Homeschooling Help

She wrote, “I am very very new to homeschooling . . .” and asked for help.

So I wrote . . . and then over several weeks I added even more and published this blog post.

“Ah! The homeschooling journey! Think of it as another facet of your motherhood. Homeschooling is the best investment (time and money) our family has ever made. You can do it! As you get started on this journey, there are a number of things to consider, decisions to make, and resources to purchase.”

Based on my professional training and personal experiences both in the classroom and homeschooling, I’ve written this post detailing the suggestions that I shared with the homeschooling-mom-to-be.

What is my educational experience? I earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) in elementary education and a Master of Science in Education (MSEd). I’m a former classroom teacher and administrator (public and private) and tutor. I provide professional development to teachers and parents. I homeschooled my kids in high school in the late 1980s, before there were internet resources for homeschoolers. And I’ve helped with the homeschooling of thirteen of my grandkids, kindergarten through high school, 2005 to present.

We dedicated our family room as learning space the years we homeschooled seven, K-MS

First, keep in mind that homeschooling is not doing school at home. Don’t try to replicate school. Keep in mind that grades are the invention of public education because they have to manage large groups of children… and pass them through the system with a certain number of days, number of hours, subject and skill tests. Instead, you will focus on a progression of knowledge and skills. Start where they are and move forward. And in the homeschool, you can accomplish the studies in a couple hours compared to all day (6-8 hours) of public school.

There are eight foundation areas that you will eventually make decisions about. I recommend you become informed about these areas.

1 STATE LAWS.

Learn and follow your state’s LAWS and regulations for homeschooling. You will find the information online; just search with “homeschool laws + your state’s name.” I suggest you make sure you are on an official government page since not all websites stay up-to-date and regulations do change. A trustworthy site for easy reference is Home School Legal Defense. If you read a requirement for 180 days and 4.5 hours per day, don’t be panic. There are many things you already do every day that can be categorize as “learning activities” and count as “school hours.” For example, family read alouds (literature, science, or social studies), watching a documentary (science or history), home projects like building a fence, caring for a garden (math, science). baking, cooking, grocery shopping (science, math, economics, life skills). If you are required to submit a record of courses and/or time, Just keep a simple journal listing date, time spent on activity, brief description of activity, and the subject(s) it falls under.

2 LEGAL SERVICES.
Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is the nation’s largest, most trusted homeschool advocacy organization. HSLD’s website is also an accurate place to learn about your state’s laws (https://hslda.org/legal). They also have an exceptional blog. In addition, they offer a reasonably priced membership to have access to attorneys, additional resources, and you can get a homeschool ID card. The benefits are well worth it!

3 COMMUNITY.

Join a homeschooling COMMUNITY. It can be local and/or online. HSLDA has a extensive, detailed listing. Here’s the link to that page. However, having advised that, I will say that when I started there weren’t support groups and the internet didn’t exist. So we never became members of a co-op.

4 STYLE.

Become knowledgeable about homeschooling STYLES or APPROACHES. This knowledge will help you make curricula choices, scheduling decisions, and student/teacher type of engagement. Common styles include traditional, classical, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Waldorf, unschooling, and eclectic homeschooling. You can learn more by searching “homeschool styles.” That search should provide an AI summary and you can search further using those style names. Ours has been a combination of traditional and eclectic with strong classical overtones. A quick review of eight different approaches can be found HERE.

However, I must say that when we started, we didn’t even think about style. We just thought subjects and knowledge and skills needed, and tried to find textbooks to support their learning. There was very little that a parent could buy in the late 1980s as most curriculum publishers sold to public school systems.

I’m a strong believer in systematic, explicit instruction and daily practice in language arts and math with a tradition schedule of a planned lesson each day. Our approach to both language arts and math has been classical. I’ve provided the language arts instruction, drawing upon many resources to support the foundation literacy skills and knowledge before delving into narrative, essay, or research writing. In math, we have stuck with Saxon math, kindergarten through calculus, a classical curriculum. We follow a fairly strict day-by-day lesson schedule in both language arts and math. Then, for science and social studies, we’ve been more relaxed with an eclectic approach. Our choices are influenced by basic required knowledge according to educational standards and interests. Our main goal for science and social studies is two-fold: to build a broad knowledge foundation and to develop thinking and communication skills. Extra courses have been based on individual interests and availability, i.e., drawing, painting, crafting, drama, martial arts, instrumental music. Some are private, some in-person with a group of students, some online.

