Record Keeping In High School ~ 2020 Not Back To School Blog Hop

I have always been a tracker rather than a planner in our home education life. It has worked better for us to just plod along with the next lesson and note that we did it each day than to try to plan ahead for specific pages on specific days for the entire year. I like my paper planner. I like writing in pretty colors. This has worked for us. But, what about high school?

We all know high school need a different degree of record keeping so what have we done? And is it working?

I’ll answer the “Is it working?” question first. Yes, it is. Our oldest is starting dual credit classes this fall and my record keeping was sufficient to get her accepted to the program.

So, what have we done?

First, a few weeks before 9th grade started, I looked up our state requirements for public high schoolers. This gave me an idea to supplement what I already knew – 4 years each of math, science, history, and language arts/literature. It let me know about how many “extras” she might need – PE, languages, arts, and other electives. We were well on track with planning for all of this.

I wrote it out for her and then we sat down together to discuss that plan and add in some more specific ideas. Some of the specifics were: what language did she want in addition to sign language? what art – music (instrument or voice) or visual art? What other topics sounded interesting that she wanted to get in?

We then came up with a penciled in 4 year plan. At that point, she was not considering taking dual credit. So that should tell you already that our plans have definitely changed. Not a ton but we have adjusted some things to fit in the time that dual credit requires and to adjust for her doing what would normally take fall/spring home school time in just the fall.

11th grade curriculum 2020

9th grade curriculum 2020

For each year, I have started making sure I write down which curriculum is being used for each class. If it is an outside instructor, such as for voice lessons, I note that and who it was/is. For our dance classes, I note weekly hours and styles of dance. This is all kept in my planner. Some of you already do this kind of thing but I didn’t used to. I used to note things in my daily plans as we went along and started a new program or finished one. Now, I keep a running tally for my high schoolers so that it is all in one place and easy to find when I need it.

We have a discussion at the start of each year to check in on “the plan” and see how we are faring, what we need to do, if we need to change tack, etc. This year, my oldest decided she wanted to add Spanish to her lessons because of a program she has really been enjoying. So, we worked at it a figured out how to work it in. If we stuck to the original plan from 2 years ago, this would not have happened. But what a joy to be able to accommodate that desire!

Most of all, I encourage you to enjoy these years of growing independence and narrowing of interests. It can be eye opening but it is tons of fun. We are enjoying it tremendously with our teens. Please let me know if you have any specific questions regarding planning for high school.

The Homeschool Review Crew members are writing about different aspects of record keeping and planning today. Visit the Crew blog to find the link up.

Yesterday, several members wrote about how they teach different subjects or how they approach teaching in their home school. A few of these are below.

• Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses shares Help How do I teach High School at Home?.
• Yvie @ Homeschool on the Range shares Teaching Teens – Note-taking Skills .
• Annette @ A Net in Time shares Four Approaches to SchoolhouseTeachers.
• Vickie B @ Tumbleweed News shares How I taught 20+ kids at home {Blog Hop}.
• Teresa @ Teresa Brouillette shares How to Teach Homeschool.
• Dawn P @ Schoolin’ Swag shares How to Teach… What I Don’t Know.
• Laurie @ School Days shares How Do I Teach…?.

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

 

Tagged: 2020 Not Back To School Blog Hop, planning