One concern parents have when faced with homeschooling high school is whether their curriculum choices will adequately prepare their students for college. Like many things about homeschooling, there is no single correct answer to which curriculum a parent should use. The choice depends largely on the nature of your homeschooling, your child’s needs, and your goals for your child’s education. I guess the reason there are so many homeschool curriculum options is because there are so many different types of homeschoolers!

One of the reasons our family shops at Costco is to avoid being overwhelmed by the number of options. Basically, there is a house brand and a size (HUGE). When we start homeschooling, we feel a bit overwhelmed by the number of curriculum options available to us as parents.

My strong recommendation is to choose a curriculum that is designed for homeschoolers to use. This type of curriculum does not assume that the teacher has achieved a particular level of proficiency. Choosing such a curriculum will allow you to learn together with your student (if that is your desire). A secondary benefit with such a curriculum is that it makes it easier for your student to learn on their own. Learning to educate themselves provides a great advantage for high school students studying at home. Both of my children tackled and mastered high school calculus and physics with virtually no parental supervision. They were given the book, the answer key, the video tutorial, the task sheet, and instructed to “go ahead and learn.”

You may think we let our children down by not teaching them, but we actually did them a huge favor. My children entered college with a competitive advantage over students who had not learned this critical skill. In fact, my children became so comfortable being responsible for their education that they had little difficulty meeting the additional college expectations.

Choosing the right curriculum for your high school student requires careful planning and a lot of discussion. Be sure to let your son or daughter play an integral role in selecting the high school curriculum. They are the ones who need to live with these options, so it is in your best interest to involve them. There are no fatal mistakes when it comes to choosing your high school curriculum. That’s one of the joys of homeschooling independently – you can always switch books mid-term!