How to Homeschool High School with College in Mind

I blinked and my boys are about to turn 12.  They are almost done with their first year of middle school.  I’m afraid if I blink again they will turn 18 and be graduating high school.  As I look ahead to the near future, I want to prepare my homeschooling kids for college.

I know that’s six years away, but I distinctly remember sitting with my guidance counselor the spring of my 8^th grade year and being asked to make plans that could affect my college career and blinking at the man.  I want to guide my kids to easily step into college.

That starts today.

Teaching high school with college in mind

I just finished reading a book Homeschooling High School with College in Mind*, and she talked about all sorts of things I’m not used to thinking of:

• Credits
• Credit distribution
• GPA
• Extra-curricular activities
• Community service
• Reference letters

What encouraged me when I looked toward high school

We are already working hard on several of the areas mentioned in the book.  My kids are already involved in several different extracurricular activities, and they get community service hours fairly regularly as well.  By the time they get through high school, I am quite sure they will have strong relationships with several adults and peers to ask for reference letters.

I already had fairly strong plans in place for the major subject areas, and so many essays for them to write on these topics, which covers writing and grammar, and books to read along with these topics, which gets literature.

What I need to start thinking more seriously about to prepare my kids for college

Now, while their grades don’t matter, I need to be more diligent about grading.  So far, I’ve been grading on mastery.  Do you understand?  Yes, you pass.  No? Do it again, until you understand.  For high school I need to give official transcripts (and there is more information in the book, but that’s a chapter of the book).

My action items now:

• Figure out a grade book I’d like. I’ve heard great things about Homeschool Planet*- DONE got Homeschool Planet and love it, it’s also working as a schedule for us.
• Scheduling and checklist. I’m toying with putting their weekly schedules on Asana now that our schedule is getting more complicated- like I said love Homeschool Planet (Homeschool Planet review)

Foreign Languages, after reading the book, I need to be more serious about this.  Of course, just this past week, my kids all changed what they want to learn for their foreign languages because of our Switzerland studies.  If I listened to our kids right now, here’s what they want to learn:

• Superman- Latin, because the Romans spoke Latin, some colleges do not accept this as a foreign language credit.
• Batman- German, because “Daddy said our family came from Germany long ago.”
• Princess- Spanish, because she finds some of the random words amusing. I really didn’t get her reason.

Want to prepare your homeschooled high schooler for college?

B.J. is re-releasing her “Homeschooling High School with College in Mind book on January 30, and it will be on sale for that entire week for 45% off.