Electives for Homeschool Transcript: History Electives

One of my homeschooling high schoolers was a real history buff. He quickly finished off his required 4 credits in history and still wanted more, so he developed his own elective credits in Russian history, World War II, and after a while we quit counting. However the Russian credit and WWII credit looked great as history and career exploration credits on the transcript.

This is how he created the World War II elective credit:

He read 8 books (with summaries or essay) including:

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom,
Night by Elie Weisel, Speeches of Winston Churchill (read and also listen to audio versions)
Great Escapes of World War II (I can’t find this out of print book anymore)
PT 109: John F. Kennedy in World War II by Robert Donovan
Hiroshima by John Hersey and
several from the library stacks

We engaged digital resources such as:

listened to pop music of the era
watched old newsreels
found some recordings of old radio shows to listen to (all courtesy of the public library)
plus we watched a number of documentaries (on PBS)
also, check out this actual radio recording from journalist Edward R. Murrow on his visit to Buchenwald Death Camp at the end World War II

All of these together added up to 68 hours.

We also watch a lot of movies. A few of the ones we watched included:

Bridge Over the River Kwai
South Pacific
Inn of the Sixth Happiness
Saving Private Ryan
A Bridge Too Far
The Longest Day
Patton
The Hiding Place

All of the digital resources and movies together added up to 68 hours.

All his activities combined gave him an elective history credit:

8 books (with summaries or essays)
plus 68 hours of cultural experiences and movies
(we could have called it a career exploration credit because he went to college as a history major)

He did not need to record levels because this was an elective history and only core requirements need levels recorded.

You can construct an elective history in this same way:

If your teen wants an interesting World History credit using a textbook approach, check out History and Philosophy of the Western World.

Read 8 books on a topic and follow up with a summaries, essays (or study guide).
PLUS
Log 68 hours of educational experiences
Or read 16 books with summaries, essays or study guides.

He could have counted this history elective as a World History credit, but he did not need it because he had already earned his history credit with History and Philosophy of the Western World.

Need more inspiration for helping teens understand how meaningful and important it is to study history? Check out this on why History is boring and how to make it better.

Click here to read more on what colleges like to see on the high school transcript.