If you have a rising high schooler, you may be feeling that you’re not ready or equipped to homeschool for high school. You may be looking at the local high school with a new set of eyes and wondering if you should enroll your child. That’s the way that I felt when my oldest son was about to begin his high school years. After talking with several friends who had already gotten a child or two through high school, I realized that I could homeschool through high school and that there were many choices in how to accomplish that.

In this post, we’ll cover four options for homeschooling all the way through to graduation.

Traditional Schooling

Many people find purchasing a traditional style full high school curriculum a comforting, thorough way to cover high school subjects. These types of curriculum are written at a high school level, cover all high school topics and electives, plus offer teacher guides to assist you as you teach your child. Some of these curricula, such as A Beka, Bob Jones, and others even have a video school option that does all the teaching as well. Some students thrive with this type of curriculum. Some of these programs are also accredited and your child can graduate at an in-person graduation with the other students enrolled in the program. If you want to homeschool through high school but feel in over your head or you don’t have a lot of time to devote to creating your own high school curriculum, a traditional curriculum may be the perfect fit for you and your child.

Homeschool Co-ops

When my middle daughter was about to start ninth grade, she wanted to go to public school, which was not an option for our family. What she really wanted was to learn with other high school kids, so I did a little research and found a homeschool co-op. This was a great, affordable option for our family. Each parent in the co-op was responsible for teaching one class, assisting in one class, and had one class period off. My daughter was able to take a combination of elective and academic courses as well as be on the yearbook committee. The co-op allowed my daughter to experience a taste of regular high school as a homeschooler and it helped me to cover subjects that I wasn’t confident or equipped to teach on my own. If there isn’t a co-op in your area, you may want to start one of your own. Joining together with other families offers support and encouragement to students and parents alike.

Enrichment Academies

Perhaps you don’t have time to invest in a homeschool co-op, but still need help to cover those tough high school subjects like calculus, chemistry, and the like. An enrichment academy will be a great resource for such a situation. Enrichment academies come in many shapes and sizes. Some offer a full day experience once a week, while some have classes available daily in various locations. The price will be more than a co-op (where you usually just pay to cover materials), but it will be less expensive than private school. Enrichment academies usually employ certified teachers and provide report cards and transcripts.

Dual Enrollment

This option allows high school students to cover high school subjects and earn college credits at the same time. My youngest daughter went this route in high school. She was able to cover three years of Latin in three semesters of college which is both efficient and cost effective since the only cost for many dual enrollment programs is just for textbooks. My daughter took eight college classes over her junior and senior years of high school and graduated with 28.50 high school credits and 24 college credits. In addition to earning high school and college credits, she gained valuable skills in time management, interacting with a variety of instructors, and interacting with fellow students, some of whom were adults closer to my age than hers. Dual enrollment was a huge help to me as a home educator and for my student.

The Takeaway

There are almost as many options for homeschooling through high school as there are families. This is good news for those of us who feel intimidated or worried about giving our children a good education.

Take some time to research options, discuss them with your student, and then go for it. You can successfully homeschool through high school!