Online Homeschooling Resources for High School
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Homeschooling high school is doable, and you don't have to do it alone. However, I imagined homeschooling high school would be different than it is for us. I thought that my daughters would utilize more in-person resources like community college courses and possibly co-ops. But my daughters entered their high school careers during a time that wasn't as smooth as previous years--from a car accident that changed my life and a global pandemic.
Although our journey may not look the way I imagined, I am not homeschooling alone. They have gleaned support and knowledge from other qualified adults through the widely available online homeschooling resources.
Top Online Homeschool High School Resources
Online classes are a staple in our homeschool. I didn't know this would be the case some years ago, but I am glad to have the option to enlist other adults to help my daughters reach their goals. Because I currently work full-time, it is not reasonable for me to be their sole teacher.
Outschool offers online live and flexible classes, but we utilize the live classes. My daughters often take writing, language, and art classes using Outschool.
The Well-Trained Mind Academy offers affordable year-long courses. I like it for science and world language options. I wish I had learned about their program earlier, but I am glad we have it in our toolkit now. During the 2021-22 school year, we are using it for high school German and the Chemistry lab.
Spanish Academy has proven to be a good resource for my daughter, who wants to be fluent in Spanish. This year is our second year using their private one-to-one tutoring option. She can create her schedule, which allows her to move at a pace that feels good.
Coursera is new to us this year. College professors lead Coursera courses, so they can be considered challenging. Coursera is a good option if you want to provide your high schooler with some college lecture experience.
Code.org is great for coding practice and computer science classes.
Homeschool Coaches are here to help new and veteran homeschoolers on their journey. I know this post is all about online resources for high schoolers, but if you want to continue on the journey and aren't sure where to go next, a coach can help you get there. I haven't explicitly used a coach for homeschooling.
Nike Anderson of The Homeschool Genius is a homeschool mom of elementary and middle school children. She shares valuable content and resources that help homeschool parents get over the hump.
Tiffany of Your Homeschool Helper is a veteran homeschool mom of ten children ranging from adults to toddlers. She is practical with her approach and genuinely cares about homeschool parents reaching their goals.
Worksheets can come in handy even for high school kids. However, I pretty much only use the following two sources, and I have used them for over five years.
MathWorksheetsforKids has nearly every type of worksheet that I would need for math. Although we have used a full math curriculum for high school and workbooks, access to practice work is necessary for our home school.
Teachers Pay Teachers has a wide variety of resources. I like to search the site for interesting resources that would challenge my kids. I've mostly used TPT for math, but I am looking into some of their literature resources for our spring semester.
7Sisters resources are all about high school. They have resources for planning your high school, literature studies, and more.
Organization can be challenging with us all being pulled in different directions. I tried using a homeschool planner, but I found myself not being consistent as all of our needs have changed.
Google Classroom tends to be a solid hub that allows me to be consistent and plan. I like that I can add to the classroom from my phone and that some of the resources that we use can be uploaded directly to the classroom. I decided to make one classroom title High School versus creating a new one each school year for our purposes.
Apps are useful, too. A few apps we use regularly are:
Duolingo to continue building our non-native language skills.
Grammarly helps tighten up writing skills by doing. I have become a better writer using this app. I might say that it is more effective than explicit lessons when used regularly.
Google Suite works with Google classroom and with many of the writing classes they have taken online.
Black Homeschool Groups have been helpful to me on my journey. There are tons of groups out there for all homeschool parents, but I find it important to hear stories from other Black parents as a Black mom.
African-American Homeschool Moms is the first group I joined that is dedicated to Black homeschool moms.
Melanated Homeschooling Families is another group on Facebook that provides support to Black homeschoolers.
While I don't hang out in many homeschool groups nowadays, I have found that local groups can be helpful when building support with folks who are nearby. I also appreciate the Parents of Black and Brown and College Bound group. I think if your child is interested in attending college that this group can be a good resource. It's a mixture of homeschool and traditional school families.
As you can see, the internet is a wealth of resources for high school homeschooling families. In addition, you don't have to carry your homeschool high school alone.
Tell us what other online resources does your family use for high school?