We recommend – but it is up to you as the primary educator – completion of these high school levels: religion (4 years); math (4 years, ideally through the introductory calculus, but certainly through Algebra I, II and Geometry); 3 years of science: biology, chemistry and physics; 4 years of English Composition; at least 2 years of any foreign language (we recommend Latin and Classical/Attic Greek first) to acquire the ability to read, write (and hopefully speak and listen) any single foreign language with reasonable (not perfect) proficiency and fluency; and the 4-year, Great Books online discussion groups (which incorporates four years of social sciences and English); 2 years of Art (Art in Focus – our 6th-8th grade book is fine for this); Ethics(anytime 7^th-12^th grade – we offer this live, online); and learning a musical instrument or our Enjoyment of Music CDs.

The foregoing assumes earlier completion of elementary level (through 8th grade level) religion, language arts courses (such as English, writing, vocabulary, our Good Books literature or similar), some education in music and the arts, and, to a lesser extent (perhaps 1 day per week on average) philosophy for children, history, geography and perhaps cartography. Students may take our free placement tests to determine at what level(s) they need to begin with our materials. It is not unusual for students to be strong in one course – such as math – and weak in another – such as English. In that case, they may not need to take any elementary level math with us, but may need to begin English studies in a lower grade level in order to catch up in that area.

Please note that some states require various courses we do not offer in order to qualify one for a high school diploma from a public high or charter school; some even require homeschoolers to take certain courses we may not offer (such as the history of that particular state or a particular “social studies” course [which is often, sadly, the modern replacement for much of history]). Nearly all colleges and universities now accept homeschool transcripts of high school completion, even if certain state requirements are not included, particularly if you are applying to an out-of-state college. If you know which colleges you are interested in attending, we suggest you contact those college admissions offices years in advance of application and find out exactly what will be expected of you. This may necessitate adding a course(s) to our curriculum which we do not offer.