Mary Jo emailed asking for advice as to whether a public-schooled high school junior should consider homeschooling for only her senior year of high school. Here’s what I said.
My best advice is this; “Know your child and trust yourself.” If you know that homeschooling is the best fit for your child, then trust yourself and do it. Don’t avoid homeschooling out of fear.
Senior year can be busy with college applications. Get 75 application essay prompts to help you prepare your teens for college admission and scholarships! Click here for my free download: 75 College Application Essay Prompts
To homeschool high school for only senior year, record keeping is very important. Make a homeschool transcript that will reflect all classes from 9th through 12th grades, both at home and at school. Write course descriptions of all courses taught at home, so colleges are convinced there was no couch-potato academy. They are aware that seniors tend to slack off some, so you want to avoid the appearance of senioritis.
Since colleges know that senior students have a likelihood of slacking off during senior year, it is wise to continue to take a rigorous curriculum. If, like Mary Jo’s daughter, you only have a couple of classes left to take, consider taking elective classes that might be considered delight directed learning. (Read my article on Delight Directed Learning.).
What if you have all of the credits you need to graduate? That’s ok. Colleges like to see a student that is well rounded and by taking some delight directed learning classes, it gives your student the opportunity to show a variety of interests. Also, making a list of your volunteer opportunities to include with your records will give your child another way to show that they are well rounded.
In the application to colleges, the parent may want to write a homeschool statement that explains why the decision to homeschool was made, and describe the positive results. Finally, when communicating with colleges, be very clear about your intent to homeschool and explain your reasons in a positive light.
If you need help making a homeschool transcript, be sure to check out my article, How to Make a Homeschool Transcript.
The HomeScholar Gold Care Club will give you the comprehensive help you need to homeschool high school.
Thank you! My oldest daughter wants to homeschool her last 2 years of high school, for the same reasons. Dispense with the pointless busy work (craft projects for English Honors???) and get right to the work. I am a bit nervous about integrating her trancripts though…
Coretta,
If you need help, I’ll be glad to help you through the process of transcripts. Here is a link to my Total Transcript Solution:
http://www.thehomescholar.com/easy-truth.php
Blessings,
Lee
Our daughter “dropped out” of her senior year and should have graduated in 2019. She has severe anxiety and planned on going to get her GED, but the classes there were still just too large and her anxiety popped up again. Is it possible to homeschool for her senior year after a gap? Thanks for your help.
Hi Amy! Yes it is possible! You can homeschool 12th grade now, and still allow her to graduate from homeschooling with a homeschool diploma. Blessings, Lee
Hi Amy,
After answering you, Lee asked that I give you a couple more links. Because students sometimes have traumatic situations, or chronic illness that will keep them from getting high school done in 4 years, Lee wrote the blog post, Super Senior Five Year High Schooll (https://homehighschoolhelp.com/blogs/super-senior-five-year-high-school) Under the section entitled “Why Take 5 Years?” Lee says, “[The extra year] Gives time to replace failed classes or huge gaps.” So, it’s not uncommon to see an extra year of high school.
Of course, your situation is a little different, since your daughter has had a gap year. This is exactly the kind of situation Lee guides parents through during Gold Care Club consultations. You can find out more about the Gold Care Club here: https://www.homehighschoolhelp.com/gold-care-club
Robin
Assistent to The HomeScholar
My son is a senior in Texas and wants to homeschool for the last semester. I plan to send email to the principal, counselor and attendance office letting them know he will be starting homeschool. Will I need to go to the school to get his transcript or just request it through mail?
I have the same situation with my child who doesn’t want to continue the last semester. Challenge is already applications were submitted. I have not done homeschooling before or been through the college application process. Help! please.
Hi Amanda,
Sorry, somehow I missed your comment before. It depends on school policy. You will most likely have to go in. If your son is over 18, HE will have to go in and request the transcript. Typically, schools will not send a transcript to people who call – it’s difficult to verify.
Most schools will show grades online, as long as your son can still log in to the student portal, and colleges will request a copy of transcript from the school in a sealed envelope, even though you combine the public school grades with your homeschool grades. You can see how to do that here: https://www.homehighschoolhelp.com/blogs/acronyms-for-outside-classes
In the end, you will want you average your GPA with the school’s GPA to get the “final” number. Here’s the blog post on how to do that: https://www.homehighschoolhelp.com/blogs/how-to-calculate-homeschool-gpa
Robin
Assistant to The HomeScholar
Hi Rezik,
In her blog post, [url=https://www.homehighschoolhelp.com/blogs/sending-senior-year-transcripts-to-college]Sending Transcripts Senior Year[/url], Lee says “Colleges expect early transcripts to be incomplete, so don’t worry about grades for courses still in progress.” so it stands to reason that colleges expect things might change sometimes.
Communication with the colleges is always a good idea, and you will want to pay special attention to the last paragraph in this blog post – where Lee says:
“In the application to colleges, the parent may want to write a homeschool statement that explains why they made the decision to homeschool, and describe the positive results. Finally, when communicating with colleges, be very clear about your intent to homeschool and explain your reasons in a positive light.”
For more personalized help, please consider joining the Gold Care Club, for private consultations with Lee. You can see more information about that here: [url=https://www.homehighschoolhelp.com/gold-care-club]The HomeScholar Gold Care Club[/url]
Robin
Assistant to The HomeScholar
If I go homeschooled in the middle of my senior year and get everything done am I still able to walk the line with my class?
If I go homeschooled in the middle of my senior year and get everything done will I still be able to walk the line with my class?
Hi, Madison.
You’ll need to check with the school / school district that you were attending prior to homeschooling. Unfortunately, that will likely be up to them.
Blessings,
Anita, Assistant to The HomeScholar
Good Morning, I have my child in her senior year. Went back into in-person school and has anxieties. Perfers to finish her senior year from home. She is a scholar and did great at home. We are from New York. What advice do you have and are their other parents facing this 2021/2022 school problem. Ty in advance