First, it’s important to remember that parenting is never easy, and each parent has their own issues and struggles.  I didn’t have to work with the NCAA, but I’ve had friends who have done it.  I know that homeschoolers can work within their system.  I also know it’s not a walk in the park!  I would love to hear from veteran homeschool moms who have been successful with the NCAA system – especially from parents who have homeschooled independently!  IF that is you, can you please leave a comment to encourage other parents on that path?

Here are a few starting points and resources to get you on your way, as you begin to think about NCAA eligibility and requirements.  If you have a gifted athlete, start your research early, so you are well prepared before junior year of high school.

NCAA College-Bound Student-Athletes Initial-Eligibility Resource Center

College-Bound Student-Athletes Initial-Eligibility Resource Center

Home School Frequently Asked Questions

Register with the NCAA Eligibility Center during Junior year. The NCAA Eligibility Center will determine whether home schooled college-bound student-athletes will be eligible. www.eligibilitycenter.org.

You can see their transcript example. Their instructions say “If a course has more than one textbook, please attach an additional textbook list” which looks like my expanded transcript example which I demonstrate in the Comprehensive Record Solution. They do use the A = 90-100 scale, which is the same scale that I usually recommend.  It appears they only accept (or strongly prefer) textbooks. Even then, they recommend only textbooks that are college preparatory.  For that reason, be sure to include the publisher information as they require, not just title and author.

Jumping through hoops is one of the things ALL parents have to do in order to participate with the NCAA.  It’s not unique for homeschoolers, it’s for ALL students.  Granted, it doesn’t look easy, but it does look possible.  If it’s worth it to your student, you should be successful handling this as an independent homeschooler.

Meanwhile, online schools state that new guidelines means they WILL NOT be approved for NCAA eligibility.  Keystone Online High School states  “Online courses are defined by NCAA as being “non-traditional” and fall under these revised guidelines.  Keystone print (correspondence) courses will not be approved for eligibility….. We cannot guarantee that every Keystone online course will be accepted for initial eligibility. ”

If NCAA eligibility is the next step for your child, don’t be afraid.  Be assertive!  Your efforts can be successful!

Learn how to save money homeschooling with my free Special Report: “7 Secrets to Homeschooling Through a Financial Storm.”

I have a daughter that has been in Martial Arts since she’s been 11. The last few years she’s been helping teach the younger class, but doesn’t qualify to be an instructor because she’s not 18.  She has her Midnight Blue Belt which is a black belt. Could I write this down on her transcript as community service? Does it have to be signed or verified on her transcript? The top instructor tells my husband and I all the time, if she wasn’t there to help teach, it would be almost impossible to have a class.  I do keep a log of how many hours she does.

~Marie in Indiana

Dear Marie,

With something that important, it’s vital to have it on the transcript somewhere.

When I was in high school, I was involved in Choir.  I received high school music credit for the time I was in the class, but it was also listed as an activity on my transcript.

For this kind of experience, I would first estimate her hours to determine her high school credit.  Because she loves it and has done it for a long time, I’ll just guess that it is a 1 credit class.  I would then list it as a class, probably calling it PE: Martial Arts.

On the transcript you can highlight the most significant high school activities. When you put it on her activity list, indicate which year she did it, and her level of mastery.  I would also list the teacher assistant portion as its own activity.  So the activity section of the transcript would look like this:  Martial Arts 9, 10, 11, 12 – Black Belt 12.  Martial Arts Assistant Teacher 9, 10, 11, 12.

I would keep a list for all her activities, and this would go on that list. I kept a separate piece of paper listing all activities.  I would also include it there.  Sometimes I suggest naming the business or group the student is involved with.  It might look like this:  Martial Arts 9 – Highline Martial Arts Academy, 100 hours

I would also keep track of her volunteer hours, on a separate Volunteer or Community Service list.  Something like this: Martial Arts Assistant Teacher 9,  Highline Martial Arts Academy, 100 volunteer hours
Martial Arts Assistant Teacher 10, 100 hours
Martial Arts Assistant Teacher 11, 100 hours
Martial Arts Assistant Teacher 12, 100 hours

The purpose for the activity list and the volunteer list is merely a record keeping device.  It’s going to help you remember all these things your daughter is involved with.  That way when you are faced with a college application, and they ask for information on activities, you will have everything you need at your fingertips. Because it is just a record keeping device, some activities are  duplicates.  Activity and awards lists, and volunteer hours are not necessarily included on the transcript itself, although some parents choose to include that when it highlights the strengths of their child.  These lists are like a course description for the activity section of the transcript.  It provides more details than is included on the transcript.

It’s important to avoid double-dipping with high school credit, and only recording each experience as one high school credit.  However, you can also use those experiences as an activity.  Just like my high school choir class was a high school credit class and a high school activity.

Thanks for the great question!

