Electives are an excellent way to delve into topics and interests – no matter how strange they seem – in your child’s middle and high school years. There’s your typical shop and home economics, but also specifics like aviation or hieroglyphs. Think back…when else did you have so much freedom to explore? As homeschooled teens, the world is their oyster!
Elective classes give them a chance for career exploration, too. Your student may discover that he doesn’t really want to be a veterinarian after all….or that he loves to write!
If you want some inspiration or just a quick-start guide, discover several free downloads of elective course curricula for specialized electives in our Teachers Pay Teachers store.
Choosing electives for high school can be both exciting and nerve-wracking. If it’s a class outside of the core curriculum (required courses for graduation), then it’s an elective class. What do colleges want to see? What does your child really need? And how do you know what to pick…?
Electives can be a good way to make high school fun, to bring some moments of levity to a day crowded with the intense courses found in these upper grades, particularly in a college prep scenario. What is your child interested in? Which hobbies does s/he gravitate toward? Are there any career interests yet? This is a good way to let colleges know more about your student, as they see which electives made the cut and ended up on the transcript.
If your student doesn’t know what they want to take and / or doesn’t have a field of interest for a possible future career yet, it might be time to check out a Career Exploration course. The Career Clusters Student Interest Survey is an inventory that helps narrow down your child’s field of interest based on preferences, hobbies, and skills. It takes about fifteen minutes to complete and then shows the top three fields of interest for possible careers. This metric includes sixteen different ’career clusters,’ including jobs ranging from entry-level to professional, and is a great way to determine elective choice!
If you have the opportunity, it will benefit your student to take elective choices aligning with his or her career interests. This will help with determining if that is a good fit (it’s better to find this out in high school than once you’ve paid for that college training!), and will give them some introductory level knowledge, which can be a leg up in the job market.
- Once you’ve taken the Career Clusters Student Interest Survey and have results in hand, look at the top three clusters. Find them below to see which careers and elective choices would be a great fit! Get a printable copy of the table here.
- Explore more with the Guide to Middle & High School Electives.
Have an open discussion about future goals and plans with your high schooler. Are they considering college? Military? Vocational-technical school? Starting a business? Each of these post-graduation paths will benefit from a variety of elective opportunities.
Depending on their future goals, create your high school plan. First fill in your state graduation requirements. Then add in all the interest-based ideas your teen has and work toward filling in the elective, and sometimes the core classes as well, with those interests.
Be sure to check with your local and state laws regarding what is required for graduating from homeschool high school. Note the classes, credits, and other details so that when your student reaches their senior year, your transcript is ready to roll. If you need help, the Sparks Academy School Counselor can help with creating a four-year plan.
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