College Prep Tips for Homeschoolers

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In our list of college prep tips for homeschoolers, there are also just life prep tips. So, if your kids are not headed to college, I know there is still info here that will help. I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting back on what worked and where we could have done better in our homeschooling and life-prep skills.

I’m sharing lessons we’ve learned putting two of our kids through homeschool, college, and graduate school. I’m not going to lie, homeschooling high school takes some planning and preparation that the earlier years didn’t require. In the elementary and middle school years, the goal is to give students a good base of knowledge and skills to get them ready for high school. 

The goal of high school is to get students ready for life.

Some students will enter the workforce, and others will go to college. Regardless of their chosen path, the tips below are written for everyone.

College Prep Tips for Homeschoolers

Career Exploration

One of the most important life prep tips for homeschoolers addresses the question, “What do you want to do for a career?” It’s best to find out early if your child even needs to go to a 4-year college, technical school, pursue an apprenticeship at a company, or something else.

When we started planning for high school, my daughter was unsure of what she wanted to do when she graduated. She didn’t know if she wanted to spend 4 years in college, get experience through internships and apprenticeships, or join the military. I knew I wanted to put her in the best position to win, so we researched what each path would require and what life would be like in each scenario.

A helpful tool that we used was the Career Exploration Bundle from 7 Sisters Homeschool. This resource has a career exploration questionnaire and workbook to find out what makes your teen tick and what interests them. It really helped my daughter narrow her interests. There is, also, an interview guide that is so helpful when applying for jobs and internships.

In our daughter’s case, she wants to work with exotic animals in a zoo or rescue setting. Knowing that allowed us to plan what courses she needed to take and experience she needed to acquire. We could also start looking at colleges that had programs to get her to her goal.

 Learn and Reinforce Life Skills

If you have teens who are now driving, do you remember the first, “Mom, I have a flat tire phone call?” or “I’m okay, the car is a little bent up, but I was in an accident.” This is then followed by either instructing them what to do or driving over to where they are. (If you’re fortunate to have them local.)

There are so many life skills are kids need to learn before living on their own, but it is impossible to teach every skill they’ll need, but we can close that gap.

Two years after my oldest graduated college, I asked him what things he wished he knew before graduating high school. He knew how to repair his car and handle little fixes around the house, but there were some skills he wishes he’d had. Here were some of his responses:

• How to budget
• How to apply for and get a credit card
• How to cook budget-friendly meals
• Understanding the stock market

We had focused on teaching him shop skills, car care and repair skills, simple home and yard maintenance skills, but it takes a lot of time and work to cover every life skill.

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Teach Independent Learning

Your high school student needs to develop independent learning skills early, so they can be ready to jump right into their life’s work or college work. Start teaching independence in middle school. Teach them how to find information on their own. Show them how to follow a syllabus. Assign project that they have to finish on their own. By the time your student finishes high school, they should be independent learners ready for life and college.

If your child is planning on being an entrepreneur, just think of all the things they have to research–whether to form an LLC or corporation, what taxes they need to file, what’s the best equipment for their business. Being able to research and find the best information so they can make informed decisions is a must-have skill.

Onto our next college prep tip for homeschoolers–which is closely related to independent learning.

Make Sure Your Student Knows How to Schedule and Plan Their Commitments

When a student graduates and starts working or attends college, it will be shockingly apparent that the days of being spoon-fed information and having someone reminding them to do their work is over. Our kids need to be independent learners. This is a skill that should be developed before a student even gets there.

One of my mistakes with my first homeschool graduate is that I planned and scheduled all of his academic work, rather than bringing him in on the lesson scheduling and giving him the independence to determine what to do and when.

For my next child, we discussed where we were each Monday, where we needed to be at the end of the week, and upcoming due dates for tests and projects. From there, she scheduled her days and weeks. By the time she reached college, she had her first semester planned out by the end of the first full week of classes.

Whether you use a simple ruled notebook as a planner or purchase a formal planner, please make sure your child has the skills to outline their week, or as a college student, how to read a syllabus and place assignments on a calendar.

Plan All 4 Years of High School At Once

In our early years of homeschooling, our curriculum plans were pretty loose. We covered the necessary basics (math, reading, and writing), but we also let our studies be led more by interests and not so much by curriculum. The kids might be interested in turtles for a while, so we would dive into a turtle unit study. Then, they might be all about the Civil War, so that’s the direction we would take.

