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How to Select Electives for Your High Schooler

How to select electives for your homeschooled teen

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Homeschooling gives parents the opportunity to offer a limitless number of electives for your high schoolers. This is a big bonus, as students at public and private schools can usually only select from what their school offers.

States may require a certain number of electives and may require certain types of electives, but I would encourage parents to include as many as they can during their children’s high school years.

Why are electives important for high schoolers?

Electives help keep school fun

In elementary and middle school most homeschoolers include unit studies and plenty of field trips. These just aren’t possible in high school BUT electives can provide some “light relief”. Electives allow students to explore topics that interest them. When a student needs a break from math and history and science and English – spending an hour working on an elective can be as good as a break

Electives allow students to explore possible career paths

If a child thinks they want to study film at college, let them take a History of Film elective. If they think business is in their future, Accounting and Marketing would be good choices. For teens interested in science, suggest an elective in an area they are interested in – Paleontology, Astronomy, Environmental Science, Thermodynamics etc.

Between my 4 kids, they took Logic, Game Theory, Programming, Meteorology, Psychology, Marketing, Linguistics, Forensic Science, Acting and Graphic Design. This helped them gauge the direction they would take at college.

Electives can help improve a GPA

I have heard that some colleges don’t include elective credits when calculating the GPA for prospective students, but this wasn’t the case for any of the 20 + colleges my kids applied to. Electives are generally not as much work as core classes and if they are subjects your child is interested in, they should provide an easy A.

How do you choose electives for your child?

Most of the ones my children did, were ones they requested. They also were part of a Science Olympiad team and some of the electives grew out of events they competed in over a few years.

In addition, they could select electives our local co-op offered.

But you may have to help your child with suggestions. Think about what they enjoy doing and where their academic strengths lie. Brainstorm with your husband or a friend or family member who knows your child well. Come up with a list of possibilities and then show them to your child and ask them to select a few each year. Remember, electives can be 1/2 credits, so students don’t have to be locked into something for a full year.

Electives that let them try out a field they may want to work in, are also a good idea. So if they want to go into business, an Entrepreneurship, or Marketing or Accounting elective would be a good idea. Or if they have an interest in a type of engineering, or a medical profession – look for electives that reflect that interest.

Where do you find electives?

FundaFunda Academy currently offers the following online electives for homeschoolers:

Coursera and EdX offer college-level online classes (some free and some paid) that could be great for a junior or senior who is ready for a challenge.

7 Sisters Homeschool has a number of interesting electives in pdf format for students to work through – for example, Human Development, Early Childhood Development and Psychology

Great Courses were who I turned to for Meteorology, Game Theory, and Linguistics. I watched the videos with whichever child was taking the elective and we discussed each lecture. I added books/textbooks for them to work through.

In addition, I required my children to write a research paper on a topic related to what they had learned. You could also get students to make a video, create a website, etc so that you have something to grade them on.

You can definitely do an online search with the topic you are interested in + “online class”, or + “online homeschool” added to it and you should find plenty of options.

Most states expect a 1/2 credit to be about 65 hours of work, so use that as a rule of thumb when putting together an elective. Sometimes we just used a textbook if there was nothing online that would work.

But with a bit of effort and some creativity, you should be able to either find the electives your child will enjoy or be able to put together your own curriculum for one.

Have your children taken any electives they enjoyed? Share what you have done in the comments.

How to select electives for your high schooler
Homeschool electives
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Meryl van der Merwe

Meryl homeschooled her 4 children and during that time started teaching at the local homeschool co-op. She still teaches there - as well as online at FundaFunda Academy. In addition, she coaches homeschool Science Olympiad and Quiz Bowl teams and an inner-city First Lego League team. In her spare time she loves reading and traveling.
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