3 Ways to Plan for High School

Do you have a child in middle school? Are you planning on homeschooling them through high school? If so, now is the time to plan for high school.

You don’t want to wait until they’re already in high school to start figuring things out. So, let’s talk about specific ways you can begin to plan ahead.

3 Ways to Plan for High School

Planning for homeschooling high school is something you should be doing during your child’s middle school years.  Your planning should include both things they are doing in middle school to prepare, as well as what and how you will carry out their homeschool high school years.

Here are 3 Ways to Plan for High School while your child is still in middle school.

1. Work Towards Independent Study During the Middle School Years

Use the middle school years to transition your children from the guided years of elementary school to the more independent work of high school. One of the ways you can do this is by transitioning them over to a planner they are responsible for.

For instance, in the elementary years you might create the exact lesson plans for each day, creating a checklist for each week of the things they need to complete.

In middle school, you can convert it to a homeschool plan that still has you planning the overall year by breaking down the work for each week. But then the daily logging of work, and planning out how they will finish that week’s work, is up to them.

Your middle grader may choose to do all five math lessons in one day, instead of one each day. Or they may choose to do some subjects in blocks and some spread out. However they choose to do it is up to them, but the end result is that they have been independent in planning their work for the week.

2. Include Them in the Decision Making Process

The middle school years is a great time to plan for high school by asking your students what they want (within reason, of course). Include them in the process of choosing what type of history you will study, or how you will study it.

For instance, you might want to get a head start in teaching your child a language, but they might choose a language that you didn’t have in mind. And that’s okay! Follow their interests. By doing this, your students will be much more invested in the learning because they have the freedom to learn something of interest to them.

Another way you can include your kids in the middle school decision-making process is to allow them more freedom with the time and the location in which they do their schoolwork. Of course, you’ll want times that you are all together and you are available to help with some of the more challenging subjects.

But if possible, you might allow one of your children to get up earlier (or stay up later, if that’s their jam) to get school work done in the quiet of the morning (or night). Of course, this depends on the maturity of your children and their ability to work independently, but if it’s working for them and they’re getting their necessary goals completed, you can allow them the freedom to do what works for them.

Letting your child work in different locations–such as on the back porch when the weather is good or on the living room floor instead of a school desk–can be another way to include your middle grader in the decision-making process. Children learn in different ways and you might find that this is exactly what works best for your student.

While this might not seem like a precise way to plan for high school, it is an important step in the direction of becoming a functioning adult (or high schooler before that) who knows what works and what doesn’t for them and is able to problem-solve ways to accomplish what they need to get done.

3.  Choose Curriculum/Programs That Suit Their Learning Styles

Knowing and understanding your child’s learning style helps you adjust your approach to the high school years. For instance, if you have a child who doesn’t love writing, you might find a history curriculum that includes American Literature and writing. This could mean your student won’t have to double down on writing for both history and English.

Or perhaps one of your children will do better with a video-based curriculum while another would excel with a curriculum that has a textbook or living books as the foundation.

In closing, I highly recommend using the middle school years as transition and preparation years for high school. Taking the time during the middle school years to plan for high school will save you loads of time and stress when the time comes!

Other Ideas for the Middle School and High School Years

• Oh, The Middle School Years!
• Tips to Help Easily Distractible Teens Focus
• 10 Tips for Teaching the Art of Essay Writing
• Top 7 Study Tips for Middle and High School Students
• How to Survive Homeschooling Your Teenage Son
• Do You Struggle with Finding the Right History Curriculum for Your Homeschool