Planning Homeschool High School Resources

We’re on day 2 now of 5 Days of Homeschool High School Planning and you have all your courses chosen and it’s time to figure out what resources you are going to use for each course. Now, the trick is, what books/classes/tools to use??

Don’t forget to keep your detailed title of your course in mind. What are your goals for the course, and what do you want to achieve? Make sure you’re finding resources that attempt to address those things.

Now, I’m not going to give you a list of websites because then this list could get outdated pretty fast, and there’s no way I know all the resources available for all the subjects out there. So, what I will do is help you help yourself. Here’s some tactics to find what you are looking for.

Blogger curriculum posts

Most homeschool bloggers post their curriculum for the year, and it normally is even pinned as a menu item on their homepage somewhere. Find a blogger that’s homeschooling a similar child to your own and check out what they’re using. Here’s some blogger networks/group blogs that should give you a head start:

The Homeschool Classroom (disclosure: I’m a writer there also)
iHomeschool Network
The Homeschool Village

Homeschool forums

Along the same lines as blogger posts, see what other people are using, and you can later read about how they liked it. The Well Trained Mind forums very often have people posting their curriculum list and asking for feedback. This is invaluable! Sometimes the poster will describe their kid and why they chose things, further helping you discover new resources for your unique child.

Box curriculum

Box curriculum (curriculum where you can buy an entire grade’s worth of materials from one source) can be a great source for either the entire year’s worth of materials, or just a course or two. K12 and Oak Meadow are well known publishers that have a good reputation in the homeschool community and extend into high school. Kinza Academy recommends Great Books Academy and though I’ve never heard of it before reading Kinza’s recommendation, Kinza has a good reputation themselves.

AP resources

If you’re aiming for an honors level course or attempting a college level exam, AP resources are sometimes available used. Many times you can find online classes at an AP level, though this is admittedly more expensive. Hippocampus.org is one of many online resources for various courses, and the best part is it’s FREE! Just pay for the book(s) and the lesson plans are self paced and include writing assignments/practice problems. Since it’s free, there is not teacher support, but it’s definitely worth a look. Free-clep-prep.com is also a fantastic resource, though it is mainly focused on studying for a test and not necessarily working towards earning a high school credit.

Google

Captain obvious? Sure, but seriously, take the time and search, search, search. Look for reviews on Amazon, look at who their competitors are and what they have to offer. If you aren’t using a box curriculum and you aren’t spending hours searching online for your materials, you’re probably not doing it right.

Publisher’s Recommendations

Some publishers provide recommendations for their favorite book and materials with other companies and it’s worth a look. For instance, Institute for Excellence in Writing suggest Excellence in Literature for high school Lit (I have a hard time seeing if they are sister companies, or just buddies, but nonetheless, it’s another resource). Keep the ads and flyers you get when you make an order and check it out.

Where else have you found information about resources?