Homeschool credits?

Question

i dont understand how you get credits to graduate.

i live in michigan, which doesnt have many standards.

you dont have to submit any work to the state or schools.

i just dont get it.

fill me in, please.

tell me everything you know.

please.

Answer 1

Homeschooling does not work the same way public school does.  There are not "credits", per se.  You simply complete your education according to the laws of your state and the requirements of the parent/teacher or the homeschool program that the family uses, if they choose to use a program.

Once you are done, you "graduate".  Of course, you can take the same courses offered in high school if you wish, and you would get "credit" for it.

A parent can issue a diploma (which is just a decoration that says you have completed a course of study).  Much more important are your transcripts and SAT/ACT scores.

Michigan sounds like a very homeschool friendly state!  That is awesome for you if you homeschool there.

Answer 2

Credits are units of study, basically.  Homeschool parents can issue their own credits.  Basically 1 credit is for a 1 year course, or for somewhere between 120 - 150 hours of study and instruction.  While everyone is saying homeschoolers don't earn credits, those I have spoken to DO keep track of credits earned and record them on a transcript.  Many people confuse "credits earned" with "accreditation", accreditation means that some  outside organization accredits your school and makes sure that it meets their standards.  Most homeschoolers are not accredited, though some use accredited correspondence schools.  But for "credits earned" on your homemade transcript, your parents decide what it takes to earn a credit.  For example a year long Algebra course would be 1 Math credit, and a half year health class would be 1/2 credit.   Many homeschool catalogs tell you how many credits each course is designed to be worth also.

Here is more about credits:

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegi...

I suggest the book, "And What About College" it explains a lot about how to take care of transcripts, credits, and grades.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...

Answer 3

My parents and I kept a portfolio of my work, a reading list, a list of activities/volunteer work, and a report card of sorts with credits and grades listed.  Most of our grades were pass/fail though.  

When it came time to graduate a friend of mine was really happy that she had three more credits than she needed to graduate (she went to public school).  My family and I compared my credits to the number of public school credits needed to graduate and I had almost three times the amount needed to graduate from public school!  We laughed pretty hard at that!  

I had so many credits though because as a homeschooler, I could count babysitting as child development, cooking dinner as home ec., I had the time to be in choir and orchestra (in public school I would have had to pick one), plus I ran my own business, volunteered, worked on political campaigns, took four dance classes a week, art lessons, quartet, and violin and piano lessons.  Every one of those things was counted as a credit for me.  So you can see how they would add up!

Answer 4

You don't need credits as such when you're homeschooled.

As a homeschooler, it is your parents who decide what you have to do in order to graduate from high school. It's easy, straightforward and simply goes:

i) your parents decide on your required course of study, i.e. what you need to do before you can graduate from school

ii) you do it

iii) your parents graduate you (and issue you with a diploma if that's what you want).

If you're planning on going onto college/university, you/your parents'll need to keep a transcript of what courses etc you've completed; however, the giving of credits is really just a management tool for schools and,as such, are both superfluous and irrelevant in home-education.