Graduation requirements

[Free Indeed]

Just wondering what requirements you have for graduation from your homeschool. I know what state requirements for our state public schools, but they don't apply to homeschool. I see what colleges require, but most of that is obsolete when you do community college first. So share what are your requirements?

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Meaning what do I make my kids do?

 

4 years each of math, science, history/government/Econ, and English (lit and writing, not grammar and vocab study)

2 years min of foreign language. (My older kids have each done 3 years of Latin and a year of German. )

 

Both older kids have also done something in their interest area. One does computer programming and the other does history and foreign policy.

 

I aim for six classes per year.

[Lori D.]

We wanted to keep as many options open as possible, so we still made graduation requirements such that we did not shut any doors to potential future choices of DSs -- esp. since students change SO much during high. We blended local high graduation requirements (in case DSs unexpectedly ended up attending public / private / charter high school at some point), with typical college admission requirements (so DSs could go straight to a 4-year university, if that best fit their goals by 12th grade -- or if the student is eligible for scholarships! :) ).

 

This list would be relatively painless to complete, leave you plenty of room for Electives to pursue special interests or "parent requirements", and would fulfill high school graduation requirements and college admission requirements, in case your student unexpectedly ends up heading in those directions:

 

4 credits = English
4 credits = Math (Alg. 1, Geom., Alg. 2, a higher math requiring Alg. 2 as pre-requisite)
3 credits = Science (with labs)
2-4 credits = Social Studies

2-4 credits = Foreign Language
1 credit = Fine Arts

4-8 = Electives (student interest subjects, Computer, Health, PE, Driver's Ed., Vocational-Tech, Academic Electives (more credits in English, Math, Science, Social Studies), or more Fine Arts credits)

total = 24-28+ credits  (student completes 6-7 credits per year of high school)

 

Six to seven credits a year is not really that tough to complete; often 1-2 credits come up from 8th grade (Algebra, Biology, or 1-2 years of foreign language). And some credits are accumulated over several years (esp. personal interest credits), or are completed as summer school.

 

Our list of required credits was similar to the above; we also included credits of subjects that were of high interest to DSs -- for example, one DS has a high interest in video and film production, so he had additional credits in that area, beyond the 1 required Fine Arts credit.

 

In addition, to those specific credit requirements, we included covering a checklist of life skills that would be of everyday use to them as adults. The first five were formal full or partial credits; the rest were incorporated into every day life and were not counted towards a credit:

 

- Bible study/devotions and Church history (development of personal faith)

- Logic

- Worldview

- PE (sports team participation / physical fitness / healthy lifestyle including physical activity)

- Consumer Math

- personal finance

- health topics (handling emergencies, nutrition, mental health, s*xuality, etc.)

- basic computer skills (touch typing, word processing program, spreadsheet, power point presentation, etc.)

- public speaking

- basic camping skills

- gun safety

- basic auto maintenance

- basic cooking, shopping, laundry skills

- career exploration and job hunting skills (resume, interviewing, etc.)

 

 

Hope that is of help. BEST of luck as you begin planning for high school. Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Luckymama]

I love Lori D. I wish I could buy her favorite treat as a thank you :)

 

Dd will not be spending 2 years at a community college college before heading to university. OP, you may wish to ignore what I say from now on :)

 

Dd is aiming for selective universitites or for merit scholarships.

 

She knows she needs

 

• 4 years of English (her least favorite subject)

• 4 years of math, durimg grades 9-12 (she is doing precalc in 9th)

• 4 years of science

• 4 years of history and/or social sciences

• 4 years of foreign language (area of interest)

 

And then any electives as she wishes. (She dances classical ballet. If needed, I could write a course of ballet history, one credit slread over 4 years, to satisfy a college's fine arts requirement of their applicants.)

[regentrude]

My requirements are:

4 years each of math, science, English, history, foreign language.

Plus electives of the student's choice.

This way, no doors are closed.

[The Girls' Mom]

My requirements have been based on what most universities are looking for.  That is above and beyond what our state requires.  So, my planning went:

 

1.  What am I legally required to do?

2.  What does the average university look for in freshman applicants?

3.  What are my personal goals for each child?

 

I also tweak the plan as the child begins to develop interests in a particular field.  

