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 Home Teaching Help
 

High school at home?  Most definitely!  Many parents approach me with concerns about their ability to teach the high school subjects, but I assure them - and you - that it is not the daunting task that it may seem.  There is a vast array of resources available to homeschooling parents of high school students - ranging from self-study courses, to tutoring settings, to traditional texts taught by parent or by video - and don't overlook the rewarding approach of learning alongside your student.  I never thought I would be learning Latin at my age, but I have found it both fascinating and rewarding to study along with my sons.

If you don't want to take my word for it, listen to the Staying the Course podcast on Sonlight's Podcast page.

You can also watch my High School Workshop.

Barbara Shelton's Senior High: A Home-designed Form-U-La provides lots of inspiration and practical guidance.  The book is not written in the traditional format - Barb writes like she talks, with lots of side comments and smiles - but gives a number of class "plans," creative grading guidelines, learning guides for various subjects and so much more.  It is particularly helpful for those who incorporate non-textbook coursework for the students.

Whether your student intends to pursue college-level study or not, you will find Cafi Cohen's Homeschooler's College Admissions Handbook to be a valuable resource.  Though the title seems to focus mostly on college admissions, at least half of the text provides encouraging and valuable advice on high school itself.  I consider this a required resource for all parents of homeschooled high school students!

High School Courses

Many home school parents ask me how to "translate" Sonlight Core programs into high school courses for their student's transcripts.  While I do not have experience as a high school registrar, I can provide an outline of what I have recorded on my sons' transcripts as they completed Sonlight courses.  I created transcripts for my two older sons who were accepted into college (one into a Christian college and one into a secular university) without any difficulty.

Core 100: In-depth American History

  • American History - 1 credit
  • Bible Study - 1 credit
  • Literature - 1/2 credit
  • English Composition - 1/2

Core 200: History of God's Kingdom
(You can change the course title on a transcript for a secular university.)

  • History of God's Kingdom (or perhaps World Civ) - 1 credit
  • Bible Study - 1 credit
  • Literature - 1 credit
  • Composition - 1/2 credit

Core 300: 20th Century World History

  • 20th Century World History - 1 credit
  • Bible Study - 1 credit
  • 20th Century Literature - 1 credit
  • Composition - 1/2 or 1 credit, depending upon the extent of writing your student completed during the year

Core 400: Civics/American Government

  • American Government - 1 credit
    (Honors credit may be appropriate due to the course depth)
  • Civics, or Political Science - 1/2 credit
  • Bible Study - 1 credit
  • American Literature - 1 credit
    (again, Honors credit may be appropriate)
  • Composition - 1/2 or 1 credit, depending upon the extent of writing your student completed during the year
Sonlight's Economics Program
Sonlight combines dynamic multimedia videos, excellent notes and interactive exercises with the Bible and modern literature for a clear, critical view of the macro and micro Economics. From basic theory to "Political Instability and Trade," get your student ready for success in college placement or follow the heavier schedule to prepare for AP exams.

College & Career Planning Program

Created by me - a homeschool mom who has successfully launched students from high school into college - and tailored just for homeschoolers, these materials guide students in identifying their unique abilities and the way God has created them to serve others.  Once this is accomplished, the program provides tips on planning high school studies to maximize the student's preparation for college or work after graduation.

I would encourage you not to overlook this program if you know your child is not considering high school.  The materials are still quite appropriate for aiding a student in navigating the options and maximizing their high school preparation.

Worldview Training
 Understanding the Times Homeschool Edition is a video-based curriculum that brings a host of Christian worldview and apologetic experts into your classroom. This class will help students clearly understand the tenets of the Christian worldview and how it compares with the tenets of other leading worldviews of our day: Islam, Secular Humanism, Marxism, New Age, and Postmodernism. Prepare your students to recognize and confront the worldviews that saturate Western society. As they first gain an understanding of what Westerners believe, and evaluate those beliefs from a biblical perspective, they will learn how to formulate biblical answers to today's popular anti-Christian arguments. I believe that this training is vital for students who plan to pursue college study.

Inspiration Outlining Software - Ideas to Outlines in Seconds
Do your junior/senior high students find outlining in preparation for writing to be a challenge?  Perhaps they have difficulty transforming the spiderweb-style brainstorming into an outline.  Now there is help available from Inspiration Software.

You start with a theme or idea in the center of a blank screen and type in related ideas that will appear in linked, colored bubbles.  You can change the bubbles' colors, shapes, and patterns or choose from over 1,300 available illustrations to highlight and differentiate among ideas.

After you've created your "idea map" click on the Outline tool, and Inspiration will instantly transform your once-scattered thoughts into a traditional, well-organized outline.  What a tool for writers in high school or college!

Geography & Map Work

Sonlight coordinates the study of Geography with the settings of the books included in its programs. We encourage students to label maps as they progress through the programs, but teens often do not wish to continue working on the colorful Markable Map. You may prefer to incorporate the notebook approach for covering Geography with your high school student.  Using Uncle Josh's Outline Maps, you can print from a selection of 124 maps - covering the world, continents and individual countries - for your student to fill in using references from the Core Instructor's Guide. As you study through American History, World History and World Cultures with Sonlight's Core programs, your student will amass an impressive collection of geographical references ... all familiar to him because of the people and places you have studied through Sonlight's literature. These maps can be labeled and color coded to suit the student.

High School Timeline

For those older students who prefer not to mount timeline figures in the Book of Time - the Sonlight high school programs do not include figures - you can create a narrative timeline using your computer word processor.  Set up a page with a left-hand column for the date and a wide column for the description.  As you make entries, insert them chronologically and color-code the print to identify people, places, wars, inventions, and whatever other categories you wish to identify.  This timeline can be maintained on the computer and a reference copy printed on a regular basis for review.

High School Transcripts

There are a variety of approaches to take in preparing a transcript for a high school student.  Start by watching our High School Transcripts webinar.

Instruction for completing your own transcripts (it's really not hard)