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Tina Robertson

Homeschooling High School: Curriculum, Credits, and Courses

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

By the time you reach the high school years, you have some general ideas of how to plan them. Check out my how to homeschool high school page for awesome tips.

Today, in sharing homeschooling high school, I’m giving you a few detailed pointers for curriculum, credits, and courses to steer you in the right direction.

Homeschooling High School: Curriculum, Credits, and Courses

First, look at 3 things I wished I would’ve known before I started.

ONE/ In the beginning, it’s not necessary to plan all four years.

It’s just not necessary because a lot will change. Your teen will mature and may change the direction of his education or career as he approaches adulthood. Give him some wiggle room.

Have a plan so you can give your teen goals, but analyze each year. Having a framework of courses is much better.

HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM AND COURSES

I appreciated reading How to Homeschool 9th and 10th Grades: Simple Steps for Starting Strong to help me stay focused on the start of high school.

Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School was a book I read early on.

After reading it, I designed a framework and understood that the three Rs are the foundation of any well-laid out high school course.

Look where I share the nitty gritty of that here in my post Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 1 and Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 2.

Two/ Also, I wished I would have used middle school to help my first high school teen explore more subjects he wanted to.

With my second high school son, I was prepared to let him explore more elective type courses in middle school and getting some of the basic math out of the way.

Middle school gives a budding teen time to explore subjects he is interested in. Take advantage of this time to have some fun.

THREE/ Additionally, I didn’t learn until later was to explore more career options and not just focus on academics. After all, your kid is not attending college for life. It’s preparation for life and a career. (well hopefully).

Careers matter and high school is the time to explore careers.

Reading Career Exploration: for homeschool high school students and What Color Is Your Parachute? for Teens, Third Edition: Discover Yourself, Design Your Future, and Plan for Your Dream Job are two books that are real helpful for your teen.

EXPLORING HIGH SCHOOL COURSES

Something else I didn’t appreciate with my first high school teen is the power to be flexible with courses and course descriptions.

I couldn’t think past simply putting English, Math or Science on my first transcript.

Looking back, I know when preparing transcripts that you want to follow some traditional guidelines and keep general course names on the transcript. So those general descriptions were correct.

However, I need to describe the courses specifically.

Just to illustrate, I put Performing Arts on my first two boys’ transcript.

My older two boys took ballroom dancing, but Performing Arts is the general description to put on the transcript.

I had to come up with a description of ballroom dancing and I started by looking first at the website where my boys took lessons to give me an idea of how to word what they learned.

I put this:

This beginner course is an introduction to the fundamentals of basic dance. In each dance class, students will be expected to participate in warm-ups and learn the techniques of the Waltz and other traditional dances like the Mambo, Salsa and Swing. Along with learning choreography and dance history, this course culminates in a Spring concert performance.

It wasn’t bad for my first description, but like anything that is a first, it wasn’t exactly comprehensive or correct in a sense.

Since then, I learned that I needed to add my grading scale, what books we used, and how I was going to assign credit.

It’s harder to go back and add these things later, but not impossible.

The bottom line is to keep the course name on the transcript general and make your course descriptive detailed on a separate page to produce it if needed.

EASILY WRITING COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Arranging wording to describe your teen course takes practice, but look at these places to help you.

  • An obvious place to is the website where you purchased the curriculum and I find the descriptions super helpful in my course descriptions.
  • In addition, also look at high school course names and descriptions on public school websites. I look for course descriptions similar to the courses that my sons will be doing. This usually gives me some wording
  • Another place I’ve found descriptions in a nutshell is on Amazon. Amazon is great for giving book descriptions and with a few tweaks of adding how I assign credits and grades, a book description can easily turn course description.
  • Too, when I didn’t feel like I got a good overview of a course because some descriptions lacked, I would glance at the table of contents to help me word the description of the course.

HIGH SCHOOL CREDIT CONUNDRUM

It can be overwhelming for even the most organized teen and parent when understanding credits, but I like to keep things simple.

It’s been my experience that some families assign a 30 minute class the equal of a 45 minute class because of the intensity of homeschooling and give the student one credit for a rigorous course like literature or math.

