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January turns a fresh page on the calendar. Are you ready to turn to a new page in your homeschooling journey? Is it time to start planning for high school? If your are going to have a student ready for high school in the fall, the answer is yes! If you have little children and need a new start, the answer is also yes!
Two things seem to trip up parents getting ready for high school: planning and transcripts. These are seen as the beginning and the end of high school, but in reality they are topics you'll circle back around to from before your children start high school until after they finish. You don't have to plan ahead for high school, but it really does help! A good way to get started on basic planning is to check your state's graduation requirements. Save them to your computer, but also print them out so you can talk them over with your spouse, and your student. The next step you will want to consider is looking at college entrance requirements. Start by picking a state university and see what they require. I know that the end of their eighth grade year is too early to know if they will want to go to college, but you want your student to be prepared if they do want to later, and it will not hurt them to be college ready but decide on trade school or an apprenticeship instead. Better to be prepared then behind.
Life has a way of changing your plans, so I suggest you start planning with a pencil. If you know your student will need four years of science, plan on one for each year, but you don't have to know just yet which one will be for each year. If you are looking for some planning pages to help you work out which courses your student should take, and where to plug in electives, you should check out the High School Schoolhouse Planner at SchoolhouseTeachers.com. It is a 400 page resource that allows you to print any and all of the pages you want to plan your student's courses, as well as having lots of options for them to record their work. It has many great helps pages, like a chronological Bible reading plan and goal setting pages.
One of the things I have heard parents ask frequently is where can they find good curriculum for high school? Purchasing books can get expensive. One of the great benefits of a SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership is that there are no book fees and no per-student fees. One yearly membership covers the entire family from Pre-K through high school. January is the best time of year to check out SchoolhouseTeachers.com because during the Fresh Start sale you can get an Ultimate Membership for only $90 for an entire year if you use the code: NEWYEAR19. Why is this an amazing sale? The normal price is $179 for a year, which is still a value, but $90 is even better! Also, when you purchase a new membership you can lock in that price for as long as you keep your membership. Imagine that, only $90 a year for over 400 courses. It is not uncommon to spend that much just on print books for one high school science course, but with SchoolhouseTeachers.com you get access to six different high school level science courses.
High school electives are also a concern for some parents. How can we teach what we do not know? With a little help from our friends, or an online curriculum like SchoolhouseTeachers.com! There are a variety of electives to choose from, like accounting, ACT/SAT prep, or photography. Is your child wanting to learn more about the world of graphic design or website management? There are courses on creating images, graphic design, copywriting, keyboarding, internet entrepreneurship and more.
Want an introduction to art for your students? From your preschooler to your high schooler there are options on SchoolhouseTeachers.com. Your student can learn about drawing, art history, art appreciation and even digital art and product design.
I'm not sure why only homeschoolers use SchoolhouseTeachers.com, even though it was designed for homeschool families, since there are so many great resources that any family could use. There are a lot of science unit studies to choose from, as well as all of those science resources from World Book that would be great starting places to plan a science fair project or classroom report.
After all these great resources I still have not told you about my personal favorite: applecore recordkeeping. The gold level of applecore is a benefit for yearly memberships with SchoolhouseTeachers.com. It is a really easy to use software for recording grades and creating transcripts. I like how customizable it is. While there are plenty of course names available on applecore, it also has the option to name your own courses, which I used a couple weeks ago while finishing up Arlene's high school transcript. She had courses like Fiber Arts and Fashion and Textile Design. Homeschooling allows a lot of customization, so make sure you are giving them credit for their work!
Want more details about SchoolhouseTeachers.com? Check out the Start Here page and read some of the FAQ's. You'll be glad you chose a fresh start to your new year!
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