Traditionally schooled students get to walk into a classroom and take a course for which someone has already done the hard work of planning it—but which has the drawback of being “one size fits all.” For homeschoolers, designing courses takes some work and ingenuity. However, with the proper knowledge and perspective, students and parents can work together to come up with a course of study that will be equivalent to (or better than) an honors level course at a traditional school—and that fits the student’s needs and abilities.

Three main steps will start you on your journey: Research Your Requirements, Optimize Your Options, and Customize Your Courses.

Research Your Requirements
Before your student starts high school, you need to search out the typical requirements for high school graduation in your area (though you will not be “copying” these requirements, but just using them as a general guideline). In addition, you’ll want to know the requirements for admission to state universities and any universities in which your student may be interested. This information is readily available on websites of the universities or your local school districts.

More specifically, find out how many years or semesters are required for each academic subject area, as well as any specific instructions for content of these courses. It is not a bad idea to contact two or three local high schools (both public and private) and to obtain copies of their course descriptions and requirements for graduation. Note that private schools are not obliged to fulfill the identical course requirements for public schools and vice versa. Looking at both of these options will help you decide what is appropriate for your homeschool.

You may notice as you peruse college websites that honors and Advanced Placement courses are strongly recommended for students who wish to be competitive. Thus it is wise to plan or seek out such courses.

General areas of course requirements, with typical years required, are as follows. These are just guidelines—always be sure to confirm the exact requirements for your desired college. More selective universities will require additional years of some subjects.

English – 4 years
Courses should include reading and discussion of literature, essay writing, speech and/or debate, grammar, and vocabulary.

Mathematics – 3 years (at least to Algebra 2)
Math courses taken will vary depending on the student’s abilities and aims, but often include algebra 1 and 2, geometry, pre-calculus (combined with trigonometry), and perhaps calculus, especially for students bound for selective colleges.

Science – 2 or 3 years, with at least two being lab courses
Courses include biology, chemistry, and physics, though some colleges will accept other lab sciences in the lineup. It is important to have at least two years of lab science in which the student conducts experiments on a frequent basis and gains practice in analytical skills and writing lab reports.

History/Social Studies – 2 or 3 years
Typical requirements include world history or geography, U.S. history, government (civics) and economics. Some states require a course in the state’s history.

Foreign Language – 2 or more years
Many colleges require three or four years of the same foreign language, and the student’s decision regarding which language to study can be based on the language’s usefulness, the availability of curriculum, and the student’s motivation. You may want to choose a language in which the student can take the SAT Subject Test or AP Exam to validate his or her progress.

Fine Arts – 1 year
Courses might include music, visual art, or drama. It’s important to understand the university’s requirements of what does and does not count for fine arts.

Physical Education – Variable Requirements

Vocational Education or Life Skills – Variable Requirements
These might include computer or technology courses, or courses in business skills, first aid, or home ec.

Electives
If there is additional time in the schedule, you and your student may design courses of your own choosing and/or may include additional courses in any of the areas described above.

Optimize Your Options
After finding out what courses are needed and making a rough plan to cover these requirements in four years of high school, the next step is to determine where and how your student can take these courses. Looking at the list of courses, determine which ones you know you could handle at home, either with resources you know of now, or with additional advice and help from other homeschoolers or from teachers in traditional schools.

Options for “home-based” courses can include standard packaged curriculum, customized curriculum, unit studies, online courses, DVD courses, private tutors or private lessons, correspondence courses, online information as supplementary instruction material, or use of test prep books as a skeleton for a course.

If “home-based” is not possible for one or more courses, you may branch out into the homeschool community or the community at large. Ideas include co-ops, discussion groups or study groups, community center courses (art, music, fitness), adult education courses, and courses held at churches or community clubs and groups (Toastmasters, etc.).

Finally, if none of these sources will work, try traditional school-based alternatives such as having your student take one or two courses at a local private or public high schools, or a few courses at a community college.

You might also try “hybrid” alternatives such as tutorial services, retired or part time teachers, or assistance from a classroom teacher. Mix and match options to create just the right “recipe” for learning, using your common sense and choosing options based on your student’s comfort level, personality, and learning style.

Customize Your Courses
Finally, customize your student’s courses as desired for his or her own needs. This would include designing honors and AP courses or augmenting your courses into challenging, interesting, and individualized courses.  Homeschooling is ideal for customized or interdisciplinary courses where your student can study two or more subjects (i.e., history and literature) combined into one course. It is also perfect for pursuing interests in great depth. Take advantage of these opportunities to give your student a unique education, and be brave enough to experiment a bit with each new course that you design!

