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This post is part of a 10-day “Tips for Homeschool Moms” series we are doing in combination with several other blogs. For more information about this series and to see the other bloggers and topics, visit this post. That being said, let’s begin our discussion about course selection for the college-bound homeschooler!

Selecting Various Types of Classes

There are several types of classes your homeschooled student can take. Online courses, traditional textbook curriculum at home, and in-person classes at a local homeschool cooperative are all popular options with their own unique benefits. Varying the types of classes your student takes helps them experience different classroom atmospheres and become familiar with various teaching methods. Additionally, it can help reduce boredom with schoolwork. Students will be able to switch between different tasks and not just stare at a screen or book the whole day. 

For online classes, there is also the choice between asynchronous and synchronous options. Asynchronous courses do not have scheduled meeting times for students and teachers to interact. Synchronous classes, on the other hand, have set times each week that students are expected to join a call or video chat. There are also courses, such as ours here, that are entirely self-paced (these usually are graded by the parent). While most of our asynchronous classes still follow due dates and have students submit work to be graded by teachers, these are done entirely on the student’s own schedule. Again, enrolling your student in a mixture of these types of classes is ideal. This will help them be comfortable learning in a variety of ways. For more information on synchronous versus asynchronous online classes, you can listen to this podcast episode from the Homeschooling with Technology podcast.

For traditional “book” curriculum at home, there is also a plethora of options. 7 Sisters offers a selection of no-busywork PDF curriculum for high school. Sonlight and Bookshark are two other popular options that use books (not textbooks!) as the main way the teaching occurs. When selecting book curriculums for your student, try to find ones that include projects or interactive assignments. This helps to keep your student engaged and aids them in retaining information. 

Choosing Courses with Rigor

It is important for your student to take courses that challenge them and push them to become the best student they can be. These courses will build the type of academic and personal skills your child needs to succeed in college-level coursework. In addition to these personal benefits, rigorous courses are a great way to make your student’s application stand out. If your child is looking at competitive universities, honors programs, or scholarships, these courses are essential. Showing these types of courses on a transcript proves to universities that you are prepared for college classes. 

So, how do you get these types of academically challenging courses? Honors, Advanced Placement (AP), and dual enrollment classes are some of the most common methods. For more information about AP and dual enrollment courses, stay tuned for a blog post coming later in this series! For honors courses, here at FundaFunda, we offer an Honors U.S. History class, as well as Biology, Chemistry, and Spanish classes with an optional honors track. You can also look at curriculums you purchase to see if they have an honors option and have your child complete that if possible. 

Picking Electives Wisely

Electives serve many important roles in your student’s high school experience. They are a way to bring in fun, of course, but also to explore career interests and make their transcripts stand out. Ideally, you should allow your high schooler to pick their own electives with a bit of guidance from you. This also gives students a chance to practice some independence and decision-making in their schooling.

Students should try to pick electives that they are interested in as well as some that will introduce them to new topics and allow them to explore. For a long time, I thought I wanted to major in nursing. However, I took an elective psychology class in my junior year, and I am now majoring in Child Psychology. I likely would not have figured this out until much later had I not taken the elective class. 

With so many options, finding where to start can feel overwhelming. We have a blog post here on choosing electives for your homeschooler. 7 Sister’s Homeschool has a blog post with many elective options for high schoolers with various interests. Additionally, the Homeschooling with Technology podcast has an episode on Creating Electives with Online Resources. This episode guides you through designing your own elective for your student. Electives can be a fantastic addition to your student’s high school curriculum when planned and researched thoroughly. So, don’t skip over this part of your course planning!

Blog Series

We hope this post has given you some guidance on course selection for the college-bound homeschooler! This post is part of a 10-day “Tips for Homeschool Moms” series we are doing in conjunction with other homeschool blogs. Our theme is “Preparing Your Homeschooled Teen for College”. You can find all of our posts, as well as the other blogs and series topics linked in this post. Our partners have some excellent experiences and insight to share in their series, so please do check out their blogs!

As always, if you have suggestions, comments, or questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below! Have fun selecting your courses!

The post Course Selection for the College-Bound Homeschooler appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.

College Prep – fun?

This is a guest post from Patrick Daigle.

The summer before my junior year of high school, I never thought that it was possible for college prep to be fun. I was too busy stressing out over the whole process.

I knew what I wanted to do, but I didn’t know where I wanted to go, how to get into my selected college, or how to pay for it all.