You decide how to gauge your credits and the work ethic of your student.

In addition, you decide to give credit if a curriculum is 70% or 80% complete. Some homeschoolers give credit if it’s 80% complete, others less.

Look at my detailed post here for Homeschool High School–How to Log Hours for High School. It gives a detailed explanation for credits.

Also, I have free forms and show you how to expand the use of a transcript here at my detailed post Homeschool High School Transcripts – Anything But Typical.

Homeschooling High School: Curriculum, Credits, and Courses

You and I know that there is no one right to plan high school. But breaking high school down into manageable chunks keeps the process from being overwhelming.

Begin with a framework of the three Rs in high school, fold in accurate course descriptions as you can, be flexible, keep reading about how to grade and assign credit.

Before you know it, you’ll be a pro for your child – which is what really matters.

You will also love my other tips I have for homeschooling high school below:

Homeschooling High School Curriculum, Credits, and Courses @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus. In sharing homeschooling high school, I'm giving you a few detailed pointers for curriculum, credits, and courses to steer you in the right direction. Click here to grab these super detailed helpful pointers!
Homeschooling High School Curriculum, Credits, and Courses @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Hugs and love ya. You got this!

20 Ancient Civilization History Coloring Pages

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have 20 ancient civilization history coloring pages that match up to my units here on my blog. Also, look at my page Ancient Civilizations for more ideas. The coloring pages were free for a limited time, but I think you’ll still want them.

Sometimes the boys want to create their own covers for the lapbooks or notebooks from coloring pages.

I know with younger children, it can be hard to find history coloring pages based on everyday life.

20 Ancient Civilization History Coloring Pages

But these coloring pages work well with middle and high school too if your kid still loves to color. I made sure they have no baby-ish looking clip art.

I have always tried to use museum quality coloring pages when the coloring mood did strike with my boys.

Ancient Civilization History Activities

First, look at these ancient history posts.

We have used various museum quality history coloring books through the years that have made a big difference in how my boys understood history in the early years.

20 Ancient Civilization History Coloring Pages at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus. You'll love adding these to your unit studies or notebooking.

I think clip art should be as real as possible and based on real events in history. They are not always easy to find. I wish I could draw my own history clip art, but you don’t want me to draw for you. Just saying.

Anyway, I collect the clip art as I find it.

Here is what the 20 page download contains. I put a few key words to explain each picture on the page. This way you can use the coloring pages as title pages too.

Learning History Through Coloring

Page 3: Ancient Egypt Court,
Page 4: Ancient Egypt Spinning,
Page 5: Ancient Egypt Life of the Royals,
Page 6: Ancient Egypt Battles,
Page 7: Ancient Egypt The Nile,
Page 8: Life Along the River – The Nile,
Page 9: Metal Workers & Crafts of Ancient Egypt,
Page 10: Egyptian Hieroglyphics,
Page 11: Egyptian Queen Cleopatra,
Page 12: Aztecs Floating Gardens,
Page 13: Aztecs,
Page 14: Aztec Life,
Page 15: Mayans,
Page 16: Ancient Greece Wedding,
Page 17: Ancient Greek Galley,
Page 18: Ancient Greece Crafts,
Page 19: Ancient Greece Bank,
Page 20: Athens,
Page 21: Spartan Warrior and
Page 22: The Vikings.

Grab your fun copy below!

20 Free Ancient Civilization History Coloring Pages @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Also, instead of me adding titles on pages or naming the pages, this allows you to use the clip art/coloring pages any way you want to.

Whether it is a cover page, notebooking page, journal page or just to enrich a topic, you have the flexibility.

20 Ancient Civilization Coloring Pages. Grab these AWESOME pages at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Also, you’ll want to download

Hugs and you know I love ya,

Homeschooling Stubborn Teens: Not for the Faint of Heart

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

While homeschooling through the years we confront with dogged determination many scenarios which makes us weak at the knees or makes our heart skip a beat. But, nothing comes even close to the enemy in our own midst – our sweet child turned stubborn, unmotivated, and seemingly lazy teen. Homeschooling stubborn teens is not for the faint of heart.