As you design courses, some precautions are in order. Note that a few university systems—thankfully, not many—have “pre-approval” requirements for admission into their systems. This means that homeschoolers (or even students from schools which have not submitted courses for preapproval) may have difficulty in convincing the university that their courses are equivalent to those the university has placed on its “approved” list.  Check with such universities ahead of time, ideally before your student even starts high school. Ask if you may submit course descriptions for approval. If not, find out under what other circumstances your student might be able to be admitted (test scores, other outstanding achievements, community college courses, approved online AP courses, etc.). In general, these hurdles would apply only to large institutions such as state universities. By and large, private colleges and universities understand the concept of homeschooling and are much more flexible in working with your individual course of study.

Additionally, find out how hours and credits are accounted for in your local area, whether this be one credit for a one-year course, or perhaps 10 credits for the same course. Strive to make your courses look equivalent on paper to the courses the colleges will be seeing from traditionally schooled students.

Finally, do some research into typical depth requirements of some of these courses, and how course descriptions are written up. You can easily find sample course descriptions online (search for high school course descriptions and syllabi in a particular subject).

Though course planning may seem daunting at first, it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. Break down the task course by course, brainstorm for outside resources, and above all, include a healthy dose of creativity as you customize your courses to your student’s needs and interests.

Senioritis. Though it may not be listed in your physician’s medical dictionary, it is a real malady that traditional students, parents, schoolteachers, and counselors recognize and even come to expect. In a classic case of senioritis, a student begins to lose focus, motivation, and “drive” for completing work with excellence as graduation approaches. In mild cases, students may simply feel a reduced motivation to finish their work—especially once college acceptances are in and the remainder of high school seems to consist of “going through the motions.” In extreme cases, however, students may actually receive D’s and F’s in their courses.

Colleges, too, recognize this syndrome—so much so that they warn accepted students to keep their grades up for the final semester of senior year. To underscore the seriousness of their intent, they reserve the right to rescind offers of acceptance if a student’s performance drops significantly.

As a parent of two homeschool graduates, and now as a teacher of several group classes for homeschoolers, I began to be curious about whether homeschoolers, with their nontraditional learning style, typically suffer from this traditional syndrome. I surveyed a number of homeschool graduates, most of whom are now in college, to discover what their experiences were. As I expected, what I found was a mix of comments. Although a few did experience senioritis, most either did not, or experienced only a mild, temporary case. All in all, fewer students than I expected described themselves as having had senioritis.

If you are a parent of a high school junior or senior, you might like to know how to diagnose, prevent, and treat this malady if it should strike your household. You may also take heart in the fact that many of the typical features of homeschooling help greatly in preventing and treating senioritis.

Causes

Senioritis results from a complicated mix of factors. By senior year, a college bound student has poured his or her energy into three solid years of challenging courses. In fact, most juniors “load up” on advanced courses and take SAT, ACT, and AP exams so that these will be displayed on their transcripts for college application purposes. With the tough course load and a slew of exams, it’s inevitable that some burnout will occur. In many students, burnout is already brewing at the beginning of the senior year.

However, students have to pour on yet more power to do well in their fall courses and to prepare college applications, write numerous essays, sit for last rounds of SAT exams, and gather recommendations. Time- and stress-wise, preparing college applications equates to adding another academic course to the lineup. Once the second semester of senior year hits, the student may well be fatigued and burnt out, but now a different kind of stress arrives as the student waits for college decisions to roll in. Combining these factors with the fact that seniors frequently take a lighter load second semester, one can understand why many drop their efforts significantly during this time.

In traditional high schools, seniors who have pushed themselves hard may also begin to feel that they have “outgrown” the high school environment—everything from the classes to the regimented schedule to the social scene. After contemplating a career and enduring the grueling grind of college applications, the daily mingling with a pack of giddy 14-through 16-year-olds no longer has much appeal. What they are now longing for is a personalized schedule, a glimpse of practical pursuits, and a clear track to their future interests. As you might imagine, homeschooling pre-empts this particular senioritis trigger.

Symptoms

Among the homeschooled students I heard from, common senioritis symptoms included fatigue, lower motivation for academic work, taking longer to complete assignments, and, occasionally, lower grades. Homeschool parents (and I was one of them) may note with dismay that one or two courses slated for the senior year do not actually see completion until the summer—after graduation has already taken place. This creates stress in submitting that final transcript to the college in a timely manner.

Certain students, while not experiencing academic symptoms, may show other manifestations of the transitions that are coming: anxiety over college acceptances or trepidation about going away to college. While most students are excited about college, some experience sadness or apprehension over the prospect of major changes in their lives. And these emotions may be expressed differently in different students. Homeschoolers, who have enjoyed close family relationships, may have more difficulty with this aspect of senior year than do typical students. Conversely, some homeschoolers may begin to “pull away” from their parents, or show independence. This can come as a surprise to parents who are not expecting any changes in interpersonal dynamics or who themselves are sad and wistful, wanting more time with their fast-growing students.

