What Formats Can Be Used For Homeschool High School Courses?

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: What Formats Can Be Used For Homeschool High School Courses? What Formats Can Be Used For Homeschool High School Courses? There's not ONE right way to homeschool high school. AND there's not ONE right way to earn those important credits for the homeschool transcripts. One of the most asked questions that we receive is: What are the formats that can be used to earn credits? Vicki will give an explanation of the basic ways to earn those transcript credits. Here are the basics: For a start, you can get more information at 7SistersHomeschool.com. Check out our post on earning credits. Here's a download and editable transcript template to help. In most states, teens will earn Carnegie credits Carnegie units are the basic way to earn and assign high school transcript credits. You can actually go to Carnegie.com to learn the history of credits (the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching set about in 1906 to try to standardize the way high schoolers show the amount of time they have studied a subject). Carnegie suggests that 120 hours of study will earn a credit. This has been adapted over the years so that each state has a different number of hours needed (anywhere from 120-180). Check your state homeschool organization or Department of Education to find out for certain. A few states use different credit units. Again check state homeschool organization or Department of Education to find out for certain. Logging hours Some courses have such rich and interesting information that a textbook will not do it justice. If your teen has a specific interest but there is not a good-fit curriculum, allow them to explore their interest with a log system. Include: * Date * Time spent * What was done Keep it in a master portfolio or other record keeping system. Things that can count: * Relevant documentaries * Relevant field trips * Relevant audiobooks or real books * Relevant short courses on a MOOC such as Edx (often only a few lessons long) * Time spent or interviews with a tutor or expert Studying with a textbook Sometimes teens just want to blast through a textbook. It feels cleaner to them than logging hours. If your teens like no-busywork, adaptable, downloadable texts, check out 7Sisters ebookstore. Independent study with real books Use real books to dig deep into a topic of interest. Choose approximately sixteen relevant books that help your teen really understand their topic. The self-designed course is capped by creating a large project or research paper. Keep book lists and brief reflection on each book, also. It will also help to keep a course description in your records. Participate in online courses Make sure of the amount of credit being assigned (check the course description to find out). For lots of ideas check out this po...