Mike Smith:
It often seems like parents get caught up in the details of high school transcripts and forget their reasons for homeschooling in the first place. Inge, how do parents create effective transcripts while still maintaining their homeschool philosophy?

Inge Cannon:
Well, Mike, that’s not so easy, because we get caught up with our intimidation, our fear that we might not do it just right, and I have to tell parents all the time, “Don’t be so transcript minded that you’re of no discipleship-good.” The essence of homeschooling philosophy for Christians involves two things: discipleship, along with a tutorial approach to achieving academic excellence. Too many folks resort to what I call the quad-fours—that traditional high school way of looking at “four English, four math, four science, and four history.” And many students are not wired together for quad-fours. Many people don’t understand that public schools everywhere give all kinds of diplomas, and we in homeschooling can do the same thing as well. And you know, Mike, if we miss anything along the way, it’s not like we can’t ever learn it again.

Mike:
Inge, that’s very good advice. And next time, we’ll look forward to you helping us on the junior high school years, which some people claim are very difficult. I’m Mike Smith.