Senioritis can be contagious. If a student’s group of friends is experiencing low motivation, the peers and their use of their time can pull a “borderline” student a bit further into the senioritis malady. Social outings, festivities, and just “hanging out” with friends may increase now that the pressure is off from college applications. Even students who were not excessively social before senior year may now kick it into high gear and suddenly begin enjoying much more time with friends. This is can be a positive thing, since students should certainly be able to have some fun. The crammed social calendar  will begin to prepare parents for having students away at college—as parents often notice that they never see their students much anyway! (Thank goodness for homeschooling, which allows “together time” during the busy years of high school). Still, if the student is trying to do well in classes, the social time needs to be moderated to a reasonable level.

Prevention and Treatment

Unfortunately, there is no vaccine for senioritis, but a few principles will help stave off the worst of the cases, and your patient will make it. Here are a few tips:

Help the student develop a healthy perspective on the entire college prep process so that he or she is not stressing too much about it.

Plan some interesting courses for senior year – especially if they are highly practical, creative, or just plain fun.

Advise the student to pace himself or herself as much as possible on tough courses in the junior year, and encourage an early start to college applications—even during the summer. This goes a long way toward preventing heavy burnout during fall semester, which can lead to a rip-roaring case of senioritis in the spring.

Encourage your student to harness his or her energy rather than “giving in.” Some less important activities may need to be scaled back. An exciting, motivating extracurricular activity such as a speech and debate league can definitely help keep up the momentum.

Investigate opportunities for internships or a part-time job in an interesting field.

Include some community college classes in the lineup during the latter part of high school. Interestingly, advice for traditional students frequently mentions that real-world internships and community college classes can help tremendously with a senior’s bout with senioritis. The fact that homeschoolers are more likely to participate in such “bridge” activities in the first place may very well contribute to their lower incidence of senioritis.

One student’s remedy involved “lots of parties and friends” but she also commented that being in a school play provided a fun diversion and actually helped her to focus.

Another student noted that her stress and demotivation improved after college acceptances, when she “stopped frantically trying to get stuff done and therefore burning out and giving up, and started relaxing back into the routine of things.”

Keep up the communication between parent and student so you can each share your feelings about the approaching changes, and give each other grace and space as needed!

With awareness of this common syndrome, as well as a little common sense and proactive planning, you can help your senioritis-vulnerable homeschooled student avoid this malady and get on with real life!

Whether homeschooled or traditionally schooled, high school students have one thing in common: their dread of college entrance exams. Homeschooling parents, too, may be intimidated. To begin with, our students generally take fewer standardized tests than do traditional students. Additionally, whether fair or not, colleges may place more emphasis on homeschoolers’ test scores and less on their transcripts. Thus, students may believe that they need good test scores to “prove” themselves to colleges.

Just how important are these exams? Shouldn’t a student’s record of courses and accomplishments carry far more weight than a score on a morning’s exam? Unfortunately, standardized tests are firmly embedded in the admissions process, since colleges must have a way to compare all their applicants, regardless of the type of school attended. For these reasons, college-bound homeschoolers should plan to make the most of these tests.

The “Big Daddy” of college entrance exams is the SAT Reasoning Test, a 3 ?-hour exam usually taken by juniors and seniors. Each of its three sections (Critical Reading, Math, and Writing) is scored on a scale of 200 to 800.

The Critical Reading section includes sentence completion and passage-based reading comprehension exercises. The Mathematics test includes first and second year algebra, geometry, and functions, plus some statistics, probability, and data analysis. While most of the math test is multiple choice, one section requires actual numerical responses. The newest addition to the SAT, its Writing section, includes a 25-minute timed essay as well as multiple choice questions involving identifying sentence and paragraph errors. The essay prompt presents a general topic such as friendship, honesty, or materialism, and requires students to support their statements of opinion with examples from their reading or personal experiences.

Test Preparation Options

When preparing students for SAT exams, families have a wide range of choices—home-based to classroom-based, and inexpensive to expensive. Professional test coaches may charge hundreds of dollars for preparation courses or tutoring—which sometimes yield score increases of only twenty to thirty points. Unless you know for certain that your student needs interaction and accountability, the money spent on classes could be saved for more interesting pursuits.

Instead, start with as many free test preparation options as you can find. First, look on the College Board website for practice questions and tips. The student can take a free practice test online, try a “mini-SAT” for quick feedback, or even sign up for daily email delivery of SAT questions! Check out test preparation books from the library to preview them before buying. Review math textbooks, perhaps by reworking the last couple of exams in Algebra 2 and geometry.

After giving the free options a try, proceed to inexpensive options: buying some test prep books or using a computer-based option. For instance, at the College Board website, you can purchase an online preparation course.