5 SCHEDULE.

Think about traditional school year vs. year-round. If you aren’t familiar with the year-round approach, search it online. We use year-round which gives us lots of flexibility with non-school days throughout the year. We fell into the rhythm of year-round because we need breaks throughout the year. We take time off for holiday activities, for vacation weeks at the coast, for pauses after some intense studies, for family emergencies, i.e., illness or the visits of our family that lives overseas. Public schools in our state have a 165 day calendar. Our target is 150 days since we don’t have half-days, assemblies, pep-rallies, etc., and we don’t have to report our days.

You need to consider your day to day routine, for example, how many days, which days of the week. And you need to decide the general time during the day–morning or afternoon. You want to have a general sequence of subjects throughout the day based on the rhythm of your home and which ones require lots of 1:1 engagement or which ones can be mostly self-managed. Our schedule varies based on age, subjects, and family plans, i.e., appointments. However, it is for the most part predictable. We’ve learned that predictable schedules help us thrive and be consistent. They also save time. We begin in the morning with core subjects. With older students, depending on when they get started, some academic work may carry into the afternoon.

If you need to work, create your homeschool schedule around your work schedule. Think out of the box; do not try to follow a traditional school schedule. Use evening hours and/or weekends for lessons that require your involvement. You can also use either morning or afternoon times if your student is doing online classes that do not require your involvement.

Another factor to consider if you have high school kids is potential employment. In high school, my kids had part-time jobs. My son was a gardener’s helper on a large estate. My daughter was a part-time nanny for a nurse. So their schooling schedules had to work around their employment commitments.

6 SPACE.

Determine what space you will dedicate to homeschooling. In other words, where will school work be done? It can vary by space available, nature of studies, and type of work (i.e., desk for online, kitchen table for writing, comfy chair for reading). Where will supplies and books will be kept?

In our case, because there were years when we had up to seven kids homeschooling spanning K-MS, as well as a toddler and a baby, we repurposed our family room into the learning space. We have desks that were discarded from public school so each one has a small square of personal space. We keep materials and supplies in that room. However, we’ve sprawled out in other places to do our work–whatever suits us and is comfortable at the time. Now with only three still schooling, we have plenty of space.

Our repurposed daylight basement family room. We found the desks in a used
furniture warehouse. They had been discarded by the public school.

7 SUBJECTS.

There are four core subjects: language arts, math, science, and social studies.

Do NOT begin them all at the same time (the first day of school). Start with language arts and math your first week or two or even three. (We still do this slow start for a new academic year.) Set up the routine / schedule you think you want and then modify as needed. When those two subjects are running smoothly, add science and a week or so later add social studies. Courses that fall under social studies include history, civics, geography, cultural studies. We often put several kids in the same course/lessons and rotate the years the specific subject matter is taught without worrying about grade levels. Once you are into the rhythm of the year and have the four core subjects running smoothly, think about literature; add a literature study, definitely middle school and above.

8 CURRICULA.
There will be lots of good recommendations from homeschooling friends and your communities. I’m going to share what we’ve used. Keep in mind that it is easy to do the same subject content with multiple grade levels and rotate specific content from year to year. It involves looping the content of a subject each year. Also, not all textbooks have to be completed! Usually there’s more than you can do in a single year, no matter what the authors of the text indicate in the instructional outline. Homeschooling is not about finishing the books! It’s about building knowledge and developing skills; it’s about life learning.

An important thing to remember when making homeschool curricula choices, our schooling is NOT about grade levels or passing courses. It is about developing skills and building knowledge. Don’t think about a student as being behind, or ahead, or having to catch up! That is the thinking of public schools, and liberation from that mindset is one of the wonderful freedoms about homeschooling.

You may be asking, Then how do I know for sure what to teach? You have several options. One, follow a specific curriculum like we did with Saxon math. Two, review the table of contents in various grade level textbooks to create a checklist. Three, look at state standards as a guide to a broad outline of content and skills. Four, reference a resource like Core Knowledge sequence guides. I’ve used all of these to construct a broad outline of our educational pathway each year.

Having shared the above, what follows in this post is a description of the curricula that we have used in our homeschool, K-12 since 2005.

Math
We have faithfully used Saxon math with all thirteen of my grandkids. Saxon is a classical curriculum for kindergarten through calculus. It is all about teaching math concepts and cycling back to build on them. Daily pages provide application practice of concepts to problems. It also provides retrieval practices for basic facts in each lesson. Sometimes people shy away from Saxon, thinking its “drill and kill.” It was never drill and kill for our kids. How you view practice is a mindset. Daily practice and drills actually align with classical education and with cognitive research.