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Unless your state requires it, you don’t have to teach Health every year of high school. Some states want Health to be a requirement for graduation, but colleges generally don’t care about it much. Some colleges want to see students who take health as a separate course, while others assume it is included in Physical Education (PE) classes. More often, colleges don’t mention it as a requirement at all.

In Washington State, we are required to teach Health at some point during K-12, but it isn’t specified which year, or how much health is necessary. I included some health studies along with PE in Middle School, and again in High School.

We really liked the books by Susan Boe. Written for Christian Schools, it’s assumes the student lives in a reasonably healthy environment, without sex or drugs. It covers physical, spiritual, and social health.

The Junior High or Middle School Book: Total Health: Talking About Life’s Changes by Susan Boe

The High School Book: Total Health: Choices for a Winning Lifesytle by Susan Boe

For younger students, we used “Passport to Purity” for a discussion about healthy dating from a Christian perspective.

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But look at it from another perspective.  I took choir in high school.  Choir was on my transcript and I got a credit for it, but Choir was also listed in my activities list. My friends in Yearbook were the same way – it was a journalism credit AND a yearbook activity.  The football team members got a PE credit AND they had varsity football on their activities. It’s OK to put things as both an activity and a subject if it’s really both.  It’s important not to do double-dipping for credits, but listing them as a credit and an activity is fine.  Boy scouts is a wonderful experience to put on your transcript for a class and an activity!

Check out some of my new buttons on the right sidebar of this blog!  I would REALLY appreciate it if you would grab the code and put one on your blog.  Help me spread the good news about homeschooling high school!  Thank you!

If your child is working toward an Eagle Scout, it can almost guarantee success.  Every single thing you do in scouting is educational and can be put on the transcript somewhere. Usually I see the hours spent with Boy Scouts recorded as PE.  All of the camping and hiking can be part of his PE credit.  There are a million names you can call it – you can use names on the badges, too.  Just estimate hours (“16 hours this weekend plus 40 hours that week equals….” that sort of thing.)  But in general, when your child is involved in scouting, and they do the scouting activities that are required, my job is just to remind you to include those in your PE hours.

Some kids focus more on academic activities within scouting, and others focus on the physical activities.  Remember the Golden Rule of Credits:  No Double Dipping.  When you count the hours of scouting, you can’t use the same hours for two different classes.  You can, however, say that some scouting hours are for PE and the other scouting hours are for volunteer work or other classes.  Although double dipping is a no-no, for many kids there are more than enough hours in their scouting year to cover more than one course.

Eagle Scout is “golden” and how it fits well with the Congressional Award.  Here is the link if you want to read more about the Congressional Award.

When you are applying for colleges, you will need a great homeschool transcript.  The good news is you can “do-it-yourself” and save thousands.  Discover the “Easy Truth About Homeschool Transcripts.”

I asked my sons what was their favorite books that taught them “do not reproduce like rabbits.”  The both had the same feedback.  They both enjoyed the book “Preparing for Adolescence” by James Dobson.  My husband would take one child each week to ice cream.  They would discuss a small section of the book while having ice cream together.  These “dad dates” became a very big deal in our family, and over the years really helped us communicate.

• Preparing for Adolescence by James Dobson

But teaching your children not to reproduce like rabbits is not something you teach just once.  The concept of respect and marriage is something that we returned to often.  Here are some of the other things we used.

Passport to Purity
Originally intended to be a weekend away with a pre-teen, we had to adjust it to fit our family.  We would have liked to do this curriculum the “right” way, but it just didn’t fit in our schedule.  Instead, my husband taught this curriculum to my boys when I was away for a homeschool convention.  I prepared all the crafts and activities in advance, so he didn’t have to do any of the planning.  While I was gone, he read the workbook and did all the learning activities with my boys together.  It was very effective!

• Passport2Purity Book & CD Set by Dennis and Barbara Rainey

Total Health
This is a complete high school curriculum that covers many things that promote health.

• Total Health: Talking About Lifes Changes is a health textbook for middle school students.
• Total Health, Choices for a Winning Lifestyle is a health textbook for high school students.

We also provided my boys with a lot of readers about relationships and being a teenager.  Most of these are from a Christian perspective.

• I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris
• Boy Meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship by Joshua Harris
• Boundaries in Dating by Henry Cloud and John Townsend

There is a new book that I’ve heard is WONDERFUL.  It’s called “Do Hard Things.”  There is a great video by the author right on the Amazon website.

• Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex Harris, Brett Harris, and Chuck Norris

These are important discussions to have with your teenagers.  Don’t let these things go unsaid!  Be proactive and talk with them.  If you don’t talk to your teens they will assume a lot of things, but they won’t really know how you feel about the issues they face.  Using a book can help you to guide your discussions.  As a nurse I know there are few things more important than these discussions about reproduction.  This is an important subject, and you don’t want your kids doing what the rest of the herd is doing!

