How to Start Homeschooling High School- An Authoritative Guide

New to homeschooling high school? Here’s how to start homeschooling high school.

How to Start Homeschooling High School- An Authoritative Guide.

Whether you start homeschooling high school at the beginning of a school year or somewhere through the year, there are some simple basics to help you get started. We have created a checklist and pulled together lots of information and resources to help you get started in the edition of our Authoritative Guide suite of posts.

First off, you need to know that there’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school. Any information that we share here is a helpful guide for you. However, you are homeschooling to do what is best for your teens, so adapt anything you read to your family’s needs.

So, let’s get started discussing how to get started homeschooling high school

Here are the basics. You can do this!

Find out your state’s requirements for homeschooling

You can get this information in several ways:

• Your state Department of Education
• Homeschool Legal Defense Association
• Your local state support group
• If you are joining an umbrella school (or in some states they are called hybrid or charter schools), they will have that information for that particular homeschool format

Learn about graduation requirements for your state

Also, if you are joining a supervising organization like an umbrella school, you will learn about any additional requirements they would like to see.

Note: College-bound teens can explore some college websites to see what they consider a college-attractive transcript.

Work with your teens to create the goals for each teen

You do not get in your car and start driving and then decide where to go on vacation. The same goes for homeschooling. You need clear goals to guide you year-by-year through the next four years for each teen. Here’s a post on how to create homeschool high school goals.

While we are thinking about goals, it is a good time to make sure you have clarified your “WHY” for homeschooling high school.

Knowing your “WHY” helps clarify goals. It also helps you and your teens make choices on curriculum and activities (which should advance, not distract, from the “WHY” or the goals.

We highly recommend clarifying your “WHY” by creating a homeschool mission statement. You can download a homeschool mission statement workbook to help you with this meaningful process.

Now, it is time for planning your homeschool high school

It is good to use your mission and goals to help you and your teens develop four-year and next-year plans. We have SO much information to help you with the planning process.

These posts from our Authoritative Guide series will help you get your plans in order:

• Planning Homeschool High School- An Authoritative Guide
• Also, if you are bringing your teen home from a traditional school setting, check out this post from our Authoritative Guide series:
  • Transitioning to Homeschool High School- An Authoritative Guide

Next, it is time to choose curriculum and learning formats!

I may sound like an old lady, but back in our early days of homeschooling, the idea of homeschooling was so new that many curriculum publishers were uncomfortable with selling texts to us. It was difficult to find curriculum beyond A Beka, Bob Jones University Press, and Alpha Omega.

These days, there is SO much to choose from. Hallelujah! I am so glad about that. However, so many choices can be overwhelming.

Here are some resources to help guide you in curriculum choices

• Seven no-fail steps for choosing curriculum
• Choosing curriculum- Homeschool Highschool Podcast episode
• Five factors in choosing high school curriculum
• Plus our downloadable guide on how to choose curriculum for homeschool high school

There are also learning formats to choose from:

• Homeschool Co-ops
• Umbrella schools
• Asynchronous (self-paced) online courses
  • For instance, 7Sisters’ self-paced courses on the Teachable platform:
    • Introduction to Psychology
    • APA Paper: Working through a First Research Paper
    • Have Fun with One Semester of Shakespeare- Yes, Really!
• Live online classes, for instance:
  • • Our Cousin Cheryl Carter‘s Capable Scholar writing courses
    • Or our Cousin Karim Morato‘s Homeschool Spanish courses:
      • In this session, you’ll discover practical strategies for creating an effective and personalized Spanish learning plan that meets both educational standards and your teen’s unique needs. We will cover:
        1- Challenges

        2- Solutions

        3- Learning path

        4- Curriculum Essentials

        5- Language acquisition process

        6- How to include culture and love for the language in your teen’s learning experience

        And the opportunity to go inside my students’ learning journey and experiences!
• Dual enrollment courses
  • Check out our advice for dual enrollment courses during high school

Once you know what curriculum and formats you are working with, it it time to decide your school-year schedule

There are so many valid ways to schedule your school year. Will you choose:

• Year-round homeschooling
• Block scheduling
• Two-semester format

This episode of Homeschool Highschool Podcast can help you decide on your best type of scheduling for this year.

While you are working on the schedule, stop and take a minute for more tips on planning the homeschool high school year in this authoritative guide post.

Next, work with your teens to help them create smart goals for the year

It is wise for teens to learn to own their education. In order to develop independent learning in teens, it helps to help them develop smart goals. This post will help you and your teens develop smart goals for their academics.

You can also download this FREE smart goals worksheet.

Set up a record-keeping format

You need to keep records of your school year. This post on record keeping from our Authoritative Guide series can help.

Not only that, but it is a good idea to start thinking about transcripts.

We can help with that. First, check out this post on transcripts for homeschool high school from our Authoritative Guide series.

Then, download our workbook on high school transcript- with included editable transcript form.

You’ve got this!

Now, let’s plan on starting the new school year on a positive note

There’s not one right way  to get started homeschooling high school. However, it is always nice to start each school year with something(s) positive. Check out ideas for how to start the homeschool high school year well.

If you feel overwhelmed, that’s okay

There are so many resources for help and support these days. Here are some ideas:

• We even have blog posts on how to get started with One Year of High School Language Arts/English.
• Listen to Homeschool Highschool Podcast for weekly encouragement and how-tos
• Do some journaling.
  • We recommend our Cousin Natalie Mack’s journal for homeschooling moms- 101 Tips for Homeschoolers: Loving Your Homeschool Experience
• Talk to your academic advisor if you are part of a homeschool umbrella or other supervising organization
• Join Facebook groups where you can share questions and get positive feedback from other homeschool moms.
  • We invite you to join our Facebook group: 7SistersHomeschool.
• Work with a homeschool coach. We love coaching support!
  • Some of our favorite 7Sisters’ Cousins are homeschool coaches as well. We recommend:
    • Teresa Wiedrick- coach, podcaster, guide at Homeschool Mama Self-care
    • Dr. Rochelle Matthews-Somerville at EFM Educational Consulting (providing strategies and support for purposeful learning)
    • Sue Sobczak, homeschool coach

Let us know how it’s going! God bless as you think about getting started with homeschooling high school!

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