YOU CAN DO THIS!

If you're feeling lost when it comes to high school, you aren't alone. It can be daunting to know where to start and the fear of failure can be crushing. Our hearts are to set our kids up for success, and I'm here to tell you that it is not only possible, but that homeschooling is the best way to achieve this goal. We have so many success stories of students who have used this all the way through high school, many of them with little to no supplements! We hope this page will be a resource for you as you look forward toward all that God has!

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are credits and how do you track them?

The more traditional "Carnegie Unit" method bases credits on hours. In traditional curriculum, you would operate on the system of 1 credit for a 1-year course.

When should I start tracking credits?

Most families make a four year graduation plan starting at grade 9.

How do credits work with Gather 'Round?

Because credits are based on hours, we put a line on the top of all our worksheet pages in Middle and High School books for students to track time. These subjects can be added up to create credits. For example, we have a lot of philosophy pages throughout our units, but not a full philosophy unit. You might be able to get .5 credits just by logging those hours! The more you track, the more credits you'll gain . . . and you don't have to do it! Our student tracker journal below is designed for your student to track their work and assign/work out their GPA and credits easily.

How does grading work?

Good question! The flexibility and focus of our units can make them hard to grade, so we recommend using another method for high school . . . rubrics. Rubrics are a great assessment tool and can be used to capture the "points" needed for GPAs without formally marking big ideas as right or wrong. Our approach here is not to spoon feed information and expect a specific answer, but rather to provoke original thought and contextual information that has meaning and value for students. Because of this, rubrics are a far richer tool to truly assess progress. (Check out our free printable one below!)

Is it really enough?

We have lots of parents who say it is, even ones who have successfully graduated students or sent them to college or university. It's best to sit down with your student and work out not just their four-year-plan, but their landing spot as well. Different goals have different requirements, and you may need to supplement in some areas to help your student succeed.

What about labs?

While we don't have official lab "classes" we do have lots of experiments that work for the lab requirements that some states and provinces have. For this, we recommend doing the experiment pages that are easy to skip and doing a lab report along with them (see the template below). This helps you track the time of the hands-on portion of the lesson. If this seems daunting, remember, we have a full chemistry experiment book you can do and are working on more!

Are there any subjects Gather 'Round doesn't cover?

Yes, while our units can cover nearly every subject, there are a few that we do not offer: foreign languages and high school math.

We are halfway through our second unit for my first high schooler’s freshman year. I was nervous, but we are already seeing such benefits from using Gather Round for high school! Such a blessing for our family.

Having three high school students I wanted to make sure it would be "enough"... and it is. One of my kids is dual enrolled at a technical college and it's been a huge relief.

My high schooler is doing Careers and Trades and loving it. She even got a real job from an internship!

We completed the Government and US History units. Nearly everything covered on the citizenship test was included!

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Find out your local laws

Your state, province, or country will have certain outcomes or requirements for graduation that you need to look into first. Often these are found on your state or provinces department of education website. The HSLDA is a legal defense organization for homeschoolers and an amazing source of information and support. Click on the button to the right to search for your local laws and requirements.

If the laws seem stringent in your region, talk to other homeschool families before you panic. Often expectations are laid out on paper without any real means of enforcement.