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When you are homeschooling high school, all those sports activities can be counted as physical education.  Count the hours they spend in organized sports;  both practice and attending games.  When they have 120 hours or more, that would be a high school credit.

Organized sports can also be a wonderful way for young people to use up some of their energy, and allow them to settle down and work on sedentary studies.  Some kids need more physical activity in order to study well (particularly boys).  Some kids need less physical exertion in order to concentrate.  You know your child best, and it doesn’t always boil down to gender.

If you notice that your child has trouble concentrating, consider some physical exertion.  See if that helps!

PS.  This is a fine example of the  benefits of finding a homeschool mentor.  I had another homeschooling parent that I met with regularly.  When you are faced with an issue (“Johnny can’t seem to concentrate,”) you can brainstorm possible solutions.  Nobody will really have THE answer.  But when you discuss the issues with another understanding homeschooler, sometimes between the two of you, you can brainstorm the solution to the problems you face.

Check out my latest article on ezinearticle.com.  It’s on homeschool high school math.

Audrey asks:
How do you balance what you feel they need to know and do with what they feel they want to know and do? There are not enough hours in the day!

This question is actually TWO questions!

Q1: How can you get more hours in your day?

To some extent, homeschoolers will ALWAYS feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day!  It’s part of parenting, and even more a part of homeschooling.  There are some things that can help.  I read the book “Managers of Their Homes” and it really helped me.  It is a book about scheduling your homeschool, so that you do the most important things FIRST.  Determine what your priorities are, and then start with priority #1.  The less important things may need to be less frequent.

A schedule will sometimes tell you what is going wrong.  Sometimes parents will tell me what they are “trying” to do each day.  When I add it up, they are trying to do too much!  I remember one mother I met with was doing nine and a half hours a DAY doing academic subjects with her 9th grader.  Maybe you are simply trying to do too much!  So prioritize, and make sure you aren’t attempting too much.

It can also help to cut back on some of the things you do outside the home: co-op classes, sports teams, and music lessons, volunteering, employments, Boy Scouts, and church.  Sometimes it’s all just too much!  Again, try to decide what you really need and what’s important to you.  Scale back your activities if you can.  I encourage you to have your teen be part of the conversation, though.  Their interests should carry a LOT of weight.

Q2: What do they need to know?

It’s important, as you say, to balance what they need to know, with what THEY want to do.  If you can focus on just the basic, core classes, with limited fluff, then even in high school you can still get their schoolwork done in a reasonable amount of time.  Math does take a long time each day, and it’s important because it builds on itself, so you can’t quickly regain math skills if you don’t keep up with it.  Other things can be handled a bit more quickly, and with less stress.

Core subjects means one hour (not more) on English, social studies, science and math.  Add some foreign language or PE or fine arts or electives.  But focus on the core classes, and let the other things be more delight-directed, so that the child hardly even realizes they are doing school.  Fine arts could be knitting and crochet.  Foreign language may be successfully learned in 15-30 minutes per day.  PE can be what they do for fun; dancing or sports.

Electives are the things you don’t assign – the things they just want to do!  Maybe that’s animal husbandry or interior design – let them decide as much as possible.  What do they need?  Core classes, and the freedom to choose the supplemental classes that will encourage their love of learning.

I hope that helps!

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These are the things I made them do:

• American Literature & Composition (Sonlight 100)
• American History (Sonlight 100)
• Biology with Lab (Apologia)
• Algebra 1 (Jacob’s Algebra)
• Fine Arts 1: American Art (art books and Draw Today)
• Bible: Christian Manhood

These are the things they WANTED to do (by the way, I thought they were crazy to do two foreign languages, but I let them):

• Latin 3 (Latin Road to English Grammar)
• French 2 (Power Glide)
• Music: Piano
• PE 1

And these are the things I couldn’t stop my youngest son from doing.  (He asked for the American Government curriculum for Christmas, and we simply couldn’t keep him away from economics, no matter how much it annoyed us):

• American Government 1
• Economics 1

What are you and your family thinking about for next year?

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I usually recommend that people count hours for PE, and decide how many hours they want to be one full credit. That is usually 120, 150, or 180 hours, depending on what the books you have read recommend <grin!>

When counting hours, you can count ANYTHING THAT BREAKS A SWEAT. Many books say you can also count transportation to and from events (gymnastics, soccer.) Yard work, energetic drumming – no problem!

Some kids are very athletic, and have no trouble coming up with enough hours. Other kids aren’t so athletic, and for those kids going outside the box helps. Think about dance (most helpful with girls, generally). Think about social and extra-curricular activities: jogging to grandma’s, bike rides, yoga. You can also include health in your PE class. If they read about diet, exercise, nutrition, etc., you can put those hours into the PE column.

Dig Deeper into high school grades and credits at my website: How to Give High School Grades.