Making a four-year plan for high school credits, courses, and activities while homeschooling your high school student is an effective way to develop college or university goals. Here is How to Make a Four-Year Homeschool Plan for High School.

When high school students course plan for their high school classes for all four years there are courses that must be taken and there are courses that are suggested to be taken. I will highlight a student high school plan to serve as a foundation for their course selections in high school that will prepare them for college entrance.

In the state of Illinois, there are specific requirements in order to graduate from a public high school. Homeschooled students are not held to these same requirements. However, in order to meet the standard entrance requirements to a university, there are subject courses that a high school student should plan on taking regardless if they do not meet the state graduation requirement.

There really is no need to wait to take classes in college, which will cost a great deal of money, when the high school student can take the course in a public high school or at home in the homeschool classroom.

Illinois Graduation Requirement VS College Entrance Requirement

SUBJECT AREA ILLINOIS COLLEGE

English 4 years 4 years

Mathematics 3 years 4 years

Science^ 2 years 3 or 4 years*

Social Studies^^ 2 years 3 or 4 years*

Foreign Language No requirement 2-4 years *

Seven semesters of Physical Education, One Semester of Health

Elective Credits 4 years 4 years

*dependent upon the degree focus

^ 1-year Biology, 1-year Physical Science,

^^ 1-year US History, 1-semester Economics, 1-semester Civics

It is recommended that any high school student planning on attending a four-year college or university immediately after graduating from high school take the 4th year in science and social studies. For highly competitive colleges and universities, it is highly recommended that the high school student take 4 years of every academic subject.

The following is the list of minimum required credits used to base my planning on.

English/Language Arts, 4 years, 8 credits
Math, 3 years, 6 credits
Science, 2 years, 4 credits
Social Studies, 2 years, 4 credits
P.E., 3.5 years, 7 credits
Health, .5 year, 1 credit
Fine Arts, 1 year, 2 credits
Foreign Language 0 credits required
Electives, 8 credits
TOTAL CREDITS NEEDED to GRADUATE: 40 total credits

Here is the breakdown per year of high school with courses taken and credits earned.

Freshman Year

Geometry, 2 credits
Honors Biology 1-2 w/ Lab, 2 credits
Honors English 1-2, 2 credits
Economics, 1 credit
Health, 1 credit
Latin I-II, 2 credits
P.E., 1 credit
Drawing 1-2, 2 credits
Private Violin Lessons & Performance, 1 credit
Concert Orchestra, 1 credit
Driver’s Ed, 1 credit
TOTAL CREDITS: 16 credits

Sophomore Year

Algebra II, 2 credits
Honors Chemistry w/ Lab, 2 credits
Literary Analysis/English, 2 credits
Classical Rhetoric/Speech, 2 credits
Latin II-IV, 2 credits
Omnibus/Theology/Philosophy, 2 credits
Intro to Computer Programming, 1 credit
Statistics, 1 credit
Private Violin Lessons & Performance, 1 credit
Concert Orchestra, 1 credit
TOTAL CREDITS: 16 credits

Junior Year

Honors Pre-Calculus, 2 credits
AP English, 2 credit
Honors Physics 1-2, 2 credits
AP World History, 2 credit
Latin V-VI, 2 credits
Civics, 1 credit
Private Violin Lessons & Performance, 1 credit
Concert Orchestra, 1 credit
PSAT/SAT preparation
TOTAL CREDITS: 13 credits

After completing the junior year in high school as a homeschool student, my daughter will have completed the required 40 credits in order to graduate in the state of Illinois. In fact, she will have 45 total credit hours. She hasn’t decided on the final plan of action yet for her senior year, but it will most likely be Dual-Enrollment at a local community college.

Dual enrollment is a program that allows high school students to enroll in college courses for credit prior to high school graduation. The great aspect of dual enrollment is the huge cost savings as tuition is reduced for dual enrollment students. The credits earned will apply both to high school diploma requirements and college graduation requisites.

Senior Year - Dual Credit at Community College

English 101, 3 credits
Speech 101, 3 credits
Human Anatomy, 4 credits
Human Physiology, 4 credits
TOTAL CREDITS: 14 credits after 1st semester

My daughter will have then completed high school and all the prerequisites to enter community college, college or university. Currently, she is looking at a Nursing degree.

I have created some Homeschool Planning documents to download that will aid in planning for your own studnet’s journey in high school. These Homeschool Planning for High School documents can be found on my Curriculum Store page for FREE download.

Keep in mind also, the course weight, and the grade multiplier for weighted GPAs (weighted GPAs are on transcripts only).

Weight: Weight is used to determine a student’s grade point average (GPA). Courses that are at the standard weight of 1.0; courses that do not meet daily may have a weight of 0.75, 0.25, or 0.125.

Grade Multiplier: The grade multiplier is used to generate a “weighted GPA”; it is the number used to multiply each semester grade. The purpose of the grade multiplier is to give students a numerical advantage for grades earned in higher-level courses or more challenging learning experiences. The grade multiplier is only used to determine the weighted GPA found on a student’s transcript.

The following multiplier is used:

Honors courses: 1.025

Accelerated courses: 1.05

AP courses: 1.10

HOMESCHOOL 4-YEAR HIGH SCHOOL PLAN