Homeschooling High School

If you have made it this far through home schooling, you have shown true tenacity. Easy or not, you will now begin to reap the rewards for all your labors. If you are new to home schooling, you've arrived at a great time. High schoolers are lucid and old enough now to shoulder the responsibility of their own education. If character has been a cornerstone of your family life, then answer keys can be turned over to your honest scholars and the drudgery of correcting papers will fall by the wayside. Thus, from initial assignment to final score, seeking wisdom becomes their duty. Your job title is slowly shifting from teacher to guidance counselor.

We offer several options for all grades, depending on what your needs are. The Basic version of our curriculum kits contains math, language arts, and thinking skills. It’s the most economical choice and works for families who supplement history and science from the library, borrowing from friends, sharing with a sibling, etc. The Complete version contains everything in Basic, plus science, history, and hands-on learning tools. The Complete kit includes everything you would need for an entire year. The Elite kit contains everything in the Complete version, plus more fun add-ons. Elite is an outstanding option if you want all the bells and whistles!

For each of our kits, we also offer a classic (Christian) option and a nonreligious option. Usually families who receive funding for homeschool through the public school system will need the nonreligious option. It’s also possible to customize our curriculum if you need to make adjustments for any reason. The kits come with parent/teacher handbooks and access to our customizable online scheduler.

Beyond all this the options are limitless. Watching your children mature into capable adults is very satisfying. Get involved, enjoy this time, it will pass too quickly.

FAQs

"What do you recommend for homeschooling high school?"

Let's assume your child is working at grade level or beyond in reading and math. If not, spend however long necessary bringing him up to speed. Then keep him there by tailoring his curriculum to him.

"What school supplies do I need?"

The simple answer is you wouldn't actually have to have much beyond your basic pencil and paper, maybe a pair of scissors and some glue or tape for most of our kits. Chances are you will likely find a few extra supplies do come in handy, so we compiled a list to help you with your planning and back-to-school shopping.

"How much time should school take?"

We asked the families who used our high school level kits how long their students spent on "school." Most of the families worked on academics 4 or 5 days a week and spent 3-5 hours a day specifically on Timberdoodle materials. It is common for families to spend more or less time than that, so don't stress if your schedule doesn't exactly match up. And, of course, the time you spend will be greatly impacted by how in-depth your student takes their studies, their learning approach, how distractible they allow themselves to be, and much more.

“What is the best advice you could give to someone who is new to homeschooling a teen?”

Self-teaching at this grade is key. We recommend setting up a clearly understood list of incentives and consequences and let them be the master of their fate.

"Do you have a high school health course?"

We don't currently offer a high school health course, but check out the Dr. Livingston anatomy puzzles for high school.

"Do you offer homeschool planners? So hard to find good ones."

Each of our curriculum kits includes access to our customizable online scheduler. Beyond that, we also offer a printed High School Planner for students. It is included in each of our high school level curriculum kits.

"What are your options for online courses at this age?"

Our special emphasis is engineering, hands-on, and thinking-skills products so most of our courses are not online.

Online courses we do offer for high school students include:

"Is there anything for high schoolers preparing for college?"

Yes, our high school curriculum kits do help prepare students for college. Feel free to email us if you are looking for something more specific than that.

"How competitive are homeschoolers in regards to college scholarships opportunities or entrance/placement exams?"

Since we aren't a school we don't really have a practical way to track this kind of information, but we have heard good things!

“Does Timberdoodle issue a high school diploma?”

Since we are a curriculum resource (not a long-distance school), we don’t keep any transcripts or award diplomas. However, you certainly can do both of those things while using our curriculum.

"What kind of support does Timberdoodle give to graduating high schoolers? Aids for parents in creating a diploma?"

We offer suggestions for awarding credits and grades, and creating a transcripts and a diploma. Much of this information is available in our high school curriculum kit handbooks. Also, check out "What About High School Transcripts and Diplomas?"

"Do your high school science classes have enough experiments in them to count as a lab science credit for college?"

No, the way our high school kits are structured would not allow for them to count as a lab science credit for college. However, if you are a faith-based homeschooler with a student who is looking ahead to college and/or a degree pertaining to science, we would recommend customizing the high school kits to include the Apologia science items instead. These books are much more rigorous academically and could be counted for a lab science credit, as they include opportunities for both microscope use and dissection kits; as such, this series would be perfect for the student who is looking ahead to college circumstances.

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Join Our Facebook Community

Also, we'd love to have you join our parents of high schoolers community group on Facebook! If you’re using Timberdoodle Curriculum Kits for 9th through 12th grade this year, the High School Community is the group for you!

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