How to Show High School Credits for an Unschooler

Question: My child is 9th grade level and we have always unschooled. I would like to continue homeschooling, but I also want something to show to colleges. Can you give me some tips on keeping track of what they learn for high school credit?

Answer: While I am not an unschooler, I have always had a method in the back of my mind that I thought might be useful to unschoolers. I came up with it after viewing the homeschool portfolios of a couple of unschooled children who went on to college. I hope it will help.

As unschoolers learn whatever fits their mood at the moment, they may have a dozen or more subjects going on at the same time. (Isn't it funny how some people think unschoolers do nothing?) To keep track of what is learned when, without setting up a rigid schedule that may not be conducive to learning, you will want to keep a spreadsheet (see image).

Across the top of the spreadsheet, write the subjects that the child is most likely to study, leaving a few spots for additional subjects. Along the side, you will put the date. As the child studies a subject, you can fill in the appropriate square with a quick note on the subject studied, and how long. For example, if they spent the morning transfixed on cells, looking through a microscope, then looking up cells online, and doing a cell chart, labeling the parts of the cell, you can write "biology-cells, 3 hours", under the science heading. If they spend the afternoon reading a biography of Abraham Lincoln, you can write down "4 hours, reading biography of Abraham Lincoln" under the history heading.

As your child will surely find you following him around with a chart and pencil, I suggest you don't do that. Instead, have them keep a learning journal with them at all times, and have them write down what they learned each day and how long they spent. This way, you can fill in the chart squares every few days, or on the weekend.

When it is time to create the child's homeschool portfolio, you will be able to clearly see what has been studied in the course of their high school unschooling journey. You will have the titles of all the books they read, and a record of every place you went that can be counted toward a subject. You can compile the hours they spent on each subject, and award credits accordingly. (75-90 hours equals one half credit, and 150 to 18 hours equals 1 full credit). You will want to split up subjects like math, science, and history into separate classes like algebra, geometry, etc., for math, biology, astrology, geology, and chemistry for science, and American history, world history, and government, for social studies. If they've spent 300 or more hours on French, be sure to give them credit for French 1 and 2.

Basically, look at everything your child did, and make an even more detailed chart to cover the 4 years of high school. Don't forget to add any classes your child may have taken at a local college or co-op to their transcript. With this method, you can create a homeschool portfolio (by subject instead of by year) that would rival that of the most detailed classically homeschooled student.