If your student needs the discipline of working with an outside teacher, you might consider a commercial course. Although classes do not present anything “magical” that a motivated student cannot do at home with his own prep books, working with a live person can help identify weaknesses and boost confidence. Since these courses are expensive, shop carefully and read customer reviews first. Look for features that can customize the test preparation to your student’s specific needs.

In short, discern your student’s optimum learning style and consider the costs, the time involved, your student’s self-discipline, and his need for accountability as you decide on a test preparation method.

Test Preparation Strategies

As much as possible, try to weave SAT preparation into the high school curriculum from ninth grade on, starting very gradually. Here is one effective strategy:

Take Diagnostic Tests

Test preparation books generally begin with a diagnostic test to pinpoint weaknesses. After scoring the test, go through the results to discern which skills need the most work. Perhaps math is weak while reading skills are strong; moreover, geometry needs review, while algebra is respectable. Knowing what to focus on can help tremendously.

Review the Material

Most preparation books present a large section of review material. Your student can review the entire section, or only the most troublesome problems. Dig out your math, writing, and grammar textbooks for a little brushing up. Whatever you do, don’t ignore deficiencies that show up in the diagnostic test—take time for a focused review.

Take Practice Tests and Remediate Deficiencies

After addressing the most obvious deficiencies, your student should continue doing practice SAT exams steadily—one every few weeks, depending on how quickly the test date is approaching. These may be tackled section by section rather than taking the entire exam at one sitting. After scoring each test, go over the explanation of the correct answers to understand what types of questions were missed, and why. Don’t skip this step. Without this remediation, the same mistakes will occur on future tests. By diligently practicing the problems and understanding the errors, your student should see a gradual increase in the score.

Take More Practice Tests

With additional practice tests, the full picture should begin to emerge. Perhaps your student is gaining ground in all three sections. Perhaps one section shows great progress while another still needs  reinforcement. In general, scores should rise, but don’t be discouraged if you see some lower ones, too.

Tackle Vocabulary Words

Vocabulary study is a task to tackle during the whole high school career. Consider obtaining an SAT vocabulary guide during freshman year and systematically assigning a few words each week for the first three years of high school. One hundred weeks of consistent vocabulary study will do your student more good than “cramming” for five or six weeks before the exam.

Practice Essay Writing Skills

For the SAT Writing section, the best preparation is a strong writing program focusing on expression of organized thoughts and well-supported positions. Your consistent work with your student on organizing paragraphs, writing clear sentences, using proper grammar, and recognizing errors in sentences and paragraphs will be useful. In addition, a good background in literature, history, and current events will provide material to support the student’s positions in the essay. Again, these skills cannot be taught in a few weeks but must spring from a steady program of high school level writing.

Consider Other Helpful Preparation Techniques

Several other excellent academic activities prepare students well for the SAT exam. Latin study helps students learn English vocabulary. Debate emphasizes reasoning and critical thinking. Reading of classic literature provides experience with advanced vocabulary. Mathematical reasoning problems and word problems prepare the student well for the math section. In general, a challenging academic program is the best preparation for the SAT exam.

When to Take the SAT Reasoning Test

When should that all-important first SAT take place? If your student has already taken geometry and two years of algebra, sees test taking as an invigorating challenge, is proficient in all three exam categories, and has worked a few practice tests at home with good results, he or she might try the test in ninth or tenth grade. Your student may very well come out with an excellent score and, with the pressure off, can use the remainder of high school to try to raise this score if desired.

If, however, your student has not covered enough subject matter or would be discouraged by a less-than-successful early experience, feel free to wait as long as possible before testing—but keep practicing! While it is preferable to have the first scores by the end of the junior year, some students wait until fall of the senior year. Always check college application deadlines before deciding.

Although the SAT exam can be taken repeatedly, all scores will show up on the official score report. When multiple scores are available, most colleges select the highest score achieved in each subject category. The College Board also allows students to choose which testing date(s) to display to colleges.

Some students can raise their scores quite admirably by focused study between tests. Others find that their scores rise only insignificantly or even drop a bit on subsequent testing. A student should not take the exam more than about three times, especially if the test dates are close together. The scores will not improve much, and the student may become burned out. If your student takes practice tests at home and studies diligently in between, you will have a reasonable idea of whether the scores will rise.

Although the “alphabet soup” of entrance exams might seem shrouded in stress-producing mystery, a little early investigation can help you understand what your student will be up against. Then, rather than being intimidated, you will be armed with information that translates into a strong test preparation strategy!

College Board, SAT, and SAT Reasoning Test are trademarks owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this article.

Reprinted from the California Parent Educator Magazine, a publication of CHEA of California, Winter 2010.

www.cheaofca.org