The
Relaxed
Home Schooler®
Mary Hood, Ph.D.
High School
Recordkeeping:
Finding
the Right
Balance
Even the mostrelaxedhomeschool- ers sometimes get a bit stressed and paranoid as high school rolls around. They wonder if there is
any way they can maintain a family-like
environment, while still coming up with a
transcript that will help their students get
into college.
In addition, the question arises: How
much should the parent help out with planning and recordkeeping at this age and how
much should the student be expected to do
on his own?
If your desire is to stay flexible and re-
laxed, a balance must be found for both
situations. First of all, of course, a parent
must be aware of the typical requirements
for college entrance:
• 4 years of science (at least two that are
“lab”)
• 4 years of English
• 4 years of math
• 4 years of social studies
• 2 years of a foreign language, plus
electives
Of course, some state laws and univer-
sities have slightly different requirements,
and there is the occasional situation where
a student can get right in the front door of
his chosen college with a less-than-stellar
transcript. In fact, my first two children
both got into college with something we
wrote up together, entitled, “Submitted in
Lieu of Transcript.”
First of all, once you know the require-
ments of both your state law and the col-
lege your student might want to attend,
keep in mind that there is still room for
The bare minimum for my teens
would be to keep track of their
own assignments, maintain
notebooks, and keep lists of the
books they are reading.