I’ve learned that although it’s easier to blame my teens for everything that went wrong, I too had to learn how to parent differently. As each of my sons reached the teen years, I’ve had to become more resourceful and creative in how I homeschool them.

I've learned that although it's easier to blame my teens for everything that went wrong, I too had to learn how to parent differently. As each of my sons reached the teen years, I've had to become more resourceful and creative in how I homeschool them. Click here to grab these SUPER helpful tips!

Avoiding drama in your house is not all together impossible, but you can curb it and cope with it by learning from my mistakes.

3 PARENTING TECHNIQUES FOR HOMESCHOOLING STUBBORN TEENS

Whether your teen has been homeschooled from the beginning, came willing to homeschool after many years in public school or had no choice, he wants choices now.

One/ Focus on the teen, not the school.

However, before you can get to choices, the number one mistake made by many homeschooling families is to focus on homeschool. Yep, wrong focus right now.

The teacher in us is ready to go, but the mom in us should lead right now. Problems, whether academic or developmental, signal something is wrong.

Although a teen can now vocalize that he hates math or writing and is seen as unmotivated, that’s only the result of what is going on inside.

Before assuming it’s a lack of motivation, step back, and deschool. You can’t move forward until you and your teen are both ready.

Coming into adulthood takes a toll daily on your teen and he needs you now more than ever.

Two/ Deschool now before it’s too late.

Look at ways you can step back, deschool, and focus. Move forward by stepping back instead of butting heads:

  • If he hates math, ask him which subjects he does like. Use that knowledge to plan a routine. For example, get the worst subjects out of the way at his peak time and in a place he chooses. Explain to him that he can make those choices, however, if he is not doing his math because he decided to lie down on his bed, then it’ll have to change. I had one son that just because he could sit on his bed, he was in the right mindset to do math which was a subject he hated. He did well and eventually later in high school, he moved to the table. Give him some choice. BUT, first take time to not do school while you question him (few questions in the beginning) about subjects he likes and doesn’t like. Help him to make a routine for the day he loves while satisfying your requirements.
  • Next, do something he wants to do. For us, it was skateboarding, bicycling and watching movies. I told my teens to not do school for a few days while they played. My teens praised me as the best homeschooling mom ever (ha, but I had a motive). Like all smart moms who want their sons to do well in academics, I knew that they had to see first that I was reasonable. After they played for a few days and I could see it winding down, I discussed with each one how to work in what they liked doing while balancing their academic load. It worked. They knew I was reasonable, but had expectations. Including them in the discussion gave them the control they wanted.
  • Focus on when the rebellion occurs. For example, I knew our problem was an over scheduling problem with one of my teens. The rest of the day he was pretty compliant barring a few bad moods. Over all, the sulking and back talking happened only during school. Stepping back and allowing my teen to rest gave me time to understand how many credits I wanted for middle or high school teen. I reworked his schedule. However, if your teen is complaining pretty much the whole day, then it’s a parenting or rebellious issue and homeschooling is getting a bum rap.

Three/ Over ambitious homeschooling can backfire.

It’s easy to say when your child is five or six years old what he will and will not do as a teen, but it’s quite a different thing scheduling for him at 15 or 16 years old.

While it may be true that a teen doesn’t have to love learning because work places or colleges don’t care if he does, it never worked when I told them that.

I’ve never made progress with my sons when I vented and I normally had nothing helpful to say when I lost it.

Pushing my sons to do college courses early while in high school, having them take jobs too early, and do heavier maths because they were hardworking could’ve backfired.

Stepping back to reaffirm that heart schooling was just as important as academics helped me to solidify the fact that homeschooling is a lifestyle. I want my sons to homeschool their sons because I believe it’s the best way to teach a child.

HOMESCHOOLING TEENS WITH THE FUTURE IN MIND

Homeschooling with a future generation in mind helped me realize that I wholeheartedly believe learning is a privilege.

Curbing my desire to sock it to my boys with their academic load while being teens helped us to not only lap up the precious teen years, but love every minute of it.

