Impossible as it seems to me, I will have yet another homeschool graduate in a little over a year! My daughter M, 16, has only a few more classes that she requires in order to wrap up her high school requirements. Because she’s focused more on mandatory classes, she has a few electives to fill the gaps. Here are some ideas for electives your homeschooled teen will love!

I received a membership in order to try out this product, and all opinions are those of myself and/or the student who participated in trying it out. We only share products that we believe you’ll enjoy as much as we do, and we are never required to offer a positive review.



Phys Ed.Ideas

Fencing.

If you teen needs physical education classes to complete a diploma, fencing is one that appeals to almost everyone.

Archery.

Like fencing, archery is great physical exercise and loads of fun. Relatively recent hit books and movies brought archery back into focus in a big way. The joy of it is that you can do it almost anywhere as long as you aren’t aiming at living creatures!

Hip Hop.

If even our little nearest town of 800 people offers hip hop classes, then certainly most places will. It’s a great workout, looks super cool, and requires a lot of physical discipline.

Volunteerism

In our province, graduates must complete a minimum of 40 hours of volunteer service. If soup kitchens don’t appeal (the most common choice), here are a couple of other ideas that might even tie into future careers.

Become a docent.

Most museums, whether art or animal based, offer a free docent course and after completing the training your teen can guide visitors around, talking about their passions. My oldest son looked into the docent course offered by a nature-based museum specializing in creatures indigenous to the area we lived in at the time. What a wonderful idea for a teen with a passion for animals!

Rehabilitate.

SPCAs, animal shelters, and many other foster animal arrangements such as horse rescue operations welcome someone to come in and help. These places are run on a tiny budget and often with nowhere near enough hands to pet, feed, and groom these poor creatures.

Remember our elders.

Many seniors residences have clients with no family or visitors. A few hours a week spent playing cards, reading, or just listening could make an enormous difference in the life of an older resident.

Art and Music.

Spend time behind the velvet curtains.

When I was a teen, I volunteered once a week at the local theater as a coat check girl. Once everyone was in, I got free access to every play that was performed. Some of my friends volunteered at the same place but as ushers or washroom attendants. It’s a great way to gain exposure to a wide variety of performances from orchestra to modern for free, and enough understanding of the workings of these performances to be a full credit by the end of the year.

Art doesn’t have to take you out of the house.

There are so many amazing online art classes out there! You’re sure to hit on one that appeals to your teen’s style. Our new favorite is Sparketh Online Art Lessons, a subscription-based online art course that gives you access to every single lesson they offer, with a wide variety of styles and media.

Since teaching art is not my specialty unless you really want to draw a stick man or a cartoon bunny bottom, I love that it takes the teaching out of my hands and guides my daughter to new levels of artistic achievement!Every detailed tutorial is divided into 4 or 5 mini video lessons that take students step by step through the class.

M,16, has been working on a book this term. She branched out and began drawing the worlds, characters, and sewing the clothing styles. She has been particularly delighted with some of the watercolor and manga tutorials, since her style is, I would say, a very distinctive mix of both.

Once thing I liked was that it didn’t suck up all of our very limited bandwidth. The videos were as clear and easy to view at a lower setting as they would be in HD. That meant that we could check out multiple tutorials at a time when we found ourselves on an artistic rabbit trail! The classes themselves were launched in July 2015 and have been an online hit ever since.

Another plus, in my opinion, is that the tutors themselves are probably only about college level and talk to the camera like they would to any friend. It makes the classes very relatable.

M was delighted to find tutorials for a few things that had been a challenge for her: draping a scarf on a character’s neck, for example, is a lot trickier than you’d think, but the tutorial broke it down and made it really simple.

I think the very fact that there is such a wide variety of instructors and art styles is a huge bonus. It took M out of her comfort zone a few times simply because a tutorial caught her interest and she decided to give it a whirl. A lot of art courses, especially online art classes for teens, seem to narrow the topics and styles down to one individual style and media per course; with Sparketh we had so much variety that we could surf around and choose something that looked like fun on that particular day.

Sparketh Online Art Lessons offers a free 30 day free trial so you and your kids can check it out. They have beginner, intermediate, and advanced classes as well as basics for each media, and I would say that students from early elementary right on up to adult will find things to try and enjoy. A month of free art lessons will give you a chance to see, hands-on, whether it’s right for you and I would encourage you to take advantage of it!

You can also find Sparketh on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. Check out all the extras they share!

What suggestions can you offer from your experience for electives your homeschooled teen will love?

Save