The steady influx of letters from colleges nationwide didn’t help either.

Hearing about the contest

I then received a message from my Science Olympiad coach (Meryl van der Merwe) about FundaFunda’s High School Challenge for Homeschoolers. I decided to sign up because I needed help.

Plus, it gave me something to talk to my friends about once summer was over. Next thing I knew, I won the competition (and $150), and I learned so much about preparing for college.

How does the contest work?

When you register for the challenge, you’ll be given a link to an online classroom. On the morning of July 1, all the tasks will be posted to the classroom.

You have until May 15 of the following year to complete as many tasks as you want. There’s only one required task – setting up your scoresheet. All the others can be completed in any order you choose, or not at all.

What kind of tasks are there?

Some tasks are to help you in the college process, such as finding colleges with your needs, determining possibilities for recommendation letters, and discovering scholarships. (I highly recommend this, especially if you want to avoid student debt).

Other tasks help you develop skills that are essential in college, like giving a speech, preparing for the ACT, taking notes, and making a slideshow.

Every task gives you a certain number of points. Naturally, the harder or more complicated the task, the more possible points.

What are the prizes?

At the end of the month, the student with the most points wins $150! Others will also receive Amazon gift cards for being the best at certain challenges (thanks sponsors!)

You can register for the competition here. 

Good luck!

The post Can College Prep Ever Be Fun? appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.

This morning I got an email from a past student who is a high school senior asking if I knew of any scholarships she could apply for. With college and all the costs involved, many students are needing scholarships but don’t always know where to look.

I have graduated 3 children and helped them all find scholarships – many of which they did win. As they were busy with schoolwork and extra-curricula activities I took on the task of finding scholarships they had a chance of winning. Once I found them – they did all the work for the actual application.

I will be honest, it is a long slow process and there is unfortunately no one place to go to find scholarships for college. So, here is a list of where I found scholarships and where you can too.

1. The Colleges they will attend

Most colleges offer numerous scholarships to the students they accept. Some are offered automatically. These are usually the ones that depend on ACT and SAT scores. But others need to be specifically applied for. Look particularly for ones offered by departments in the university – for example, my one son won a Computer Science scholarship at NYU.

2. Scholly App

The Scholly app provides quite a few scholarships I did not find anywhere else. It is well worth the small fee and once you purchase and sign up you also get access to their website if you prefer to navigate through the options that way. And, of course having it on your phone means you can search while waiting in lines etc.

3. The Ultimate Scholarship Book

The Ultimate Scholarship Book is a big book! A huge book! For those who like books instead of working online, this is the one you want! I used to take my copy wherever I went and when I was sitting in the car waiting on kids, or had a few moments before something was about to start, I would work on a page or two. I underlined the ones to look into and then when I was back on a computer I looked them up to see if they were a good fit for my child. Not all the pages apply, of course, but there will be many sections that will.

4. Unigo

I have found Unigo to be the best online search engine for thoroughness. This is just a personal opinion but I suggest you start here by filling out all your child’s information.

5. MoolahSpot

When I don’t have a lot of time and want to take a quick look for scholarships, this is my go-to site. MoolahSpot is quick and easy to use as it doesn’t require pages and pages of info to be entered as most of the other online sites do.

6. The University Network

The University Network is a very nicely laid out website that is easy to navigate. You can choose to find scholarships applicable to your state of residency, for a specific grade level, for a specific GPA, and even based on how they have scored the scholarship according to their own ranking system.

7. Raise Me

I found Raise Me recently and am very excited about using it for my last child. Many colleges have partnered with them to offer scholarships based on what your child achieves in high school – everything from good grades to playing sport and doing community service!

8. Google

If your child has specific hobbies, sports, etc you can google “scholarship” + the term and you will be surprised what comes up. I just tried that for both ‘bowling’ and ‘First Robotics” and both had a nice list!

9.  Other online scholarship search engines

There are many other online scholarship search sites. None of them has every scholarship listed but as one only has 24 hours in the day it just isn’t possible to use every one of them. I have provided my favorites above, but here are some more you can search if you have the time: Peterson’s, Fastweb, Cappex, Collegeboard, Scholarships.com.

Of course, finding scholarships is just the beginning! I highly recommend How to Win College Scholarships by Monica Matthews. It is a quick easy read but packed full of useful tips.

The post Where to find scholarships for college appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.