 

For instance, one of my younger two wants to be a forensic scientist.  She has taken a rather rigorous forensic science class for one of her required sciences.  She also needs math beyond what I typically require to avoid having to take extra once she gets into her major at college.  

 

My oldest LOVES to learn languages.  So she has taken Latin and Chinese in high school, along with self-teaching a bit of about 5-6 other languages.  She's majoring in German.

 

My youngest has taken things like culinary classes, photography, chess, and will be DE video production technology.  She's still trying to find what she likes the most.  

[Free Indeed]

Thank you for all the replies. This is exactly what I was asking for. I was wondering how many stick to college entrance requirements and how many pave their own way. With my son we stuck closely to college requirements but found since he had dual credit and was continuing at community college (for financial reasons) that his highschool transcript didn't matter much.

[elegantlion]

Ds was not aiming for selective universities, but we stuck with 4 years of history, math, science, and English. He also ended up with 4 credits of foreign language (3 of Japanese, .5 each of Latin and Russian). I also required a year of fine art, half credit personal finance (state requirement for public and I thought a good idea), and 1 year of technology (also his interest). 

 

Ds will be starting at a regional state university. 

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

My requirements are based on typical expectations of college applicants.  The only state we've needed to worry about had no real demands.

 

4 years each: Math, Science, English, History, Foreign Language

 

They have taken 6-8 credits each year.

 

*My history requirement is really social studies a social studies requirement but they have planned a history course every year and other social studies topics for electives.  Also-I urge them to keep up some sort of physical activity-they both head to the gym frequently, one is on swim teams, the other runs competitively and studies martial arts.  I haven't given anyone a phys ed credit though and don't feel the need.

 

 

[Jenny in Florida]

We made sure that our graduation requirements exceeded those of the local schools and allowed a little wiggle room for our kids to personalize their high school programs.

 

4 credits English

4 credits math (including geometry and at least two more courses with algebra I as a prerequisite) 

4 credits science (including at least two with lab components)

3 credits social science

2 credits of the same foreign language

1 credit fine and performing arts

6 credits electives                                 

24 credits total

 

Each of mine finished high school in three years, even though neither planned ahead to do so intentionally. My daughter was just interested in so many things that she ended up with more than the usual number of credits each year. As a result, the year she decided she was done being home and definitely wanted to apply to the early entrance college program, she had pretty much fulfilled all of our requirements, anyway.

 

My son carried up a couple of credits for high school courses he completed (through an outside provider) during his middle school years, then did a year of dual enrollment at the community college, which got him close to completing our requirements without really thinking much about it. (We were just focused on keeping him busy and challenged.) So, at the moment during what we assumed was his junior year when he looked at a picture of a gorgeous campus on a college brochure and asked me, "Is there any actual reason I couldn't go ahead and apply now?" he as able to finish off the last couple of requirements by studying for and taking CLEPs.

 

In order to motivate him to keep his standards high, we also set guidelines for what our son would need to accomplish in order to graduate "with honors." I researched what our local public and private schools require for various levels of recognition and based our rules on that. We told him he could earn honors by:

• completing a total of eight credit hours (an average of two per year in a typical four-year program) of honors, college-level or advanced placement courses.
• maintaining an unweighted GPA of at least 3.5 every semester, with no grade for any course lower than a B.
• earning scores that met or exceeded the college readiness benchmarks on all sections of the ACT or SAT.

[swellmomma]

My kids have to earn their provincial diploma so that means they have to meet all provincial requirements.  

I won't confuse anyone with the number of credits they need since our credit system is different BUT course wise they need the following as a minimum as per province (I will add next to the items I think they need higher)(also for ease of understanding, courses numbered with a 10 or 15 are grade 10 courses, if they say 20 or 25 they are a grade 11 course, if they say 30 or 35 they are a grade 12 course)

Required:
PE10 (they are wrapping up PE 30- which is grade 12 PE this year so that's done)
CALM 20 (Career and life management)
English 30
Social 30
Math 20 (I feel they should have grade 12 math which is trig, but it is not a requirement of graduation)
Any 20 level science (so general science 20, OR bio 20 or chem 20 or physics 20)


In addition to the above specifics
the gov't says they need at least 5 other 30 level classes, most student get at least 3 of those completed with grade 12 math and 2 30 level science classes.  The other 2 tend to be foreign language, electives, or work experience etc.

