Dispelling Fears About Homeschooling High School: Interview with Barbara

Every so often on the blog, I love to give you a sneak peek into “our life” collectively as homeschoolers by sharing interviews with everyday homeschool moms just like you!

I am especially excited to share this interview I had with Barbara from @livingfordusk, where she shares homeschooling inspiration and ideas for everyday moms just like you! Join us as we talk about dispelling the fears about homeschooling through high school.

Meet Barbara

Hi! I’m Barbara, a wife and mother to 3 kiddos. My husband and I have been married for 25 years and prior to homeschool, worked together in Interior Design. We are currently in our 5th year of homeschooling our elementary, middle school, and high schoolers.

What drew you to homeschooling?

When my oldest two were younger, I wanted to find fun activities to keep them occupied throughout the day. I searched Pinterest and other sites, but fell into homeschooling when I came across the blog ‘Confessions of a Homeschooler’. I loved her format and had bought her program.

We continued this for about two years, but when I had returned to working with my husband, I enrolled my kids into the sweetest Christian school. Fast forward to 2020, we realized that online school was not the best fit for our kids, and I had felt called towards homeschooling once more. We weren’t sure if it would be long-term at the time, but we found homeschooling to be a great opportunity for our family and are now homeschooling through high school!

What is it like homeschooling multiple grades?

I would say our first year was somewhat rocky, figuring out how to balance a new reader, an upper elementary student and a middle schooler was quite the challenge.

Fortunately, we found that keeping content-based subjects as group subjects (such as Bible, science, history, etc), and 1:1 learning when it came to skill-based subjects (starting from youngest to oldest) helped us stay organized.

What was the transition from middle to high school like?

The age old question – “But you’re sending them back for high school, right?”

I feel as though the transition smoothed out once I had realized that homeschooling high schoolers is very similar to homeschooling younger grades (just with a little more record keeping).

Now, that’s not to say the transition didn’t come with a few lumps and bumps at first. I had originally thrown out everything I knew about homeschool once high school came into the picture, and I had found that we fell into the trap of “schooling at home” rather than “homeschooling”.

What does that mean exactly?

Well, we followed all the typical steps (checking our state graduation guidelines and looking into the “HSLDA” website), and once we had gained this information, our approach towards the first few months of freshman year became very systematic. Dotting I’s and Crossing T’s. I was so focused on transcripts and course descriptions that I had completely forgotten about all of the joy I could infuse into their high school days.

Thankfully, we realigned quickly and focused on what she thrives in and what career paths she may pursue. After that, we looked into college sites to find out what their requirements are for homeschool families looking to enroll. This was gold for us.

We changed everything we were doing and had gone back to our original format of keeping group subjects together and having 1:1 time with me for our core subjects. High school has been a wonderful opportunity for our teen to start finding more independence and her genuine passion for learning.

How to dispel the fear of homeschooling through high school?

The first thing that had helped us was realizing that I don’t have to teach everything for high school (Algebra, anyone?). Instead, we tailored our high schoolers course load towards her learning style and goal preferences, and had signed her up for multiple online classes. Therefore, she isn’t solely depending on me for her lessons and isn’t working completely independently.

We also have morning meetings to review assignments from the day before, alongside assessing that day’s goals. My high schooler has taken the reins on how her days are structured and in what order she completes her lessons. This life skill of time management is greatly benefiting her in all areas of life.

What resources are you using for high school?

I had found a free transcript online and used it to make a loose four-year plan. We are likely going to enroll into dual credit courses for 11th grade, so we are accounting for this. I was also able to find helpful blogs on how to write course descriptions, and in some cases, other moms have already done the work for specific curriculum and offer their course descriptions on their sites.

There are many resources if you want to have someone else take the helm for providing a graduation diploma. BJU Press’ “The Academy of Home Education” is a great way to start. We have decided to provide our daughter with her high school diploma from our homeschool. With some research and some record keeping, homeschooling through high school isn’t as scary as many may believe it is.

Barbara’s Favorite Resources

Free High School Transcript – https://www.flandersfamily.info/web/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/High-School-Transcript-Editable.pdf

High School Course Description examples – https://www.notthathardtohomeschool.com/course-descriptions-homeschool/

BJU Press “The Academy of Home Education” – https://www.bjupresshomeschool.com/the-academy-of-home-education

MasterBooks Academy High School Art I – https://www.masterbooksacademy.com/course/artforhighschool

Glory to Glory Fitness F.O.R.M. – https://www.formcurriculum.com/a/2147527565/FWFMtse3

High School Spanish Flip Flop Spanish – https://www.flipflopspanish.com/collections/high-school-adult/products/senora-goses-spanish-geniuses

I didn’t mention this one, but this is her English class and it is amazing from Redefining School (they are reading through a lot of C.S. Lewis’ work) and they attend live classes once a week, for the kids to talk with Mrs. Mindy the teacher. – https://redefiningschool.com/high-school-offerings