Sometimes the solution to a problem was to just stop. And remembering each teen is different helped me to see problems from each kid’s perspective. Can you relate?

What kind of problems are you trying to overcome with your teen?

When your teens are grown and look back at how you didn’t give up on them, all of the hard times will be memories. You’ll only see the beautiful man or woman thanking you. Your knees will then be weak for another reason – overwhelming happy emotion.

I've learned that although it's easier to blame my teens for everything that went wrong, I too had to learn how to parent differently. As each of my sons reached the teen years, I've had to become more resourceful and creative in how I homeschool them. Click here to grab these SUPER helpful tips!

Also, you’ll find these other articles super helpful. Don’t give up now. You’re almost there.

Hugs and love ya,

3 Risks of Not Tracking Your Homeschool Lessons (Even If They’re Laid-Out)

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I’m sharing 3 risks of not tracking homeschool lessons.Too, I have hundreds more free homeschool planner forms on my page Homeschool Planner.

I get asked all the time that if you’re using laid-out lesson plans is it necessary to lesson track.

My answer is always the same — YES. 

Tracking homeschool lessons is different than lesson planning although they are linked.

3 Risks of Not Tracking Homeschool Lessons {Even Using Laid-Out Lesson Plans}. Having tracked lesson plans from the beginning prepared me for record keeping in the higher grades, but there are other reasons. Check out these SUPER helpful lesson tracking tips! #homeschooling

Look at these 3 risks of not tracking your homeschool lessons even if you’re using laid-out lesson plans.

DON’T CONFUSE LESSON TRACKING WITH LESSON PLANNING

One/ Kids can advance to a higher level mid-year. You want to be ready.

I had one son who struggled with spelling consistently each year until middle school.

He jumped a whole year in our spelling curriculum and I was ready to pull the trigger because I was tracking his progress.

I was writing down the words he was struggling with, writing down the errors he was making in his usage, and having him review his errors.

Checking off boxes is not tracking progress, it just shows completion.

3 Risks of Not Tracking Homeschool Lessons Even if You Use Laid Out Lesson Plans. Scoot by and check out the AWESOME tips!

If you don’t track progress, it’s easy to fall in a public school mindset.

For example, instead of homeschooling for mastery or being ready to move to another level in a subject, you may think that completing a laid-out curriculum is key to mastery.

Don’t fall for the mindset that completing a laid-out curriculum equates with your child mastering concepts. It does not.

Tracking and writing out progress lets you see a true picture of what is going on each day. Completing laid-out lesson plans means just that. It doesn’t always mean success.

I’ve always referred to my well-written notes although I didn’t start off that way.

Two/ NOTHING can replace your well-guided tweaks to a lesson plan.

The second thing I’ve learned is to not forget one of the most fundamental reasons that brought me to homeschooling which is to adjust the curriculum to meet each of my kids’ needs.

When I track lesson plans, I can adjust them immediately to fit my sons’ needs for the current moment.

For example, early on I could tell that one of my sons was advancing quite rapidly in math. Instead of having him do all the math lessons, I would pick and choose the problems.

Other days I had him do only the odds or evens.

Tweaking lessons plans and tracking his progress while using a laid-out math curriculum, I knew he could maintain practice in whatever skill he was learning. But he could also move ahead.

If I hadn’t tracked his work in a lesson planner, it would’ve been very frustrating for him.

Early homeschool planners while I've been lesson planning and tracking for years.

Doing work that has been previously mastered is a turn off for kids who are advanced or gifted and can cause them burn out.

Then, as homeschool parents we wonder why our kids hate a subject that was previously loved.

Tracking progress on a lesson planning page you’re tweaking is key to looking back and planning forward.

Also, having a place to track your tweaks made to laid-out lesson plans reminds you of the progress your child is making or problems he is having.

Three/ Lesson planning and lesson tracking are inextricably linked when you need to view progress and when preparing for older grades.

Another reason lesson tracking is critical is because it prepares you for teaching the older grades.

