Summertime is for Logging High School Credit Hours

All of life is education. That means that even if the textbooks are closed, your homeschool high schoolers can be chipping away at credits for their transcripts. As you know, one way to earn transcript credits is to log hours. This means to document what you do, when and for how long in a particular subject. When your teen has logged enough hours, they’ve earned a credit. (The number of hours varies from state to state. It can be as little as 120 or as much as 180.) During the summer, education continues. If the family makes a trip to Grandma’s house 3 states away, discuss the difference in terrain, ecosystems and culture. How are most people in the area earning a living? Are you driving through a geographic watershed? The cool thing is that Google goes with you everywhere, so look things up. Have your teen keep a log on their electronic device for Geography (Cultural and Physical Geography). While you’re at Grandma’s, get her to tell family stories. Your teen may think he’s heard them all but not necessarily. As she tells the story, put things in context time-wise. Did this story take place during the Depression, Korean War, the turbulent 1960’s? Log the conversation time. Add these hours to your American History or 20^th Century credit. Going on any science-oriented family trips? Visits to aquariums, arboretums, or nature museums can add to biology hours (we count them as lab time). Other museums can bolster lab hours for chemistry or physics. Phys Ed hours are SO easy to log in the summertime! Family hikes or kayaking can rack up the hours. Yardwork is a great way to learn life skills and responsibility PLUS your teen breaks a sweat and can log phys ed hours. How about some special projects around Grandma’s house? Break a sweat=log hours! Summer break is the time many families do special projects around the house. Do you teach your teen to repair, paint, reorganize? You can log elective credit hours in Home Maintenance or Life Skills. (These days, some traditional schools are calling these credits, along with Financial Literacy, “Key Courses” on the transcript.) Is your teen in drama camp or practicing her musical instrument, you can keep logging their Fine Arts credit through the summer. Attending any summer community concerts? Log those hours. While you are driving from place to place, if you keep audiobooks going in the car, your teen can add those books to her booklist for her next year’s language arts credit. This is a great way to get some classics in that the whole family might enjoy. When my oldest son was in college, we spent a busy summer doing history-related field trips. We totally enjoyed ourselves. When we dropped him off at college he said, “Rats! All those field trips and I couldn’t log any hours!” Have a great summer and log those hours! ************************************************* Vicki Tillman's passion is for helping homeschool teens love their high school years and find their God-given calling. She homeschooled her 5 kids all the way to graduation and served as academic advisor to several hundred local homeschool teens. She is a blogger and curriculum developer for 7SistersHomeschool.com and podcasts at The Homeschool Highschool Podcast. Vicki does career and life coaching at VickiTillmanCoaching.com.