College-Prep Homeschooling: Your Complete Guide to Homeschooling Through High School

by David P. Byers

Provides information on successful homeschooling techniques of high school-aged children, describing how homeschooling parents can not only be successful at homeschooling but also prepare children for a college education.

Genres: Nonfiction, Education

410 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2008

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh - this book would be better for someone who was either very new to homeschooling, or very much into the school at home with textbooks version of homeschooling. I found little useful information for me, and I don't think I'll be spending a lot of time writing class objectives and descriptions as suggested in this book. Definitely not one I'm keeping around to re-read!

[Jenny Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dry and repetitive. Though Dr. Byers acknowledges that different styles of schooling will work well for different families, his focus seems to be on delivering "all the necessary information" via a standardized curriculum in a safer environment than a traditional school can provide. To that end, the section on "Serious Problems in Our Schools" utilizes a bit of fear-mongering. While I did pull some useful information from the book, I did not care for the overall tone. Those who plan on administering a very structured homeschool experience will find this book more helpful than I did.

[Shanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so glad I found this book. I have homeschooled for the last two years, and my 3 children are all in high school this year. This year I will finally feel like I’ve got a goal in mind and a plan in place now that I have read how to do that. Previously I have felt as if I was floundering around, trying to figure it out as I go. This is a must-read for homeschooling any child from middle school and up. It gives direction on what to do and how to do it, what to teach your child and how to prepare the plans and the transcripts and portfolio as well!

[Laura]

Again a resource book in which some chapters are read beginning to end and others skimmed, skipped, or used as needed. A good resource for beginners.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-written guide on how to provide a balanced homeschool education for your college-aspiring kids, particularly through the high school years. Written by a homeschool father/college professor, the voice of the book is professional and impressively objective for a homeschooling book. Byers overviews teaching styles and recommends taking the best of each teaching style--applying it to your own family's situation--for a well-rounded education. He details what students should be learning in high school to prepare for college, using or developing curriculum, keeping records, writing transcripts for college applications, and so on. The appendices contain some good resources and have some interested information. This book and the references would have been helpful a few years back when I was writing my undergraduate thesis on the politics of homeschooling, particularly about homeschool students using state resources as a bridge to college.

Though I do not consider myself new to homeschooling (I didn't step inside a traditional classroom until college), I am technically a newly homeschooling parent. I think it will be helpful to me to have a more long-term perspective about homeschooling my kids through high school and thinking now about preparing them for college in the future, though it is still far away. I would like to read this again as my kids get closer to high school age. For now, the main points I want to remember is to keep good records (and backups), to use a well-rounded curriculum that covers a broad range of important subjects, to require projects that involve critical thinking, and to expect/require grade "A" quality work. Also, I wish I had skimmed through much more of the book so I could have gotten to the parts that apply to me--or were just more interesting to me--sooner. As it was I maxed out my allotted number of library renewals twice!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very helpful, especially for making course syllabi, course descriptions and transcripts.

[Barbara Huskey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was not as helpful as I thought it would be. I really didn't learn anything new or useful from it. Very disappointed.

[Christina Nalen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful. I will use it as a reference from time to time.