Beginning the Journey of Homeschooling High School!

Homeschooling high school--are you nervous or excited? Or a little bit of both?! High school is a rewarding time to be homeschooling, as your children mature and grow and engage you in more complicated conversations. Along with the fun, though, are some important things you should be thinking about as you enter these high school years, and now is the time to start work!

Your child's freshman year is the time to begin learning about high school testing. One of the reasons it is so important to start thinking about this during freshman year is that some tests are best administered to a child immediately after they finish a class. For instance, if they're taking chemistry and you decide you want them to take an AP test in chemistry, they should take the test when they've learned the content.

You also need to decide whether your child should take an SAT, AP, or CLEP subject test. Some colleges only accept certain tests, so it's important to find out which ones will be accepted by the colleges your child will most likely be going to.

And don't forget to register for those tests so they can actually take them, because all of the research in the world isn't going to help you if you don't actually register for the test! To register, all you have to do is call your local public or private high school and say, "I'm a homeschool parent, and would like to know if my homeschooled child can take the SAT or the AP subject test at your high school, and how do I register for that"?

The next thing you want to do during your child's freshman year, if you're feeling pretty confident in where you are, is to think about colleges for a minute. It doesn't hurt to begin looking at colleges with your teenager now. You could identify a primary list of colleges that you might consider. If you've always thought, "probably these four are the ones that we're going to apply to," or "my child has always mentioned an interest in going to Harvard" or something, then you should begin to look at those colleges.

If you do have some colleges in mind, it's a good idea to look into their application requirements now, because if the college your child wants to attend is that one college in a million that requires four years of foreign language or something, you want to know that earlier on in Freshman year. You could also consider a college visit in the spring. Most college visits are done during the spring of Junior year; but it's perfectly fine for you to take your children for college visits in Freshman year or even earlier.

Start now to prepare for college! Waiting too long is one of the "5 Biggest Mistakes Parents Make When Homeschooling High School." Learn how to avoid all 5 mistakes in my free e-mail mini-course.