Welcome to The HomeScholar Helper! This blog answers commonly asked questions about homeschooling high school. Please email me (Lee@thehomescholar.com) if you have a question or if there is a topic you would like me to address. Please put “blog question” in the subject line. Make sure you subscribe to this blog because I update the content daily. Enjoy your visit!

I tell people that they should start “practicing high school” in 7th grade. I forget that even “practice” can be stressful. I’ve been taking an accounting class for my business (and hating every minute of it!) I was sitting there feeling completely overwhelmed, wondering how I was ever going to become knowledgeable enough to do this job! Then it dawned on me that I felt this exact same way when my kids were in 7th grade! In 7th grade I had my own worries. How was I ever going to remember all the details? How was I going to write course descriptions, or remember to write down math test scores? Here’s the good news - you don’t HAVE to remember it ALL at the beginning. Just start in 7th grade to do what you can, and by the time 9th grade and high school come around, you’ll be an old pro!

So my advice to you is: just start practicing, little by little, and eventually you’ll get it.
And my advice to me is: just start practicing, little by little, and eventually *I* will get it!

The HomeScholar provides a free monthly e-newsletter, daily blog support, low cost DVDs and private consultations — everything you need to successfully homeschool through high school.

Preparing students for college admission is a lot like being a juggler. You can be successful if you don’t drop the ball! Each spring I get frantic phone calls from parents, asking for help getting their kids into college. Their Suzie or Jimmy wants to go to Harvard, but has never taken math…and didn’t hear about SAT testing…and they want to know what I can do to help. At that point, there really isn’t much I can do! I encourage people to plan ahead, and don’t drop the ball. In my newsletter, I have calendar reminders to help you remember things as you move through the high school years. Reading those reminders will help you stay on track. It just takes a little bit of attention, just once in a while, to make sure those balls stay in the air! Keep it up, you can do it!

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Once upon a time, my children went to public school.  In fourth grade, they invited my son Kevin into the prestigious “Academically Capable” program.  We had lots of trouble that year, but nothing so profound as the “Oregon Trail” fiasco.  You may well wonder what could possibly go wrong in an Oregon trail unit study!  Each student was given a family identity, and followed them through the Oregon Trial.  One day the teacher told the students that they might have to fight, steal, or kill in order to get food for their families.  That  evening, my husband and I began to “debrief” Kevin, and explain that there are OTHER options besides breaking the Ten Commandments.  The next day, the teacher again stressed situational ethics.  In the evening, more debriefing.  Poor Kevin, who was only in fourth grade, was so confused by the contradictory messages coming from parents and teacher!  Even after I spoke to the teacher, she still stressed the importance of doing “whatever it takes” to obtain supplies on the Oregon Trail.

That was when we knew we had to homeschool our children.  We could not continue to allow our children to learn messages that contradicted everything our family believes in.

Fast forward ten years.  In the news yesterday was a story about the effect of situational ethics in modern young adults.  Here are a couple of links:

“LIVING LARGE:  Pair charged with profiting from identity thefts”

Top Story:

“Law catches up with modern-day Bonnie and Clyde … They stole credit-card and bank-account information from friends, co-workers and neighbors to finance lavish purchases and travel, prosecutors said.”

You have probably seen it on your news as well, since it made the local, national and international news.  Guess what?  The young man in the story - our young “Clyde” - lived five doors away from us in our old neighborhood.  He attended the same elementary school and was in the same “academically capable” program.  His parents are wonderful, caring, and sweet individuals.  On the video clip you can see the street we lived on a few years ago.  We were shocked!

But not surprised…. Why should we expect a better result when the public schools teach children that values are conditional and truth is relative?

Another reason to homeschool through high school!

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When I was at the Catholic Homeschool Convention, one woman gave me a list of what she considered to be “truly Conservative Catholic Colleges.” I don’t think she was saying that this was a comprehensive list, it was just colleges she was most familiar with. I realize that every family is unique, but I also thought that someone might really appreciate this list, so they can check it out for themselves. Colleges can look so similar on paper, it’s often difficult to determine their true personality without some input from others. I hope this list helps someone!

• Thomas Aquinas college in CA
• Christendom College in VA
  • (That’s the one I mentioned in my last newsletter)
• Wyoming Catholic (not sure where that one is, LOL!)
• John Paul the Great in CA
• Ave Maria in Michigan
• Steubenville Franciscan University in Ohio
• Benedictine in KS
• University of Dallas in TX
• Thomas More in NH

How do you find the best college for your student? Check out my Finding a College DVD.

This morning on the opinion page of our newspaper was this quote:

“As my wife is fond of saying, our son was raised by dozens of Professionals (mostly teachers) and two amateurs.” (Seattle PI “Band Teacher hit all the right notes” Guest Columnist Bob Roseth)

I was SO shocked by that quote! They are saying that not only are school teachers professional educators” but they are also “professional child raisers!” Yikes!

