and log 60 hours of educational experiences. OR they could read 4 books and log 90 hours of educational experiences.

NOTE: If your homeschool high schoolers are logging hours and some of those hours can also be considered as another subject, in many places you can *double log*.

Those specific hours can also be included in that other subject’s logged hours. For instance, if your teens are:

• Doing craft projects or art projects related to the time period they are studying, you can also log those specific hours when the craft or art project is being done under their Fine Arts credit that many teens need for their transcripts.
• Listening to the music of that time period, you can also log those specific hours when the craft or art project is being done under their Fine Arts credit that many teens need for their transcripts.
• Reading books (or listening to books) for their history credits, they can also list those books on their book list for their required language arts credits.

Science Credits:

Many teens will want to include these science topics in their high school experience (adapt to your teens’ needs):

• Biology

  

• Chemistry
• Health
• Other Science such as Earth Science or Human Development

For each of these subjects, think about the way your homeschool high schooler likes to learn:

• Reading real books
• Listening to read-alouds or audiobooks
• Labs and hands-on projects, experiments, nature studies
• Field trips
• Videos
• Movies
• Adapted curriculum, Westfield Studios has some very adaptable science courses and 7Sisters Human Development is created for adaptability

At high school level, and especially where there are special needs involved, you do not have to worry about exposing your teens to a *comprehensive* science curriculum. Ask yourself and your teens what the most meaningful topics in those areas would be. Develop a list of books and/or experiences then log hours that are meaningful to your teens.

Here are some ideas for science credits:

If you are working towards 120 hours over 30 weeks for 1 science credit, you would need about 4 hours per week of educational experiences. Your homeschool high schoolers could:

• Watch one movie about a person or event from science (this can be historical fiction or a biographical movie). About 2 hours.
• Watch one documentary or virtual lab. About 1 hour.
• Do one lab/hands-on project: Experiments, nature journals, gardening. About 1 hour.
• Switch out a field trip for some or all of those hours in as many weeks as possible
• One of our 7th Sisters in the 7SistersHomeschool Facebook group says that her son earned an Avian Science credit as he volunteered at a bird sanctuary. (He could have also used some of these hours as Biology lab.)

If your homeschool high schoolers like to write:

Have them write one or more of these (and log those hours, switching these hours out for movies or other hours)

• A short story about an historical science event or person
• A research paper about a science topic of interest
• An essay explaining the benefits of a scientific discovery they’ve heard about

Do your teens like to read (or be read to, or enjoy audiobooks)

Have them read books of their choice that pertain to the history topic:

• Biographies of famous people in scientific professions
• Historical fiction about a science event
• How-to’s on scientific topics like: birdwatching, astronomy, understanding weather, types of rocks, etc

As stated above: about 16 books will equal a credit. OR if teens like to mix and match, they could read 8 books and log 60 hours of educational experiences. OR they could read 4 books and log 90 hours of educational experiences.

NOTE: If your homeschool high schoolers are logging hours and some of those hours can also be considered as another subject, in many places you can “double log”.

Those specific hours can also be included in that other subject’s logged hours. For instance:

• If your teens are doing art projects related to nature or other scientific subject that they are studying, you can also log those specific hours when the craft or art project is being done under their Fine Arts credit that many teens need for their transcripts.
• If your teens are read books (or listening to books) for their science credits, they can also list those books on their book list for their required language arts credits.

Here’s an episode of Homeschool Highschool Podcast about Science for Non-science Majors.

Language Arts:

Handling language arts with special needs homeschooling high schoolers can be lots of fun!

One of the most important things to do is identify strengths and weaknesses. Clarify goals for high school reading and writing that fit your teens:

• If your teens are career-bound, concentrate reading and writing on skills they will need. You can spend some time on literature themes and analysis but put most of the effort into career preparation: like creating an experiential resume, filling out job applications, writing cover letters, interview skills.

