What About High School? Homeschool Plans Made in Pencil

While the above sentiment is humorous, it is also true. The same may be said for a great education. So if you find something listed in our high school plans that doesn’t sit right in the middle of a lot that does, then I hope it gives you inspiration to add some new things to your own plans.

Dear friend, your children are unique and created for a purpose different from my children. Remember that as you read all the curriculum posts and catalogs in each and every season.

Also, sometimes the grass is greener because it’s over a leach field. ;) Never judge a homeschool by what they post on the internet. You are educating your specific family in the way that works best for them. If ever you find yourself comparing to XYZ homeschooler on Instagram, go ahead and delete the app. Inspiration is one thing, intimidation and “this is how it must be done” attitudes are another thing entirely. Nobody has time for that nonsense, we’re too busy home educating!

Now that that is out of the way-

Let’s talk homeschooling high school!

First, if you haven’t joined HSLDA, please do. The resources are phenomenal and they are doing so much to protect and defend our right to home educate! They have links to the laws for each state, so defintiely start there to see how you need to setup your children’s plan.

When I posted these schedules on Instagram, I got a few messages wanting to know details about how we are actually laying out the courses.

Because you know we are a Charlotte Mason homeschool, obviously there will be lots of books. Because my children are individual persons there will also be DVDs, live/ live video lessons and courses, and even some technical classes as the local trade school thrown in!

I’ll be sharing our high school book and course lists as printables for our Substack Subscribers later this month.

I am grateful to be of service and bring you quality homeschool and homemaking content. I receive compensation through subscribers and affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

The Easy Classes

For the courses that are not super long lists of books and other media:

Health& Nutrition: We are using Apologia Health and Nutrition with the student notebook and Beyond Labels by Joel Salatin.

Physical Education: Outdoor Sports. My boys are both in Trail Life and have monthly weekend-long hikes/campouts/activities during the school year as well as fishing and (Lord willing) hunting outings planned. Over the course of the next 4/6 years they will have more than the hours required by the state of Georgia to count as a full credit.

Agriculture Sciences: Homestead Tsunami and Polyface Micro, both by Joel Salatin, Everyday Graces Garden Planner, and each boy, in addition to helping care for and humanely process the animals on our homestead, will be responsible for 1 set of raised beds for all 4 years of the high school education. I firmly believe that if more people understood where food came from and how much better it is when it’s local, we’d be a lot better off as a nation and world. That’s part of the appeal of using Joel Salatin’s books- he thinks so, too.

The Grammar of Poetry - We completed this course for both boys last summer. We try to focus on a few subjects each summer and do an “intensive” to get through it. We used the video course on Compass Classroom along with the student workbooks.

Personal Finance - We’ve always loved Dave Ramsey, but the class my friend Mary’s husband teaches looks very good and we may go that route if we can work it out.

The More Involved Classes

British Literature - Both boys will be joining in the class I’m facilitating for the Beautiful Life Community this coming spring. The eldest has a selection of British literature (to be shared on the printable list) he will be studying independently this fall, while the youngest will complete those same books next summer. This setup gives them both a full year’s credit for British lit, but allows me some fun 1-on-1 time with each boy and some really fun books (like Father Brown mysteries) in addition to the “classic” British literature.

Fine Arts: Drawing 101 and Watercolor 101- both theses classes are part of our Awaken to Delight membership. Each one is a half credit at the rate we go through the classes. Your child could go through them at a faster or slower rate, you would want to adjust the credit accordingly.

Piano & Guitar - we are utilizing Great Courses for Guitar currently and really enjoying it. Guitar II will be with a live teacher. My youngest takes piano from a local homeschool mom and will be using his next year of lessons (he’s now at the intermediate level going into early advanced) as a fine arts credit.

Culinary Arts 101 - I was surprised and excited when my boys expressed the desire to do culinary arts instead of more advanced painting classes. The goal is to have them watch Master Chef and think, “I can do that!”.

*A little background- When I graduated high school a year early, I was awarded a scholarship to Johnson and Wales culinary school (that I never used) because cooking and baking have always been favorite pastimes of mine. Because I enjoy them so much, I decided I didn’t want to pursue that as a career, so the joke was on me when I had two boys and basically have to cook for a living ;)

I have some amazing books to work through with them and those will be on the printable list, but I’ll also put together a detailed syllabus style post on how we will be using them if you’re interested in that process.

Composition I and II - We’ve used some IEW and some Memoria Press over the years in addition to the Charlotte Mason grammar method so I’m planning on using the Green Writer course from S.D. Smith and one of the writing courses from Compass Classroom, TBD.

American Civics/Economics - We will be utilizing the American Civics Course by Michael Farris (just the videos along with Socratic discussion and written narrations in their notebooks) and reading Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

Church History - The book Church History in Plain Language is our spine and we will be reading biographies, essays, catechisms, and watching documentaries to coordinate with it.

Welding/Woodworking - Both of these will be through our local public technical school. My eldest has expressed a strong desire to pursue welding as a career so we are supporting him through these classes and a specialized math program we found that was designed just for welders. My youngest loves to build things, from the design to the finished product. He wants to get better at that craft, even though he’s more interested in some kind of engineering as a career. Education is a life, and we want to encourage them to have passions, hobbies, and steady jobs that will allow them to provide for their own family some day.

Biology - both boys will be taking Devotional Biology through Compass Classroom (with the lab kit! Because I’m awful at procuring lab things when I have to do it myself!)

World History I & II - We have an extensive collection of history books, mainly Landmark history books, that the boys are using alongside notebooks as their world history courses. There are also some biographies, We Were There books, and even a few historical fiction to bring certain time periods to life. The titles will be included in the printable list, but might warrant their own post, too.

Household/Car Maintenance - My husband and I are working on a spreadsheet of skills we want the boys to have before they go out on their own. I have taught them a lot of skills I know over the years-

• sewing (buttons, hems, patches, etc.)

• laundry

• washing dishes by hand/prepping them for the dishwasher

• general house cleaning

• basic and intermediate cooking skills/reading recipes

• preserving food

• stain removal (did I mention we have red clay here?)

• landscaping/gardening

• How to coupon/budget/grocery shop

• How to thrift for quality items

• how to carve a roasted bird, etc.

My husband has taught them many skills he knows as well, BUT there are plenty more for them to learn. Things like:

• testing electrical outlets

• putting up a ceiling fan

• drywall patching

• how to service a car

• how to troubleshoot a car

• how to clean a dryer vent

• how to sweep a chimney

• how to build stairs

And so many more! So the spreadsheet will help us check off all the things we wish we’d known before we were out “adulting” on our own, and maybe a few extra.

Chemistry of Cooking/Lab: This is a course we are putting together for my eldest. I’ll be posting more details as I get it worked out, but he’s very much a black and white/practical/”why do I need to know this” personality and because he’s focused on a technical track, we are working to make his lab sciences as useful as possible. As I get this course fleshed out, I’ll share more here.

Hard Sciences: You’ll notice the track for my math and science oriented child is very different. He’s actually entering the 7th grade (technically) this year, but has been happily completing high school level work for over a year. He may opt to graduate early or he may opt for a dual-enrollment “senior year”. He is about to begin Algebra and loves logic, chemistry, geometry, etc. He lives for the science experiment kits we get from Home Science Tools. We have an excellent local co-op taught by retired teachers that I am exploring for his high school lab sciences. I’m thankful for our years using Apologia because without that guidance, I probably wouldn’t have ever thought to teach him about lab reports!