It’s the difference between sailing effortlessly into teaching high school and drowning in feelings of being overwhelmed.

Lesson planning early on equals awesome record keeping in the older grades. See how over at seasoned veteran Tina Robertson's blog.

Doing both lesson planning and lesson tracking, the high school years were a cinch from a record keeping standpoint.

More important to me was that I had a good pulse on the skill level of my rising high school teen because I had journaled and tracked his progress along the way even while using boxed curriculum.

A teacher’s manual is a guide. Your lesson tracking is your child’s unique visual map of his strengths and weaknesses.

Through the years, it’s been easy to look back and read my notes on each child’s progress. Immediately I could adjust either my lesson plans I created or tweaked laid-out lesson plans.

PURPOSEFUL HOMESCHOOL LESSON TRACKING

I’ve come a long way since creating my own planners way back and I know you’ll really love my detailed and beautiful pages to use for either tracking or lesson planning.

Beautiful, colorful and detailed Glam It Up Homeschool Planner over at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

(This is the Glammed Up Option – don’t you love it?)

You’ll gain some other valuable seasoned tips from these posts:

Hugs and love ya,

8 World War II Historical Fiction Books for Middle School

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I include World War II historical fiction books to teach middle school or stick only with nonfiction. I end up mixing both types of genre. Also, look at my unit study World War II Hands-On History – Make Ration Cakes for more ideas.

On one hand I don’t want to gloss over the ugly side of war at the middle school age, but on the other hand there is still so much time left in a child’s life to get the real facts.

8 World War II historical fiction books for middle school. If you're looking to bring history alive, your homeschooled middle school kids will love these books. Click here to see this AWESOME list!

With Mr. Senior 2013, I tended to swing to brutal and real when choosing books and only used nonfiction references.

But now, I realize that even at middle and high school level, a young adult is entitled to enjoy reading about history without having to read about all the cruel facts.

Besides, there is so much time as they are older to wrestle with all the issues.

Mixing both types of literature keeps learning about war topics balanced. Fiction can bring the time period alive while nonfiction reminds kids that this part of history is real.

More World War II Unit Study Hands-on Activities

WORLD WAR II HISTORICAL FICTION

Look at these 8 World War II historical fiction books I rounded up for middle school. I think you’ll love them.

Alex, Who Won His War (Walker’s American History Series for Young People)  This paints a vivid picture of the events of World War II as Alex tries to solve a crime. A bit of a stretch in the plot, but the details for the historical time period are there for an enjoyable read.

Night Crossing This book is about a girl living in Austria having to leave her home when the Nazis come and brings to life the feelings of those that had to leave their home with just what they could carry.

8 World War II Historical Fiction Books for Middle School

The Shadow Children A summer visit to his grandfather’s farm turns into an adventures staged during World War II. The charcoal drawings are beautiful which makes this book good for an art study.

The Spy Who Came From the Sea. A teen tells the kids at school that he stumbles upon a spy, but nobody believes him.

Journey to America. A family fleeing Nazi Germany is reunited after being separated and enduring different trials along the way with some adventure.

Behind the Bedroom Wall. This one we haven’t read it, but sounds so fascinating because it’s from a different perspective. A local teen girl is part of the Nazi party thinking it’s going to be good for her community but her parents are part of the underground movement to protect Jews. Sounds great and we can’t wait to read it.

Stepping on the Cracks. Margaret’s brother is overseas fighting, but learns about a deserter in her midst. It’s a good book to teach about pacifism because teaching complex war issues can be hard.

Under a War-Torn Sky. When a nineteen year old pilot’s plane is shot down, he finds himself behind enemy lines.

I hope you find one or two to use as a history spine or just as a way to bring this time period alive.

I think you’ll also love this free unit study and World War II history unit study.

8 World War II Historical Fiction Books for Middle School
8 World War II Historical Fiction Books for Middle School
8 World War II Historical Fiction Books for Middle School
8 World War II Historical Fiction Books for Middle School
8 World War II Historical Fiction Books for Middle School
8 World War II Historical Fiction Books for Middle School
World War II lapbook and homeschool history unit study.