A customizable homeschool curriculum based on great books

The high school grades at Great Books Homeschool work a bit differently from lower grades. Follow this guide to take advantage of all we have to offer high school students.

To learn more about course credit requirements for college-bound homeschoolers, check out our guide to homeschooling high school.

Adding courses

When you join a high school grade, we help you sign up for a set of core courses and electives offered by Great Books Homeschool. The core courses consist of the standard courses needed to graduate and be accepted into most universities, plus courses in other areas that we think are important such as life skills, technology, entrepreneurship and philosophy. You may view your four-year course schedule from the Course Schedule page when signed into your account.

You can click on each course in your Course Schedule page to view a course description and a listing of core and optional video lectures, readings, assignments and other components that make up the course. Each book and other course component is linked to its own a description page, which contains instructions and recommendations for successful completion.

The core set of courses is intended as a starting point, and you may modify it as much as you like to create the personalized high school education that is right for you. Use the Edit Courses page to move courses to different grades and semesters, or remove them entirely.

In addition to the standard courses offered by Great Books Homeschool, you can add any other courses you are taking using the Add Courses page. These can be dual enrollment courses, intensive extracurricular activities such as sports or music, or simply courses that you design on your own.

We recommend signing up for six to seven credits' worth of courses per year. If you do this and follow the suggestions during course selection process, your coursework should satisfy admission requirements for most American universities. You may view a sample course schedule here.

Customizing courses

Our default curriculum schedules high school coursework from August 1 to May 31 each year, and leaves June and July free. You can modify this to suit your own preferred schedule as desired, using the "Change schedule" option in the Edit Courses page of your account. You may also use this option to move courses to different high school grades.

The Curriculum Materials page of your account displays the core and optional books, video lectures and other materials for all of your courses together on a monthly basis. Core assignments are key course components that count as part of the credit hours used to calculate the number of credits the course is worth in your transcript. Optional assignments may be completed if you have the time and interest, but are not required.

From the Curriculum materials page, you can reschedule course components, remove them entirely, or add your own. If you choose to remove a core reading or other assignment, we recommend that you complete a similar alternative assignment in its place in order to preserve the total credit hour value of the course. This may either be one of the optional readings listed in your curriculum page, or one that you add yourself using the "Add Item" link at the bottom of the curriculum page course component list.

To facilitate substitution, we display the number of credit hours for each core and optional component in the course description page. This is the estimated number of hours that it will take the average student to complete the reading, video lecture series or other assignment listed. Students should spent at least 60 credit hours on a half-credit course, and 120 hours for a full credit course.

Adding electives

Our suggested core curriculum provides a full schedule of six courses for the first semester of ninth grade. For all semesters thereafter, we leave space to add one or two elective courses of your choice.

You may add an elective in one of two ways. First, you can choose the elective during the initial course selection process, or at any time afterward using the Add Courses page of your account.

You can also create your own elective courses. These self-designed electives are a continuation of the free Project Time scheduled in the K-8 grades. They may consist of any coherent endeavor undertaken for at least 60 hours (for a half-credit or one-semester course), which results in learning or other self development. Examples include online courses, a research paper on a topic of interest, music lessons, art classes, athletic training, a job or apprenticeship, starting a business, volunteer work, writing a novel, or learning how to cook.

Use the Create Course page to create your own elective courses. Once you have created a course, you can add course components to it using the Add Item option in your curriculum page. Your electives will be included in your transcript and showcase your areas of interest and individuality.

The courses that you add may be edited or removed from the Edit Courses page of your account.

Assigning final grades

Once you have completed the core assignments of a course, go to the Edit Courses page of your account and mark it complete using the "Mark complete" option. At this time, you add a completion date and the final grade assigned by a parent, which will display in your high school transcript and be used to calculate your GPA.

Your transcript

You may generate an official high school transcript at any time using the High School Transcript page.

To facilitate generation of a complete transcript, enter your full name, projected graduation date and other requested information before clicking the Download button. (This information will be used only to facilitate the creation of your transcript, and will not be shared with any third parties.)

The transcript will include all courses in which you are enrolled. Those which you have marked complete will also display the completion date and final grade. The total credit hours displayed at the top of the transcript reflects all courses in which you are enrolled, while the GPA covers only courses that you have marked complete.

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