Opting High School Electives4 min read

Do you follow your passion? If yes, then electives are the exciting options for your career growth as well as your personal. Elective ideas help you to learn relaxation learning opportunities for your homeschool child. These do not help teens to develop unique skills but also explore their passions.

Fortunately, I received this opportunity in grade 4, where I had to choose between electronics, music, game, art, cinematography, dance, and the list goes on. I ended up with electronics as I am affectionate with electric concepts, which even helped me be an engineer.

The elective part went as the group of five sections of class 3rd got divided into different sections based on electives. And you won’t believe it, but this is because, with the same interest of people, I evolved into electronics beyond my imagination.

Moreover, as homeschooling families, it even becomes more enticing that the opportunities we can give to our students are fantastic.

What are high school electives?

These are the fun classes that children get to choose to pursue. Elective lists provide teens a better chance to explore their interests, grow their passions, and customize their education. Even though they are more into conventional learning, school-at-home family allows them to succumb their hand into the interest.

Electives are a fantastic way for university students to enhance their records.

Therefore, if a teen has already chosen his career decision, he should consider his elective courses according to his career decision, which helps him work effectively and learn continuously.

Where Can Homeschoolers Find Classes?

It is not difficult to find because of plenty of resources. Homeschoolers and co-ops have many options, although opportunities outside the standard curriculum are more because electives are interest-based.

LOCAL SOURCES FOR HIGH SCHOOL ELECTIVES

• Local community classes: For example, hobby stores for history classes or community centers for pottery.
• Private instructors
• Churches: Few provides community classes like American Sign Language

ONLINE OPTIONS FOR HIGH SCHOOL ELECTIVES

• Outschool – Outschool endeavors are over 4,000 classes taught live to small groups using video chat.
• Take Lessons – Learn live instruction in music, language, dance, computer skills, and more one-on-one with an instructor.
• Udemy – Teens can opt for any courses of interest like music, yoga, and many more. They mostly give everything, and the classes are moderately priced. They can also catch some fantastic sales if they visit frequently.
• Coursera– Coursera is as same as Udemy is.

It entirely depends on the child’s interest. Nevertheless, if these seem a bit heavy, the teen can go for youtube sessions as well.

How Can I Give Credit for Electives?

Giving credits are even more exciting and quite difficult to assign for high school electives. There are two best options:

Based on hours (150-180)
Based on Mastering the Elective

Therefore, if students give an hour a day or weekdays of a school year on their chosen elective topic, you can assign credit hours to them.
But on the other hand, if he maters the elective, he is applicable for award credit. So, consequently, it is just like your child learned the elective to the core.

Based on reference, 6-7 elective credit hours are standard graduation requirements for public school students. However, if teens plan to join college, foreign language electives of two of those 6-7 hours should be one.

What are some parts of Electives?

However, any passion, hobby, or skill that interests teens as credit or elective guides them to see patterns. You can go through the list mentioned below for each domain’s electives. Those are,

Foreign Language

• Spanish
• French
• Japanese
• Chinese
• German
• Hebrew
• American Sign Language (Some colleges include this as a foreign language. Check with the schools your teen is holding.)

Visual and performing arts

• Music history
• Art history
• Music theory
• Drama
• Music
• Set production
• Stage make-up
• Sculpting
• Painting
• Drawing
• Sketching
• Animation
• Dance
• Textile arts – knitting, crocheting, sewing

Digital media

• Photography
• Film-making
• Video-production
• Web design
• Video game design
• Graphic design
• Coding

Vocational skills

• Woodworking
• Blacksmithing
• Leatherworking
• Carpentry
• Auto mechanics
• Robotics
• Drafting

Life skills

• Cooking
• Childcare
• Drivers’ education
• Beekeeping
• Cheesemaking
• Genealogy
• Nutrition
• CPR/First aid
• Personal finance

Humanities

• Creative writing
• Journalism
• Blogging
• Speech
• Poetry
• Shakespeare

Social studies

Social studies classes are of two, one is American history and the second is world history. These are the graduation requirements, though there are many other social studies subjects that can learn as elective credit. These are,

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Philosophy
• U.S. Government/Civics
• Mythology
• Religion
• European history
• The Middle Ages

Your teen’s passions, interests, and career opportunities help them opt for high school elective credit. Home ec and woodshop don’t start to prick the outer surface at first. My passions started with 4th grade and took me years to find these and even choose the best in high school.