Homeschooling High School

An overview…

     In our state, a homeschooler can participate in athletics if they take one class at the high school. It is up to the superintendent of each school corporation as to whether to allow participation by a homeschooler.  So, when our eldest was in 7^th grade, we inquired about the opportunity to do this (starting with the high school principal and athletic director) since we weren’t aware of any other current homeschoolers doing this at our high school. We were given the “go ahead” by the superintendent in the Fall of our 8^th grade year, which gave us some time to think through our daily schedule and plan how to accomplish the workload.   So…our high school homeschooling experience has included being able to take a high school course at our local high school which also enables participation in high school sports.

    For our eldest son, his Freshman year fell into the time frame of COVID which created some challenges with the ebb and flow of the year. But overall, our experience in high school has been pretty smooth. While homeschooling both at home and with a class at the high school, the greatest challenge has been not knowing what time of day the class at the high school will fall. Obviously, this affects the planning process at home (including how to organize the day for productivity). But, we have figured out the best flow for the schedule each year as it comes; and we seem to find a pretty stable rhythm rather quickly each year.

    The interests of our kids are very hands on…so we have taken engineering and construction classes as the high school course. But the opportunities are wide open in our school district, which is nice for tapping into interests at this age and stage of learning. 

So, with all of that said…let me break down our years of high school learning and maybe you’ll find some aspects that are helpful for you and your homeschooling experiences.

9^th grade…

10th grade…

11th grade…

12th grade…