Lessons in Saxon are scripted so you do NOT have to worry about “how to teach it.” My daughter says she struggled with algebra in high school, but she actually learned algebra by teaching in with Saxon. Our kids all have blown the top off standardized math tests each year. We didn’t need to use any supplemental material or internet resources. If you are uncomfortable teaching math or just need help because of your schedule, there are online Saxon lessons taught by math teachers beginning with 5/4. We’ve used DIVE Saxon with a couple kids. Just be sure your Dive lessons are the same edition as the textbook you are using: ALIGNMENT CHART. Oh yes, if you aren’t sure which level of Saxon to begin with, there are Saxon placement assessments online: SAXON PLACEMENT TOOL.

Language Arts
Read Alouds.
Before we talk about direct, explicit instruction and intentional practice of various literacy skills, we must consider the activity of reading out loud to your student(s). We refer to reading out loud as “Read Alouds.” They are simply reading text out loud. The text can be a poem; a picturebook; a fable or short story; a chapter book (children’s novel); an informational text, i.e., science or social studies; the Bible. This is the single most effect activity you can do to impact language skills for both reading and writing. The value of read alouds is so complex. It grows knowledge and gives vicarious experiences. It enlarges vocabulary. It gives experience in the structure of the various genre. It develops a sense of structure and style of writing. It models good, correct grammar. All of these are foundational to reading and writing. Read aloud daily. Gather ALL your students together regardless of age or skill level and read to them.

Foundation Literacy Skills and Knowledge.
Depending on grade and skills, language arts includes foundation literacy — phonics (sounds-letter connections), phonemic awareness, alphabet knowledge, letter formation (handwriting, including cursive), spelling, word study, how to sound out words (both to read and to write), word grammar, and sentence grammar. Usually this involves grades K-5. Since my expertise as an former classroom teacher, administrator, tutor, and provider of professional development is in the area of foundation literacy, I taught and guided my daughter in our elementary language arts lessons. Now I can help you, too!

Do NOT be overwhelmed at the thought of teaching phonics or cursive or grammar. The GOOD NEWS is I can virtually co-teach with you. That’s right! The success of literacy lessons will be the result of our partnership. I do the planning, systematic teaching, and explicit modeling. You, as co-teacher, manage the space, schedule, supplies and monitor engagement and provide encouragement.

Let’s consider what we teach by reviewing each language arts strand that makes up foundation literacy:
Phonics
Handwriting
Spelling
Grammar
Sentence Writing
Reading
Writing Compositions
Literature

— Phonics and Handwriting (letter formation).
In my K course, “Letters Sounds Words,” I integrate phonics, phonemic awareness, alphabet awareness, spelling, how to sound out words, sentence writing, and handwriting in each lesson. I teach the 70 Orton phonograms (sound-symbol correspondents) using picture cards, phonogram flash cards, cornmeal writing, and play dough / clay letter sculpturing. I also use music, recitation, and charts throughout the lessons. Using much of the same content with a more advanced focus on skills, I created the course “The Phonograms” for first grade and the course “The English Code” for second grade and above. I recommend “The English Code” for all students grades 2 and above as a review, for struggling readers or struggling writers regardless of grade level, and for English learners of any age (ESL, EFL, ESOL, ELL). Instruction is systematic and explicit. The English code is frontloaded, and mastery comes as it is used to sound out words to both read and write. Application to words is made in all three of these courses. These courses are followed by our Word Study Series. For your convenience, I created a free-user website dedicated to the letter-sound correspondents (phonograms) and the manuscript formation of lower case letters: PhonogramPage.

— Word Study (spelling).
In “Word Study 1 – 5“, the phonograms, syllable patterns, and spelling rules are used to sound out words to write them (encode, spell) and to read them (decode) in a teacher-guided practice. The word list is gathered from four highly researched word lists: Dolch Words, Fry’s List of high frequency words, Ayres’ Spelling Scale words, and Marzano Vocabulary Lists of core subject words. In our Word Study word list, words are ranked according to spelling difficulty. So, Word Study 1 begins with typical grade 1 words and ends with words ranked at grade 2. Word difficulty continues to increase gradually through the courses. Many of the words in Word Study 4 are middle school level spelling difficulty, and in Word Study 5 many are ranked at high school level in spelling difficulty, some are even post-high school. We use the Morrison-McCall Spelling Scale to determine placement in the Word Studies and to monitor growth. It is linked at the Alice Nine Academy in all the Word Study courses.

