Homeschool Options for High School Courses

​There are so many ways to teach high school courses in your home school.  

We have had a blast learning about all kinds of things in all kinds of ways. My teens have learned independently and learned in group settings. We love both options!

The sky is the limit when it comes to options. If I forgot something, please add it to the comments below. 

Okay, are you ready? Here are some great options to teach high school courses to your teenager.

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Mom or Dad-Designed Classes Taught by Mom or Dad

​This was my favorite part of high school. I loved creating classes and teaching them to my teens.
Sometimes I created my own curriculum and sometimes I used other curriculum.

One of my favorite courses was American Literature. We read classic books, discussed them, worked with original documents, learned to use sources, and wrote a research paper. Of course that same year, we studied American History, too.

We used many different history textbooks in high school for American history, but I always added historical fiction, music, crafts, and art assignments to create an exciting course.

Another course I designed for Jenny Rose was Songwriting 101. We studied songwriters, music theory, and the essentials of songwriting. We also worked on vocals, piano, and guitar. Jenny Rose wrote several songs and has continued to grow as a songwriter. 

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Self-Taught Courses Designed by Mom or Dad

​We did our math courses this way. I chose the book and set up the assignments. Four of my five children did all their math courses independently, completing assignments, checking them, and taking tests. I checked the math tests.
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One of my children could not excel doing math independently. Instead, she used video courses and tutoring. 

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Self-Designed, Self-Taught Courses

​Teens can create their own courses, too. Sometimes, Mom or Dad may need to help with the tweaking.

Jenny Rose loved to sing. She wanted to learn to play the piano and the guitar. I thought it was a great idea too. A high school music course was born.
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Shine wanted to write and produce films. The class included a Christian film conference and created testimonials, welcome videos, and several video slideshows. She went on to college and helped produce a student film, though she chose Creative Writing as her major. 

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Ministry/Volunteering/Apprenticeship

​On-the-job training makes a great course.

Jimmy, Shine, and Jenny Rose joined the sound team. Training for the team included workshops and classes. Of course, they logged hours and hours of mixing, setting up, tearing down, and stage managing. It was a great experience and I counted it as a class.

Jenny Rose spend a summer editing books, writing stories for a geography curriculum, and attending conferences with me to work the vendor booth.
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Apprentices are an amazing preparation for real life, as well as great material for high school courses. Whether it’s working for a parent’s company a little here, a little there, or a formal apprenticeship where there are scheduled hours to attend a place of business.  

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Informal Co-op Classes

Two or three families can get together to do a class together once or twice a week.
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The Nolette family and our family have been friends for years. We went to church together. Because we both homeschooled, we decided to start history day. Once a week, we did history together. We called it History Day. We read aloud, listened to audios, made crafts, created radio shows, and watched historical movies. It was so much fun!

Eventually we began to do science labs together, too.

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Homeschool Co-op Classes

Formal Co-ops are often a little bigger and every family takes certain responsibilities.
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Our History Day began to grow. Soon we had several families. We needed more structure. We set up a schedule and different classes went on at the same time. Every parent had a job. Soon we offered more than history. We expanded into English courses, science courses, Bible classes, and extra electives. 

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Group Classes Offered by a Home School Support Group

​Sometimes support groups offer classes. Parents usually have a job, but don’t have to teach.
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We participated in Grace Friday Classes for years as a family. It was wonderful! Our teens took drama, watercolor painting, biology lab, chemistry lab, philosophy, speech, choir, and physics. It was a full day with four different class periods and a lunch hour. The kids built friendships and enjoyed learning from other parents. 

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Group Classes Offered by Churches or Community Organizations

​Churches and community organizations offer classes. These can be ½ or 1 credit courses for your teen.

Taking a workout class several times a week can count as a P.E. credit. A Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts or All About Apologetics course at church can count toward a Bible credit.
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We did a video series by David Barton on government. For the high schoolers, we added a few reading and writing assignments to create a full credit government class.  

Group Classes Offered by Local Experts/Professionals

You can put together courses that are a combination of workshops.
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A cake decorating course can include several cake decorating workshops at Michaels®. A fine arts course can be made up of weekly ballet classes and weekly guitar classes. 

Online Classes

​​Unheard of when I started homeschooling, there are a plethora of online classes to choose from nowadays. From universities and online high schools to individual courses offered all over the internet, you can learn almost anything in an online course. 

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Video Curriculum

Chalkdust is a wonderful math video curriculum with course offered from basic math to calculus. Students watch a teacher online and do the work in their textbook.
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One Year Novel Adventure is another video curriculum that teaches teens creative writing. They write their very own adventure novel. 

Dual Enroll

Teens can dual-enroll at their local community college, university, Christian college, or online. Rules vary by educational institution and state.

One of my friends is having her son take online courses from Oral Roberts University. Another homeschooled teen took several courses online from Liberty University.
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My teens dual-enrolled for Spanish when they were in their senior year in our local community college. 

A Great Homeschool Resource

​I hope you can see what a wide variety of course options there are for teaching high school at home.

We have a how-to-homeschool high school resource for you: Unlocking the Mystery of Homeschooling High School by Meredith Curtis and Laura Nolette to help you confidently homeschool your teenager. Unlocking the Mystery of Homeschooling High School is available at Amazon. The E-book is available at PayHip. Learn how to educate for real life, create your own classes, make your own transcripts, prepare for SATs, apply to college, get ready for college, and celebrate graduation.  
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Happy Homeschooling!
Warmly, Meredith Curtis 

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