High school is different. You need to think of it in one 4 year chunk. There are certain state and college requirements that need to be met. If you don’t have a plan for meeting them within 4 years, your student might take longer than 4 years to graduate. This doesn’t mean that you can’t still follow students’ interests. It just means that you need to plan it well so that all the graduation criteria are met.

Here are some great resources for creating a 4-year high school plan:

How To Make A Four Year High School Plan – BlogSheWrote.com

Free High School Planning Sheet – Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool

Free Excel Four Year High School Planning Sheet – StartsAtEight.com

Aim for college admissions requirements and state graduation requirements.

When creating a high school curriculum plan, you will want to look at the overall credits needed in each area. You could look to your state’s graduation requirements, but chances are those are not going to be enough to be accepted into many colleges.

Think about the 2-year or 4-year colleges that your student may want to attend. If your child is headed to pursue some sort of certification, look at their admissions requirements and aim for those. If you do not have any idea what college they might want to attend, aim high.  If they are meeting the highest requirements, more doors will be open to them.

I looked at the University of Illinois (we live in Illinois) and a couple top private universities here in the Midwest. It turns out that their curriculum requirements were different and a lot higher than the Illinois state high school graduation requirements – especially for STEM majors.

Related post: Tips For Homeschooling High School

Discuss Financial Planning Early

Hopefully, you’ve been able to give thought to and, possibly, saving for college expenses. Begin scholarship research early, even in middle school.

If your student is moving out on their own after graduation while they work or start a business, have them work on a budget. Teach them about credit scores, how credit and debit cards work.

Also, talk about identity theft and how to protect and prepare for a stolen credit card. This was a life skill we have dealt with several times in the last four years. Definitely teach your teen what to do if their debit or credit card is stolen. We learned that our credit union is not as friendly as the credit card companies when it comes to helping account holders navigate a theft. In fact, our credit union operates on the premise that if you don’t tell them within 24 hours, the theft is on the account holder. So, do teach your children to utilize the daily report that many banks offer to text or email.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FASFA) opens each year on October 1. Apply as soon as possible for the best aid. Be sure to research what is needed for application at least six months before October 1!

Take as Many Classes as Possible in High School

This piece of advice came from my daughter. She looks back now at high school and remembers all of the interesting classes she could have taken, especially in her area of interest. Along with this, she urges teens to give each class 100%. During the teen years, we are pulled in many directions by sports, peer pressure, work and volunteering, but it’s so important to take advantage of getting knowledge and skills to help us determine what exactly we want to do after graduation.

She also suggested that those struggling with a subject be open to getting help. Oftentimes, we see our inability to excel in an area, like math, as something we just have to tolerate. Don’t let pride or embarrassment get in your way; seek and accept help for an area of struggle. (For her, it was math, as she has dyscalculia.)

Volunteer/Internships

Volunteering and taking part in internships can be a part of career exploration. It is a good way for students to learn about organizations and career paths. Volunteer hours also look great on college applications.

My daughter’s volunteer experience has solidified her drive to become a zookeeper. Working side by side with zoo professionals and getting to ask them questions about their jobs and educational background has been the single best college/career prep that she has taken part in.

Keep a Running Resume

Starting in 9th grade (or sometimes 8th), keep a running list of jobs (paid and voluntary), work experience (paid and voluntary), awards, and special projects. (Maybe your child organized and ran a community service project or went on a missions trip.) This is the start of their first resume and can be used to fill out job applications. As they get older and more work experience, obviously, these early entries will drop off. But it’s a good habit for them to start and keep throughout their career.

Visit Colleges

Choosing a college might be as simple as the location or price. If your student knows the field they want to go into, you need to research the schools that have programs that will support that. Not all colleges and universities are the same. Make a list of colleges that fit your needs and schedule visits.

A college campus can be intimidating to a high school student. Schedule a couple visits with local colleges even if your student has no interest in them to get your feet wet. The more comfortable a student feels the more they will be able to take in what they need to know about the college.

When you visit a college that your student is interested in, ask lots of questions. You will want to know about things like their programs. housing, student aid, placement rate, and career readiness programs.

Test Prep

A major factor that colleges look at for acceptance and scholarships is ACT/SAT scores. Find out which test is common in your area and with the colleges your student is interested in. Then, start preparing. There are prep books and both online and live courses available.

We are using the ACT Prep Bootcamp from College Prep Science. There are live classes available in our area, but the times don’t work with our schedule. We opted for the online version. My daughter can take the course when it works with her schedule.

I hope you find these helpful. Several of these were suggested by my own kids. It’s easier to write a list of things to do once you’re several years down the road and look back.

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