Snapshot of student interactive notebooks from Lesson 80, Word Study 3

During the lessons, we approach words with a phonics lens moving from oral language to written, using word chunks (sounds/letters, syllables, roots, affixes) to sound them out and visualize them, write them, and then read them. The work also includes writing the word as a whole word (in cursive in the middle grades), alphabetizing the words, and applying other word knowledge, i.e., suffixes, multiple meanings, to the words. Each of these activities causes students to look at the words through a different lens, using different information to process the words. Words are always placed in the context of sentences, both oral and written, created by the students.

What about educational websites and apps? We haven’t used any apps. And I don’t usually recommend educational websites because we limit screen times to the virtual courses we enroll in. There is one website that we did use with PreK — Grade 2: Starfall.com . The content and approach to learning phonics and decoding words in Starfall activities are very compatible with my foundation literacy instruction.

— Grammar.
Did you know that understanding grammar impacts not only writing but also reading comprehension? “Grammar Boot Camp Jr.” is designed for grade 2 or grade 3. “Grammar Boot Camps 1 and 2” is designed for grade 4 and above; middle school and high school teachers report that students enjoy creating their interactive notebooks with anchor charts during the anchor lessons. Instruction is systematic and explicit. Content is accurate. I say that because I’ve reviewed lots of grammar instructional material–printed, virtual, digital, and I am appalled at the inaccuracy of information that I often see.

Page from Grammar Boot Camp Jr. Student Notebook, Lesson 20

Page from Grammar Boot Camp Student Interactive Notebook

— Sentence Writing.
My Sentence Writing Lessons Guide Books 1-3 are teaching manuals for working with sentences using eight different lenses (activities): writing (from dictation or copying), proofing, mapping, diagramming, revising, imitating, combining, and recasting. These activities are fabulous for practicing applied grammar to improve writing skills and comprehension of text. The lessons are designed for one sentence a week, 5-10 minutes a day per lens (activity). Links to sample pages are on my Professional Development Center, here under NEW ITEM. In the guides, instruction is scripted with answer keys, so even if you think you have weak grammar skills, you can do the teaching and do it well. Students are encouraged to use their notebook from Grammar Boot Camps 1 & 2.

“Sentence Studies 101” is a course I wrote about identifying and correcting fragments and run-ons. It is also about sentence combining. The lessons can be used at any level, especially grade 4 and above. There are ten lessons; each lesson will probably take a couple days

— Cursive.
Check out my Cursive Handwriting course. I have a unique approach to teaching cursive letter formation and connections. I teach students how to write with cursive in just twenty-five lessons. I also have copybooks for students to use for daily practice. Currently these are all scripture passages. Contact me if you are interested in either the cursive version or the manuscript version.

Snapshot from Cursive Handwriting lesson

Which grade levels are these foundation literacy courses for? Remember, I wrote to not worry about grade levels when enrolling your student(s) in a course. Match them to a course based on the level of their skills. In developing my courses, I strictly follow a sequence that builds knowledge and skills. Any reference to grade levels is simply a suggestion to provide a common ground for reviewing material. Keep in mind that you can use my courses at any grade level and across multiple grade levels, individually or as a whole group regardless of differences in age or skill levels.

When you invite me to share the language load with you, it makes homeschooling so much easier. You do not have to wonder about things like:
-Am I doing it right?
-How much time should it take?
-What do I teach next?
-Have I covered everything?
I’ve already taken care of those teaching issues for you in my lessons at Alice Nine Academy.

Language arts basic skill instruction also includes reading texts to build fluency and comprehension and composition (writing).

— Reading.
In elementary, we read and read and read — read alouds, shared reading, independent reading. For emerging readers, we use pictureless short text with comprehension questions. See Johnny Read is that type of resource, written by a first grade teacher using high frequency words. We also used a booklet we called our Harby Reader (Test Lessons in Primary Reading, McCall and Harby). Be sure to get the Teacher’s Manual for answer key and great discussion questions. Upon completion of our Harby Reader, we use McCall-Crabbs Standard Test Lessons, A-F for quick reads every day to build stamina, check comprehension, and develop sustained, timed reading (a test-taking skill). Read more here. Again, you will want the Teacher’s Manual that includes Levels A-F. We use Abeka readers as anthologies so we are assured of getting a variety of genre on their reading levels. We use Abeka library books because we want additional reading material with Christian values. We read picture books, chapter books, and classical children’s novels such as Heidi, Where the Red Fern Grows, Charlotte’s Web, Rabbit Hill, The Chronicles of Narnia, Little House on the Prairie, The Tale of Despereaux, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, and more.

