The Advantage of Homeschool Transcripts
Posted on December 7, 2011 | Home Schooling.
There can be a huge advantage in making your own homeschool transcript. The advantage is that you can provide rigorous academics to your children and then reflect it on your transcript. I know that there are people out there who feel like failures – like they are doing a terrible job. But have you ever considered what failure really means?
What is the graduation rate at your public high school? Sometimes our school district talks about the incarceration rate of their high school students. How many homeschools think about incarceration? I really don’t think that our definition of failure is quite like the world’s definition of failure. Perhaps we are not providing a college level great books program but then again, neither are the public schools!
We are simply providing rigorous academics at the level of our children because what is really important is that you are teaching them at their level. If that means math is pre-algebra for a few years in a row then they are going to be learning more than if you pushed them beyond what they were able to do.
Another advantage is the freedom to document all these outside classes. That is one of the reasons why homeschoolers tend to have huge transcripts – they can take all of their classes, both from inside and outside a classroom, and place them on a transcript. It just looks much better on paper when your child can develop interest in things like economics or chess or other crazy stuff.
A homeschool transcript will be a way for you to identify the special giftedness and passion of your own child. Every child has their own thing. The transcript will show the individuality of your own child. Your transcript can also reflect the values and priorities of your own family.
It’s also a way for you to capture all of the academics they do regardless of where they do it. So if they go to Bellevue Community College, then they do a court class, and they have music at the public school, you’ll be able to pull all that together so nothing will be lost. It becomes a much more comprehensive and accurate picture of who your child really is, instead of the one-dimensional piece of paper that they might get from a public or private school.
Your home-made transcript can truly represent your homeschool. It’s not just one piece of it but the whole of it. That’s a huge advantage because it will demonstrate not only who your child is but where they came from and what their roots are.
Home High School – What Are the Graduation Requirements?
Posted on December 3, 2011 | Home Schooling.
Nationally, there is not one set of high school requirements for graduation. There are usually even fewer requirements for homeschoolers. Therefore you can’t look to one authority to tell you what you need to have in order to graduate.
Instead, what I recommend is to think about where your child may want to go to college and look at that college’s entrance requirements. Public schools tend to not have very high requirements for graduation, but college entry requirements tend to be a little bit more rigorous. If you are aiming for college then you will be more than adequately prepared for senior high and you will be able to get in to college.
There is still a problem with this and that is that all colleges will have different requirements. One of the things that can really help you get the most out of high school planning is if halfway through high school you can identify maybe 3 or 4 colleges that your child might want to apply to. Then, go to their website and look for freshmen admissions requirements. That should tell you if they have a standard number of courses that are required.
I think it is also important to remember that every family is going to have their own graduation requirements. I’ve actually known homeschool families that have required calculus to graduate. I’m not necessarily condoning that, I’m just putting it out there. But homeschoolers and their families will have to choose what requirements are important. You may choose to have Bible courses or critical thinking as a requirement. Sometimes people will have home economics or auto-mechanics as a requirement so that they can become independent when they are out on their own.
What your homeschool high school requires to graduate is between you and your children. Even if there are few state requirements that need to be met, there are steps that families can take to make the most of their home school.