How I Completed High School at Home

I graduated in 2002 as a homeschool student. Back then, homeschoolers had limited options, and my choice of secondary education was often viewed with doubt. I’ve never regretted completing high school at home. Here’s how I successfully finished Grade 12 and started at a university.

Grade 9 seemed like just another year of school, but our school board viewed the next 3 years very differently. I was repeatedly asked how I was going to complete high school. Many people assumed I’d be going to “real” school finally.

After nine years of homeschool, I wasn’t interested in jumping into the local high school. I saw no reason to change my schooling just because I was a few years older, and my parents backed me up. My mom was willing to keep teaching us at home… if we could figure out how.

We ended up switching from our provincial school board to an independent homeschool board. Our provincial board had no idea how to help us, as no one had homeschooled high school before. The independent board was newer, but they were willing to help.

One common question I heard during these years was, “What do you want to do after you graduate?” Like most teenagers, I didn’t have a career plan. I enjoyed reading, writing, and babysitting. My dad encouraged me to attend a university, but where? for what?

Most advice for doing high school centered upon finding out what I’d need to do to get into a university. For example, some universities require a diploma; others have entrance exams. Once I’d picked the university, I’d be able to work toward meeting their entrance requirements, whatever those were.

My dad had a different theory. He wanted us to keep all our options open. Plans and interests might change, he said, especially in the next three years. Instead of doing only the required courses for a specific university or degree program, it would be best to do all the courses we could, to keep any door open.

In the end, I completed high school by challenging the local Grade 12 exams. Every student in Alberta wrote the same exams at the end of Grade 12. In Grade 10, I focused my studies on Biology and wrote the Biology 12 exam at the local high school. In Grade 11, I completed Chemistry. In Grade 12, I wrote the Social Studies, Math and English exams.

Writing those five exams gave me a transcript of marks to present in lieu of a high school diploma. I used that transcript to apply at a local university. I had scored 98% on my English exams, which made up for barely passing my math and science exams, and I was accepted into the Bachelor of Arts program.

I went on to get top marks in my first year at the university, which inspired me to study harder in the coming years. My good grades got me scholarships to help pay for tuition each year. I graduated at the top of my class, with a near-perfect average and the Governor General’s Award.

In many ways, my high school years were just like the years of school before that. I did my schoolwork at home and pursued my interests in my spare time. In other ways, those years were stressful, because of the emphasis put upon what I was going to do next. In hind sight, however, our plan for completing high school was both simple and successful.

Bonnie Way is a second-generation homeschooler, currently teaching her oldest three daughters at home (grades 5, 4 and 1). She has a B.A. in English (2006) and a B.A. in Writing (2014) and blogs about motherhood, homeschooling and books as the Koala Mom. She and her husband now live in Vancouver, BC. When she’s not blogging or homeschooling, Bonnie can be found reading, hiking, or drinking coffee with friends.