Usually comprehension skills develop naturally with lots of reading and lots of discussion about what you read. However, if you want to learn more about explicitly teaching comprehension skills, the very BEST teacher resource is Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor. In her book, McGregor addresses how to teach the six big comprehension strategies (thinking skills for comprehension): how to use schema, ask questions, infer, visualize, determine importance, and synthesize information. McGregor lays out anchor lessons that introduce the skill–what it is and how to do it. What I love about her lessons is the simplicity of explanations and her use of ordinary objects to illustrate the abstract concepts. Her book works for any grade level. So, when you teach these lessons, you can include multiple grades in the same lesson.

— Writing.
For writing in the elementary grades, we worked on sentence writing. And we did some response writing in science and social studies, answering the end of chapter questions. However, much of the time, we answer those questions orally so we can worked on two things: (1) understanding the content and (2) developing the ability to respond to text which is the beginning of being able to write a response.

We also do “free writes” and “quick writes.” When a student “free writes,” he/she writes as if there were no rules and keeps the pen moving the entire time even if they change topics. It’s about getting words flowing without self-criticism or editing. During “quick writes,” like “free writes,” students are encouraged to write quickly without attention to language mechanics. The difference is that a “quick write” is a response to a prompt, i.e., about their learning, about a quote, about a photograph. Both free writing and quick writing are short–about five minutes. I don’t advise doing it more than ten minutes. These writings can be used later for a number of learning and writing activities, but we won’t go into those ideas at this time.

We also do copywork. It is incredibly simple and powerfully effective. Read more about copywork in an article on “Craft Your Content.” We like to use famous quotes, biblical passages, selections from classical literature.

If your elementary student will be taking a ELA test that includes a short essay, I recommend teaching the following aspects of extended response writing (essay writing).
How to read a prompt
How to use the prompt to write a thesis statement
How to use source text to answer prompt
How to organize your writing in an essay body
How to write a conclusion.

In middle school and high school, we use IEW “Structure and Style” for academic writing — essay and research writing. I highly recommend it. Once you’ve completed the basic course, you might consider continuing writing practice with IEW’s History-Based Writing Lessons.

— Literature.
We read, read, read in elementary to enjoy literature. Sometimes we discuss our reading. We do not do worksheets or book reports. In high school, we use literature textbooks from BJU (American and British). We also use a textbook for middle school from Abeka. These texts give us a good anthology, and the teacher’s guides help us dig into literary elements. Although we do not, you can also use Cliff Notes to assist you with literature studies: use them like you would use a teacher guide for retell, summarization, and discussions. For middle school and high school we use literature courses offered free by Hillsdale College.

Here’s the LINK to an index of my virtual on-demand foundation literacy courses.
Click on the course to read more or watch sample lesson videos.
When on a page about a course, be sure to open the “Learn More” button.

Science and Social Studies.
For science and social studies we use an eclectic approach. We’ve chosen curricula from Abeka, BJU, Compass Classroom, and Apologia. All of these are Christian-based curricula. We use free courses from Hillsdale College for high school. We also use PragerU Kids videos/courses. Here’s a link to PragerU Kids index of courses/videos. They have a wide range of subjects and learning levels, K-HS. The PragerU videos are attention sustaining for young students. Both Hillsdale College and PragerU Kids are Christian-based schools. Sometimes we use just the textbooks. Sometimes we enroll in virtual courses. Reading these textbooks is excellent practice in reading informational texts. So think of language skills in addition to content as you plan your lessons.

Bible
So many mamas have asked what to do about teaching Bible, so I thought I’d give some ideas and tips. I’ve always believed in telling the Bible story from the Bible without watering it down. Of course, I am selective of stories based on the age of children.

Years ago, I was introduced to storytelling using felt pieces. You just tell the story and build the story scene on a flannel board with felt pieces as you tell it. The best felt set for biblical stories is Betty Lukens’ Bible in Felt. The small deluxe set works well in the home. Most of the time, I tell the story and build the scene(s) with the felt pieces as I do. Older students can also tell the story to younger children.