 Now not required by the gov't but required by me is they need to study history.  Social studies in high school here is very ethnocentric and is all about Canada's place in the world rather than history, I hate that.  The world is much bigger than just Canada. So that is my own personal requirement.

[Lori D.]

… I was wondering how many stick to college entrance requirements and how many pave their own way. With my son we stuck closely to college requirements but found since he had dual credit and was continuing at community college (for financial reasons) that his highschool transcript didn't matter much.

 

Free Indeed, I just wanted to add that this is what both of our DSs did. And while it may *appear* that the high school transcript "didn't matter much", at least for our DSs, the *content* and *rigor* of doing a college prep set of required credits very much prepared them for a high level of success at the CC. And I would guess that it has done the same for your DS as well! :)

 

Both of our DSs had dual enrollment in the senior year at the CC and both went on full time at the CC after high school graduation.

 

DS#1 went 3 years in order to knock out gen. ed. credits and earn an AAS degree in Video and Film Production. He then transferred to a 4-year university, where he is completing a Bachelor's degree. Because we were "college prep" with our homeschooling, DS#1 earned scholarships all 3 years at the CC -- 2 of the years it was enough to cover tuition -- financial savings! :) He maintained such a high GPA at the CC, that he also earned a substantial transfer scholarship at the 4-year university, which was renewed for this coming year. The 4-year university also accepted so many of his CC credits that he only needs a total of 2 years there to complete a Bachelor's degree. More financial savings. :)

 

DS#2 also went straight to the CC; he completed 2 years of a 3-year AAS -- and one year earned a partial scholarship! -- but decided that he did not want to go into that field after all. He spent this last year completing gen. ed. credits to be used toward a Bachelor's if he ever needs to go that route. His plan now is to leave the CC and work full time at the company he has been with for the past year, which likes to promote internally to management, so there is opportunity for advancement and decent pay without the need for a college degree of any kind.

 

 

In both cases, even if we could have looked ahead and known in advance what paths our DSs would be walking, we still would have had them take the college prep requirements. They were very well-prepared for the CC as a result of those credits, and even earned scholarships. Doing a college prep set of requirements in no way prevented DSs from also being able to take courses of personal interest. And if they had had a particular vocational-tech interest, they would have still had enough time in the schedule to pursue more dual enrollment during high school.

 

I firmly believe each family has a unique set of circumstances and goals, and even within each family, each student's needs, abilities, and goals will be different. It takes a lot of thought, research, discussion, and prayer (if you are a family of faith) to come up with the best set of courses for each student. And, it's a good idea to hold lightly to those advance plans, as students change and unexpected opportunities can arise. :)

 

I also think that nothing is wasted. We don't always see immediate benefits -- and maybe we'll never fully understand how we were prepared for future events by earlier experiences -- but I am convinced that no experience or knowledge is ever wasted. :) Who knows how much your DS's college prep high school credits have helped in at the CC, or what future fruit will come later on. :)

 

Wishing you the best as you plan for your next high schoolers! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

[SkateLeft]

My kids do full-time dual enrollment in 11th and 12th grades. My state education code says that a 4 or 5 credit college class = 1 high school credit, and a 3 semester college class can either equal 1 high school credit or less at the discretion of the high school.

 

I require 4 *years* of English, 4 years of math, 4 years of science and 4 years of social science (world history, US history, world geography, govt/econ). Years, not credits! I require at least 2 credits of a foreign language, a credit of PE and a credit of arts. My younger dd is very focused on languages and will have far more foreign language credits than I require.

 

So the way I handle dual enrollment is to require my kids to take one semester long writing class and one semester long literature class each year in 11th and 12th. They graduate with 4 years of English, but 6 high school credits. I also require the same thing with math and science. My girls both took 2 semesters of chem in 11th. My older dd took 2 semesters of physics in 12th, while younger dd (not interested in a STEM career) will take 2 semesters of high school physics online next year rather than through the college.

 

Hopefully, that makes sense. I'm less concerned about high school credits than I am about ensuring that they complete required coursework. For example, our state flagship prefers a geography class as part of the high school social science coursework, so I require a credit in geography. My oldest met that by taking a semester of human geography at the college. She also did a semester of government and a semester of economics.