  

• Or if your career-bound teen has an interest that they can develop with a textbook that emphasizes experiential learning, let them try it out. For instance, 7Sisters Early Childhood Education prepares teens for a career in child care by learning and developing age-appropriate learning experiences.
• If your teens are college-bound, clarify any needs for support at school with updated testing. Then help them pinpoint areas to concentrate on building skills and compensations.

Either way, career or college-bound teens need some forms of reading and writing. Here are posts that can help you decide how many books to read (adapt list and whether they are read-alouds/audio to your teens’ needs) and how many papers to write (adapt list to your teens’ needs). You can keep the papers simple. Here’s a freebie on a very simple format for writing reports.

For career-bound teens who have limitations in reading and writing, use adaptive aids (like speech to text tools and audiobooks) on at least some of their assignments and reading materials.

Think about adapting at least one year’s language arts credit with a career exploration focus. Here’s a post to help with that.

At least one year, think about teaching interesting literature themes with movies. The language arts credit can be earned with Cinema Studies for Literature Learning. Do the study guides together for some meaningful discussion.

When reading books, it is totally acceptable to use a few study guides to accompany books. Don’t overdo it! Feel free to adapt the guides to your homeschool high schoolers’ needs. Discuss the guides together instead of having your teens complete them on their own. Leave out any sections that do not fit your teens’ goals or needs.

More on Combining Credits to Earn Out-of-the-Box Credits for Special Needs Homeschool High Schoolers

One of the best parts of homeschool high school is the fun of combining credits. As I mentioned above, when working on history or science projects where your teens are doing arts, crafts or music activities, you can also log those hours as fine arts. This can be a fine arts credit, or if your teens already have earned their fine arts credits; count it as an elective.

There are lots of other ways to *combine credits*, or *double log*, as we often call the process.

• If your homeschool high schoolers are working on a history credit, any books they read or papers they write relating to that history topic can count as hours for both history and language arts. Here’s a post that gives lots of how-to’s.

• Here’s a post on combining History, Literature and Art.
• Also, here’s a post on combining History, Geography, Literature and Art.
• And another post on combining History, Literature and Art.

Fine Arts:

Some teens have a natural interest in music or art. Their lessons and skill-development can be logged as Fine Arts credits. One of our 7th Sisters in the Facebook group told us about taking her teen to musicals and plays that could be logged as a Fine Arts credit. They ended up joining the cast of a local play as well!

Here are more ideas for earning Fine Arts credits (if you have a non-artsy teen).

Electives:

Your homeschool high schoolers can earn elective credits by logging hours in any interest area. The bonus is: When teens are investing in interests, they are more likely to own their education.

Keep those logs! Here are some ideas for useful electives:

• Career Exploration:
  • Arrange some apprenticeships in various trades and/or some shadowing days with people in various careers.
  • Teens can count their jobs as career exploration. Here’s a post with how-to’s.
  • Check out this post full of career exploration electives.
  • Work through Career Exploration Workbook together. It helps teens explore their God-given giftings and interests.
  • Our beloved Cousin Stacey Clendaniel, invested in her teens interest with field trips, videos, experiences and books. Her various teens have earned elective credit in:
    • History of Cooking (for her future chef)
    • Forensic Science (for her teen that loved mysteries)
    • Song Writing (for her musical teen)
      • BTW- Have you seen 7Sisters Lyric Writing workbook?

        

Want some encouragement? Listen to this episode of Homeschool Highschool Podcast with a homeschool mom who as been there and done that with her teens. Also, here’s all you need to know in our Authoritative Guide post on Record Keeping for Homeschool High School.

Volunteering can lead to Elective credits

One of our 7th Sisters the Facebook group told us that her teens visited at the nearby senior center. They attended carving classes and soon found new grandfather figures who told their stories while showing the teens how to carve. This can be a handicraft elective!

Have a wonderful time homeschooling your high schoolers!

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Out-of-the-Box Credits for Special Needs Homeschool High Schoolers