High School Credit
I get questions about high school credit all the time.
Usually, the question goes something like this:
“Does this course count for high school credit?”
The answer is usually:
Yes.
Followed immediately by:
But let me explain.
High school credit sounds much more mysterious than it actually is.
When I first started dealing with this stuff, I assumed there must be some official government office somewhere with a giant book containing all the rules.
There isn’t.
If there is, no one has shown it to me.
So, what is a high school credit?
Traditionally, one high school credit represents roughly 120 hours of work over the course of a school year.
That’s it.
There are different standards out there, and state requirements vary, so you should always check the requirements where you live.
But the basic idea is simple:
Do the work. Keep track of the work. Give credit for the work.
For example, suppose your student studies Latin for about four hours each week for 36 weeks.
That’s:
4 hours × 36 weeks = 144 hours.
Congratulations. You have a high school course. No mysterious ceremony required.
What counts as an hour?
This is another place where homeschool parents sometimes make things difficult.
Class time counts. But so does:
- watching lessons
- reading
- studying
- writing
- completing worksheets
- doing exercises
- taking quizzes and tests
- working on projects
- practicing vocabulary
- independent study
In other words, education counts as education even when your child isn’t sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher talk.
This is one of the great advantages of homeschooling.
What about half a credit?
Same idea.
If a full credit represents roughly 120–180 hours of work, then 60–90 hours is a reasonable guideline for half a credit.
Again, check your state’s requirements.
But don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be.
What about Visual Latin?
I get this question a lot.
Yes. Visual Latin can count for high school credit.
If a student watches the lessons, completes the worksheets, studies the vocabulary, takes the quizzes, and does the reading, the hours add up quickly.
If you want to add even more Latin, I recommend Lingua Latina: Familia Romana by Hans Ørberg.
It’s a novel written entirely in Latin.
I generally recommend beginning Lingua Latina after students have completed roughly the first half of Visual Latin 1. At that point, they have enough grammar behind them to begin figuring out what is happening.
Adding Lingua Latina gives students additional reading hours, but more importantly, it gets them reading Latin.
And that is the point.
Keep records.
This part actually is important.
If your student is in high school, keep a transcript.
Record:
- the name of the course
- the year it was completed
- the credit earned
- the final grade
I also recommend keeping a simple record of what the student did.
You don’t need to record every seventeen-minute vocabulary review.
Just keep enough information that, if someone asks what constituted “Latin I,” you can explain it.
For example:
Latin I — 1 credit
Visual Latin 1
Latin vocabulary and grammar study
Worksheets and quizzes
Supplemental reading in Lingua Latina: Familia Romana
Approximately 150 hours
Done.
Don’t forget electives
Not everything your high-school student learns has to fit neatly into English, math, science, history, or foreign language.
Art can receive credit.
Music can receive credit.
Computer programming can receive credit.
Business can receive credit.
Physical education can receive credit.
If your teenager spends 150 hours seriously studying photography, don’t pretend those hours didn’t happen because they weren’t sitting at a desk doing algebra.
Education is bigger than school.
One of the great freedoms of homeschooling is recognizing that.
One Important Warning
High school graduation requirements and college admission requirements are not always the same thing.
This is especially important with foreign languages.
Latin absolutely can be listed as a foreign language on a high-school transcript. However, individual colleges can have their own admission requirements, and some may have particular expectations regarding modern or ancient languages.
If your student already has a few colleges in mind, check those schools.
Don’t discover during senior year that your dream college wanted something you could easily have done during sophomore year.
Don’t panic
If you’re homeschooling high school for the first time, transcripts and credits can feel intimidating.
They don’t need to be.
Teach your kids.
Have them do meaningful work.
Keep reasonable records.
Count the hours.
Put the courses on a transcript.
And move on.
You have enough other things to worry about.
—Dwane
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If you tackle the book and find yourself bogged down, you may find the classes on my site helpful. To join, just click here: https://dwanethomas.com/join/
If you want a more professionally filmed Latin learning experience, check out the best-selling DVD series: Visual Latin.
Or, if you want to skip Latin, and just jump right into learning English words from Latin and Greek roots, you may enjoy the series Word Up! Warning. Word Up! is a bit wacky. You will learn a lot… but, you may find yourself rolling your eyes, too.
I teach other languages on my site, too. The current schedule is here: https://dwanethomas.com/schedule/
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