A good free resource for telling Bible stories: KIDStory materials. “Kids Around the World” is a worldwide Christian mission organization that addresses 3 areas for children in poverty areas: play (building playgrounds); nutrition (long range feeding program); biblical teaching (KIDstory Clubs). They have made their teaching material free online. Although the material is designed to be used in a children’s club, it can easily be used in a home setting. It is a great resource, especially with its authentic scripting of Biblical stories. You can use the KIDStory version of the Bible story as a read aloud if you are not comfortable telling the story or reading the biblical version. BTW, my son works for KATW, taking their ministry to children to places such as Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Uganda, Panama.

If you want to do more and integrate the work with language arts, choose a story for the week, and follow an activity each day. Here’s one possible outline you might follow:

Day 1. Tell the story and build the scene(s) with the felt pieces as you tell/read it. Older students can take the role of teacher and prep so they can tell the story to younger children. Encourage age appropriate brief discussion that applies the story to their lives. Use questions like, “What did God speak to your heart as you listened to the story?” “What do you think God is telling us through this story?”(More questions are in the front pages of KIDStory manual under “Discover and Response Questions.”)

Day 2. Have child(ren) retell the story using their Bible and the felt pieces, or have them dress up as the characters and act it out, or have them use a puppet as the narrator to retell the story. (Retelling is a comprehension strategy.) If they forget a part of the story, prod them with questions or find it in the Bible passage. If your students are careful with the felt pieces, you can make a Bible story corner where they can “play out” the story throughout the week (a story for the week).

Day 3: Summarize the story. (Summarizing is a comprehension strategy; it is not retelling.) Compose the summary together. Write the summary in their journal: Date the page. Write a title for the story. Beneath the title, add the scripture reference. Beneath the reference, copy the summary.

Day 4. Select one of the verses from the story to be that day’s text for copywork. Write it beneath the summary or write it in the copy book (notebook).

We also focus on other Scriptures that are guiding principles. There are a number of activities we do with these scriptures: recite, scramble/unscramble, grammatically map or diagram. Below are a few activities in detail. When you do this, count your work as both Bible and language arts.

Activity 1. In our morning time, before our academic work begins, along with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord’s Prayer, we recite specific scriptures (a new one each month), i.e., Ephesians 4:29, verses from Proverbs 3, Galatians 5:22-23, John 3:16-18, John 1:2.

Activity 2. Sometimes we map or diagram sentences from key passages (language arts, grammar).

Activity 3. We use these scriptures for copywork, or we chose extended scripture passages as our copywork (language arts), such as, The Story of Creation, The Beatitudes, Psalm 23, Ten Commandments. When copying extended passages, we divide the text into sections that we can copy over several days. (Spend about 5 minutes on copywork.)

Resource: Although we never used a workbook, I do know work pages are sometimes helpful. Here is one that is based on Bible stories and would go well with the plan above. Follow this LINK to learn more: FaithSteps 52 Week Workbook

Extras.
Through the years, we’ve enrolled in micro-school classes for drawing, crafting, painting, music, drama, martial arts based on interests. Most courses have been live; a couple were virtual. And some of my grandkids have participated in community sports.

DIPLOMAS AND TRANSCRIPTS
A diploma can be issued by you the homeschool parent for your homeschool child. A transcript is usually helpful and sometimes requested for higher education or if you return to public or private schooling, especially at the high school level. Again, it can be issued by you the homeschool parent for your homeschool child. A transcript is a way to record high school studies your child has completed. State Departments of Education publish high school requirements, i.e., courses, credit hours, for their states. There are lots of online templates for both diplomas and transcripts. You can use a template as is or use it to help you design your own. More information is available on HSDLA’s website (HSDLA.org).

IN CLOSING.
Whatever you choose, remember that if a curriculum or schedule is not working or if family circumstances arise, you can change. We certainly have over the years.

For more information or clarification, contact me. I’ll support you in any way I can. Use “Reply” below, or use our private Contact Form.

I hope to see you in Alice Nine Academy. If you choose to enroll in one of my courses, I’m always available to answer questions.

May your homeschooling be filled with the joy and love of learning!

Meet Alice Nine

For more than four decades, Alice Nine has served in various educational positions. She is a former classroom teacher, tutor, private school administrator, national professional developer for foundation literacy instruction. She homeschooled her kids in high school during the late 80s. And she has helped homeschool thirteen grandkids, K-HS, 2005 to present. Currently Alice is a virtual teacher and a curriculum writer. Alice Nine earned a bachelor of science degree in elementary education and a master of science degree in elementary administration.

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