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7 things your high schooler should be doing this summer

7 things your high schoolers should do this summer

While most high schoolers would just love to kick back and have fun all summer, they do need to remember that college admission counselors are interested in how they have spent their time at high school – and that includes the summers.

In addition, there are many things students have time fitting in during the school year that they can do over the summer when they have more free time.

Here are 7 things I suggest they do – and then I will give you an easy way to encourage them to actually do these things! (The special offer at the end is only for homeschoolers, but things listed below apply to all high schoolers)

1. College Visits

Chances are you will traveling at some point this summer. Be sure to visit some campuses while you are away if you can. Even if you don’t do a formal tour, just walking around a campus is helpful.

This definitely helped my own children get a sense of what would be important to them. Some students will realize they want to be in an urban environment. For some, the beauty of the campus will be important. And for others, it may be the size.

2. Community Service

If you are having trouble fitting in community service during the semester, do it in the summer. Find something that fits your child’s interests. If they enjoy animals – local shelters are always needing help. If they enjoy meeting people from other cultures, find the organizations who help refugees in your area.

3. Vocabulary improvement

A good vocabulary is essential if your child is going to score well on standardized tests and be able to read the material they will get given at college. Find an app or game to bring in some fun into the process. An app I recommend is Vocabulary.com.

4. Look for scholarships

Summer is a great time to create a list of scholarships that students can apply for during the coming year. There are scholarships for all grades in high school, so don’t leave this until their senior year.

5. Earn some money

If your teen is too young to get a job, there are other ways to make money. They can offer to pet sit, dog walk, do yard work, babysitting etc. They could also start their own small business to make money! Not only is this a way to start saving for college, but it also looks impressive.

6. Practice for standardized tests

It is hard to fit this in on top of everything else during the school year, so it is a good idea to try to do some of it over the summer. Even just doing the ACT-question-of-day would be worth-while.

7. Record activities from the past year

If you haven’t kept this up during the year, do it in the summer. Record any extra-curricular activities (sports, clubs, leadership positions, awards, etc). If you wait until you are a senior applying to colleges to do this, you will have forgotten many things.

How can you achieve this?

Now you know what they SHOULD be doing – but how do you actually get them to do these things?!

I am sure you don’t enjoy nagging anymore than I do.

So, we came up with a plan to help you.

Register your homeschooled high schooler for our summer challenge. In the challenge, they will earn points for doing many of the activities mentioned above and many others that will be beneficial to them too. There are over 30 challenges! They have the whole of June and July to work on them and can do as many / few as they want to.

Each student who earns at least 30 points will get a $5 gift card. And the top students will win some great prizes!

If you don’t think our prizes will be enough of a drawcard, you could always add in some of your own. For example, you could offer a gift card to their favorite ice cream place if they achieve 40 points, a new X box game if they reach 100 points – you get the idea! I know I have discovered that rewards are FAR more successful than nagging!

The challenge is essentially a college prep class … for the ridiculously low price of $5. The info in the challenges and the links we share will be worth a LOT more than that. We do give direction on how to achieve each challenge and even throw in our Intro to Google Drive Unit Study (worth $20!) free for students who sign up for the challenge.

The Summer High School Challenge starts on June 1, but students can continue registering until July 15th. They have the whole month to do as many challenges as they want to. This means it can fit into anyone’s schedule and it won’t matter if they will be away for part of the month.

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Meryl van der Merwe

Meryl homeschooled her 4 children and during that time started teaching at the local homeschool co-op. She still teaches there - as well as online at FundaFunda Academy. In addition, she coaches homeschool Science Olympiad and Quiz Bowl teams and an inner-city First Lego League team. In her spare time she loves reading and traveling.