How to Choose High School Classes for Homeschoolers

How can you know what classes your high schooler should take? How can you find out what subjects are important?

And how can I find subjects that not only satisfy my child’s current interests but also pave the way for a better future?

Most likely, if you are making time in your life to homeschool your children, you are doing so because you want them to have the best possible education. 

But, the challenges of providing that education seem to increase dramatically as they enter into their high school years. 

Every child shouldn’t go to college.  There are many career opportunities out there that don’t require a college degree.  Your child’s interests and life goals should guide that decision. 

As you probably can guess, many high schoolers don’t have a firm grasp of what they want in life. Because of this uncertainty, I have tried to give my homeschooled children an education that would allow them to enter college if they choose to do so at some point in their life. But I also incorporated subject materials that would help them if they chose not to enter college.

In order to choose what classes to include in the high school years, do a little research. 

Research State’s Requirements:

First, I researched our state’s department of education graduation requirements and made a list of what was required for high school graduation from my state. 

The laws in my state don’t require homeschoolers to follow that list, but I didn’t want that to be a stumbling block for them at any point down the road; our state’s list isn’t too difficult to accomplish.

This completed the minimum list of classes for the child that doesn’t think he/she wants to go to college. But additional classes may be added depending on the child’s interests. For the college-bound child, the list of basic classes may be longer.

Research College’s Requirements:

My research for the college-bound was the admissions section of college websites.  I chose several local state colleges and a few private schools to research.  It is easy to find the admission requirements on most of their websites. 

I wrote down what was required by them to be admitted and added that to the state list and had a good starting point for what classes our school would require.  I also added to this list a few classes I thought were important, such as accounting.

Choose Electives:

After that, our class choices have been interest-based.  I have one child that loves animals and biology, so a lot of her electives were science-based.  She took Marine Biology, Advanced Biology, and Genetics. 

Early on in her high school years, another of mine was especially interested in the arts.  She took watercolor painting and photography electives before deciding her interests were also more science-based.

Homeschooling high school can be a bit of a challenge, but class selection doesn’t need to be complicated. 

If you follow your state’s guidelines, college admissions requirements, and your student’s interests, it can be easy to choose your student’s high school classes.

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