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through intensive informal study or formal coursework, volunteer work, part-time jobs, or a complex combination of them all. A teen interested in art, for instance, might sketch and paint on his own, enroll in a community college sculpture class, take an art survey course by correspondence, and do face painting at children’s birthday parties and Christmas window painting for a few local businesses. Or the teen who spends much of her days on the computer may find herself writing computer shareware or designing Web pages, as she learns more and more about the systems she uses. It’s not uncommon for homeschooled teens to find their interests developing into a part-time job or business, which can provide funds for technical training or college, or develop further into a full-time career.

Back to School: Joining the Mainstream

Some homeschooling families plan from the beginning for their children to enter high school after completing eighth grade. They may have reservations about their ability to give their children the kind of secondary education they believe necessary, preferring to leave laboratory sciences, trigonometry, and other college preparatory courses to more experienced professionals. Or they may believe that, after a few years of homeschooling, their children have a solid enough grounding in both academic basics and their family values to handle high school successfully. Sometimes it is the homeschooled student who prefers to try high school: to prove she can handle the work, to become more involved in teenage social life, or simply to have a change.

It’s important to plan ahead if you and your child are interested in your child attending a public high school. (Private schools are often more flexible than public schools.) Oddly enough, it is often harder for a homeschooler to get into high school than into college. Many high schools have quite formulaic approaches to granting credit and are reluctant to recognize work done elsewhere according to standards too different from their own. In some jurisdictions, homeschoolers can enter high school with little difficulty at the beginning of the freshman year, but they find it almost impossible to get in at the upper grade levels. A few jurisdictions allow no high school credit whatsoever for work done as a homeschooler. Others give placement tests to determine grade level and how much credit to award for previous work.

If you think your family may be interested in high school, contact the schools you are interested in as early as possible, even two or three years before your child will be ready to attend, so that you will have time to adapt your homeschooling program to any requirements. Find out whether the schools have policies concerning homeschoolers and get details. What documentation of your child’s learning will they want to see? Will your child need to take placement tests? Is there specific course material your child should cover before entering high school? Are these requirements actually mandatory or just recommendations?

If the school you are interested in has no existing policy regarding homeschooling, ask to talk to the principal about your case. You may be lucky and find a principal with the authority and willingness to make homeschooling policy on an individual basis. If you are less fortunate, you may find yourself with no alternative but to ask the school board to create a formal policy. You may want to ask your local or state homeschooling group for help and advice on what’s worked in other districts.

Once your child is enrolled, you can generally expect few problems related to having homeschooled. Your child may take a few days or weeks getting used to the atmosphere and the schedule and may have to fill in on odds and ends of a few subjects, but most homeschooled students perform well both academically and socially in high school.

High School à la Carte

Some states and school districts allow part-time enrollment for homeschoolers. If your child is interested in a specific subject or activity but unwilling to enroll full-time to get them,