I believe that homeschooling parents are professional educators AND professional child-raisers. I know there are high school credits that “educators” believe are official. However, I firmly believe that parents do know best - even in the area of high school credits. There are times when the parent will know better than a “Professional” what to put on a high school transcript. I know a parent who unschooled, and never did math in high school (ever!) But his son ended up knowing pre-algebra. On his transcript was “Pre-algebra” even though he hadn’t done math since 5th grade. There are times when things will go on a transcript because you as the parent are 100% confident that it is accurate and true. On the surface, “professionals” may not understand. But I encourage people to go with their heart. If you have thought through your reasoning, then trust yourself to do the right thing. If you know it to be true, just be honest on your transcript. Don’t leave something off just because you are afraid of a “professional.”

I always enjoyed the stories we read to the kids about the Pilgrim’s journey into the New World. They had the courage to face the unknown, armed only with a belief that life could be better outside the oppression in the Old World. I view the earliest homeschooling moms in the same way. There were no promises made to them. They faced hardships daily. They had few, if any, external resources to draw upon. They set out with the conviction that, no matter what came their way, their kids would be better off at home than in a traditional classroom setting. For all the Pilgrim homeschooling moms out there - the ones whose kids are grown and may be raising their own children - my hat’s off to you on this Mother’s Day. Well done!!

But what about the Pioneer homeschool moms? You know, the ones who grew up in a New World established by the Pilgrims who also answered the call and decided to chart a new path. These are the homeschool moms of today. Sure, Pioneer homeschool moms don’t often face the same terrors as the Pilgrims (kids removed from their homes, fines and even jail,) but the Pioneers face their own challenges. Along the “Oregon Trail” are many threats, such as disapproving parents and hostile neighbors. There are also dangers aplenty, like scuttled college plans and worldly distractions. Through it all, our Pioneer homeschool moms preservere in pushing toward the dream. Unlike the Pilgrim moms, Pioneer moms can find outposts along the way - for example, homeschool conferences, on-line resources, friendly homeschool consultants - however, they are still in largely uncharted territory.

So once again: Congratulations, Pioneer moms! You have earned a day to reflect on the journey and give thanks to those who went before you. Your children will bless you and your husband will cherish you for what you have sacrificed along this dusty trail.

Happy Mothers Day

Matt (Mr. HomeScholar)

Humans, by nature, tend to fear the unknown. This is particularly true for parents of young students when it comes to homeschooling high school. They will often think: “How could I possibly teach high school level subjects?” They also fear that their decision to homeschool high school will jeopardize their children’s future, including college plans. Sometime parents will have themselves so convinced that homeschooling high school is an impossibility that by the time they reach middle school, they don’t even consider it an option.

The best way to combat the unknown is by educating yourself. I spent my children’s junior high years reading every homeschooling high school book I could find and talking to parents who had done it successfully. What I discovered is that homeschooling high school is not only possible, but it can be EASIER than homeschooling the elementary years! The reason is that by the time your homeschool students get into upper levels they should learn how to teach themselves. In our homeschool, it was a matter of necessity. In many subjects, my boys didn’t want to wait for me to teach them (they got bored with how long it took for me to “get it.”) It was much easier and quicker for them to teach themselves. My husband and I would supplement their books with training DVDs and other helps, but in general, if they learned it in high school, it wasn’t because of us!

My advice is to surround yourself with friends who support homeschooling high school or who have done it themselves. My free monthly e-newsletter should also be a great encouragement to you and help you “get rid of the fear.” Please consider subscribing. If you have a friend with younger students, forward them one of my newsletters and encourage them to sign up. A few years reading about how to homeschooling high school will make it will be a lot less frightening when 9th grade is looming.

Need a monthly dose of homeschool encouragement? Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter, The HomeScholar Record!

Once we determined that they knew enough to pass a CLEP, then we started to study for the test so that they would get a good score. It seemed like the REA books were the best prep once we go to that stage.

We used CLEP exams only for the things they already “sorta knew.” So, typically, just reading through the REA book and taking the practice tests was enough, since they already were able to pass the test based on previous knowledge.

My son Alex did take one CLEP in a different way - psychology. He didn’t want to take Psych in college (he was only 14 at the time and knew he didn’t want to discuss Freud in mixed company!) He simply read through the REA book, and then he was able to take the test. I had bought him a psych textbook, but I don’t think he read it much. I think it was mostly the REA books.

Read more about how to homeschool college in my Dig Deeper page!

When we did CLEP, I preferred using the Official Study Guide by College board as a entry-level “can we pass this” assessment. Here is the link:

I chose that book because it had a sample test from EVERY CLEP, and we were just looking for an over view assessment at that time.

I usually preferred Princeton Review study materials for everything, but in this one instance it seemed like the Official Study Guide worked better for us. Princeton Review seems to speak more in the natural tone of teenagers.

Read my latest article entitled “Rigor, Relevance and Relationships” published today on Heart of the Matter!