As homeschoolers, we are already experts in planning. We have searched for and chosen curriculum each year for our kids. We have decided on which subjects to focus on and how to teach them to our kids.
Planning for high school, with college in mind is really no different, except for one important thing.....Now your teen has their college entrance entrance requirements to fulfill. How to find out your teen's college requirements is discussed in depth in chapter one of my book, "Researching and Getting Started".
I am offering it to you today as a download. To get your FREE copy just click here.
I am offering it to you today as a download. To get your FREE copy just click here.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR
APPLYING TO COLLEGE
There are 2 more important things to know when helping your teen apply to college.
...and they are not hard at all to deal with!
1. First, find out if there are any special homeschool requirements for your likely colleges, and many colleges still have them, but they are not hard to deal with. REALLY! And they are getting easier and easier. That is the trend.
and also....
2. Check to see what the colleges requires re testing. Most give you a choice of either the SAT or ACT and some are even dropping this testing requirement. And I don't know of any college that asks for both! You NEVER have to do both!
Also - Does your college require the writing portion of the test? Did you know that MANY colleges do not? REALLY. So why do it? We did not have to do the writing portion of the SAT for any of our colleges. What a TIME saver!
More of this is discussed in the free download mentioned above, or click here,
The Download includes:
- how to research college websites
- the typical requirements for different types of colleges
- tips for finding out about homeschool requirements
- how to find out what test is required SAT or ACT, or none!
- whether the writing portion of the SAT or ACT is required or not!
Once you have this information....
:..then you are ready to make a 4 year plan for your high schooler.
Making an Overall High School Plan
With our list of admission requirements in hand, we sketched out what our high school years might look like.....with our best guesses of what we wanted to do when.
Our overall plan was flexible, and revised and reworked every year, as life happened. Yet it was a helpful guide for us, and ours looked something like this:
BJ's 4 YEAR PLAN
My Teen's Requirements
4 English
2 Sciences with Lab
3 Math with one Math-oriented Science in Senior Year
My Teen's Requirements
4 English
2 Sciences with Lab
3 Math with one Math-oriented Science in Senior Year
3 Social Studies
2 Foreign Language
+ Electives to equal 24 - 26 credits
 |
| My teen's first day on campus. ____________________________ |
9th grade
World History
Science - Physical Science (good prep for bio next year)
Math - Algebra 1
Elective - Photography
PE
________________________________________________________
10th grade
Foreign Language - Spanish 1
Science - Biology with Lab
Math - Geometry
PE/Health
Take the PSAT for test taking practice
________________________________________________________
11th grade
Foreign Language - Spanish 2
US History
Science - Chemistry with lab
Science - Chemistry with lab
Math- Algebra 2
Elective - Art Drawing
Take the SAT or ACT first time
___________________________________________________________
12th grade
US Government - for my teen's interest
Science - Physics - also for special interest
2 Electives:
Video-Making
College Planner (see end of post for info)
PE
Take SAT or ACT again if needed
(We did SAT prep and retook it)
Take SAT or ACT again if needed
(We did SAT prep and retook it)
______________________________________________________
1. Your college choice's admission requirements
2. Your college's extra homeschool requirements, if any
(Please do check this, ask Admissions if it is not listed)
2. Special requirements for prospective math/science majors
They usually need 4 years of math, and 4 years of science
3. Your homeschooling style, your teen's goals
4. Your teen's interests
Then we put our planner away....
Your plan could be similar or entirely different from mine, depending on:
1. Your college choice's admission requirements
2. Your college's extra homeschool requirements, if any
(Please do check this, ask Admissions if it is not listed)
2. Special requirements for prospective math/science majors
They usually need 4 years of math, and 4 years of science
3. Your homeschooling style, your teen's goals
4. Your teen's interests
Get a printable for making your own 4 year plan when you get my book.
It is one of the 13 printables available in my frugal book on homeschooling to college.
HOW WE CALMED OURSELVES
RE COLLEGE
 |
Building in the fun.
I loved seeing this penguin up close, too!
|
To be honest, this whole preparing for college thing was overwhelming to us at first. What we did to combat that, was first to build in the play....like go to the zoo. Teens still love that too!
Then secondly, to plan ahead and lay out a tentative overall plan for the high school years. And it was very tentative, that helped us a lot too!
Making this flexible 4 Year High School Plan helped us in these ways:
Making this flexible 4 Year High School Plan helped us in these ways:
1. First, if I had this plan to follow, I would be less likely to forget a requirement or two, and have to scramble in senior year, to fit it in.
2. Secondly, it freed my teen to focus on building her interests, because our core studies were already set in mind and on paper.
3. It gave us confidence to push forward, and enjoy the high school years.
2. Secondly, it freed my teen to focus on building her interests, because our core studies were already set in mind and on paper.
3. It gave us confidence to push forward, and enjoy the high school years.
College Planner - What's that?
MAKING A COLLEGE PLANNER
COURSE
 |
| My teen was a big part of our planning. |
Did you notice the elective called College Planner that I listed above, in Senior Year? Since my teen studied for a second round of the SAT the summer before senior year.....
We gave her credit for her work doing that and just made a very simple homemade course called College Planner. We included her work on:
SAT prep
Studying college websites
Visiting colleges
Taking any career tests or interest tests
Working on her college essay
and more.
We called it College Planner and each of my teen's colleges accepted this credit. That was such a help during the busy senior year! But you could do it junior year, whatever works for you. We just estimated the hours spent on these activities, and described them briefly in her course descriptions. More on course descriptions is in my book.
Then we put our planner away....
Aiming towards college, step by step, allowed us to prepare for the college admission process, while keeping our focus on our nurturing homeschool style, front and center!
Click here to get my best tips for homeschooling to college and treauring this special time with our teens in my book - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind, as a book, ebook or PDF.
,
and take the WORRY out of doing high school
and aiming towards college.
Kindle and Paperback
PDF on Educents
which also includes 12 exclusive planning forms and a form for making your Four Year High School Plan.
plus an editable and blank transcript form, the kind the colleges are used to seeing, ready for you to fill in. With complete instructions!
Purchasing my book also helps me to continue blogging about high school and college topics, to keep us all up to date on the latest news re homeschooling to college.
Thanks for stopping by!
Betsy
Betsy is mom to her now college senior, whom she homeschooled from day one. She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school & college and wrote the book - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind. She offers free homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting.
No comments:
Post a Comment