A Week in My Teen's Homeschool High School Life

Summary:  A day in our homeschool high school life as eclectic homeschoolers. Just a peek into what homeschooling high school might look like.  There are so many ways to do it!  #homeschoolinghighschool #homeschooling #adayinthelife #homeschooltocollege

Are you new to homeschooling high school?  Do you wonder how it might look at your house?


Today, I'd like to share how we did our days during my daughter's high school years...We are eclectic homeschoolers who use a variety of curriculum for our college bound teen.

We also are teen led homeschoolers.  All of our high school electives are chosen by our teen, based on her interests.  We fit in core studies, but also make time for other important things like..cookie making, nature study and other things to refresh us.

How did we fit that in, with all the other things that college bound high schoolers need to study?

Every high school homeschool looks different.  As there are so many ways to do it.  Here's a chance to peak into ours, just to give you a chance to see how we put our days together.  And to encourage you as you consider high school at home.

Well, at our house we both studied hard and played hard.  And it all started with our....

Sunday Night Meetings

Usually, my teen and I would meet on Sunday nights, and make a schedule for the following week, based on what was needed to be accomplished for each core subject.    

Prior to meeting, I would make up a list of things that she needed to get done that week.  Then she took that list,  and sketched out her week.

That was when she was a junior.  Before that, I helped her to make her weekly schedule.

Core studies were usually done in the mornings through the early afternoons.  But sometimes it was night school, with most of the day free.  It depended on how my daughter wanted to approach things.

Homeschooling high school took us a lot more time than middle school.  But we still had time for teen-led electives, and fun, too.

Typically it would go something like this:

OUR "TYPICAL" HIGH SCHOOL WEEKLY SCHEDULE

Note - Btw, we started early, as the early hours were the best for my teen, not that they are best for all teens, of course.  And this is just what worked for us.

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Mornings - Meet together to go over the day's studies.

Then it often was core studies time:

Math - Switched on Schoolhouse curricula from www.aop.com 
Science - also SOS from www.aop.com
Social Studies - Oak Meadow or Rainbow Resource
English - Oak Meadow or something we put together ourselves.

Or once a week, it was for co-op.  

Afternoons

Often this was for: 

Writing projects
Science experiments
Electives
Reading lit, audio books
Researching own topics
or free time.

Evenings - High school activities often met during this time, like dance, or speech and debate, etc.  Or hanging out with her public school friends.  Family time or date night when we could.

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WHAT MADE THIS WORK FOR US

Studies were usually done by 3pm, if we followed our "typical" schedule.  But most days weren't typical.  

And we liked it that way.

Sometimes my teen would flip the schedule around and work mostly in the afternoons, or late into the night.

Studying happened at the park, on the deck, in her room, at the library, at a coffee shop, on the living room floor, with books and papers spread out...Whatever worked.

Independent Study

Core studies were mostly done independently.  But we built in time for literature discussions weekly, as well as for history.  This gave me time for my own projects, household tasks, and hobbies.  

Core Studies 

We did not have to follow the public school grad requirements for public school teens as that was not required in our state of WA, as is also true in most states.  

Instead we followed our teen's college entrance requirements, and that gave us much more time to add in the electives.

My teen's college requirements did not include 4 credits of each subject, eg:

.....Social studies - 3 credits
.....Math - 3 credits
.....Spanish - 2 credits

That gave us leeway and time to build in electives, based on my teen's interests.  

Note - Check with your student's likely colleges, as the entrance requirements vary widely.

Electives

Having time for doing electives was great for building motivation! 

My teen loved photography, so that became a high school elective.  One year she wanted to study video making and that became an elective. 

Yes, there was a lot of study time.... 

But the way it got done was open ended.  

That's an advantage to homeschooling.  Sometimes the whole day was spent doing  English, ie, block scheduling.     

In addition, my daughter had more free time than she would have had as a public school student, attending classes, then doing a large load of homework afterwards each day.

And the most important thing that we did to make this work was to look for opportunities that added in the fun.

BUILDING IN THE FUN

During senior year we found a homeschool prom.  That was important for our daughter.

After all the excitement of finding her prom dress...we did some catch up work that week, but not much else.

When it was warm enough to study outside....my teen did, often at the park.  

Sometimes we found a contest to enter and that became the focus of her studies, such as doing a science fair, or something in photography, or a video competition.  

Once a week there was Irish Dance practice......and I loved watching her at recital.  

Then at least once a week we piled into the car with our cameras, and headed out into the country to take pictures.

Then another time our daughter entered a bird photography contest with Cornell University.  Bird photos became a special interest and skill of hers.

It was a thrill to watch her connect with the experts at Cornell.  Early on, we also did a lot of contests through our local state fairs, which including ones for art, photography, poetry, and even knitting.

Great blue heron

We often did the annual bird count events as well.  I so loved doing those with her.
Taking advantage of the flexibility of homeschooling was also key. 

So this is how things rolled in our house, during high school.

What does it look like in yours? 

I enjoy reading your comments, here or on Facebook.

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Are you homeschooling high school and wondering about transcripts, assigning high school credit, and all those other important details?

After helping my teen get into each of the colleges she applied to, I wrote this book - and it guides you through planning high school at home and helping with college application.

Below is the book and the table of contents.

On Amazon

For more information: Homeschooling High School with College in Mind. 

For more information on setting up your teen's homeschool schedule, I invite you to click here for Scheduling for Homeschool High School.  There you will find tips from a number of veteran homeschooler blogger.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, highschool, 
college, gifted/2e and wrote -Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, 2nd Edition,   She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting,  and has had some of her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

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