Find out how the GED is a homeschool ‘exit solution’ for unschooling families and how to transition and prepare for the GED exams.
We frequently get questions from unschoolers like this one:
“We’ve been unschooling for about 8 years now. Our eldest recently turned 13 and her dad says it’s time for her to start getting ready for school leaving exams.
Are you perhaps able to point me in a direction of where I could find a starting point, please?”
Here’s Shirley’s reply to this parent who asked about unschooling and the GED:
Well done for giving your child a unique education. I always think it sad that we have to jump through hoops to prove to society that our children have “passed” a prescribed set of skills.
To give children a great education that equips them for any type of school exit exam, I recommend continuing to “do your own thing”, using resources of your choice to cover the ‘normal’ subjects such as Maths, Science, English and Social Studies, plus the foreign language she is studying and any other subjects, topics, hobbies or skills that may interest your child.
The article, What to Do Before the GED lists my recommendations for resources to cover those subjects for the GED, but they are also just as suitable if you later choose any other form of matric exams for a specific purpose. By about age 15, (or later) you and your child together need to decide which type of school exit exams she needs to take. It will be easier if she has some idea of the career path she would like to pursue, but I know that at that age, many children don’t and so you want to keep as many options open as possible.
(Where do GED Graduates Study? We’ve started a growing list of all the colleges and tertiary institutions and the courses they offer that GED graduates can and are studying to further their education and career training.)
If the GED is an option that appeals to you, it is useful to note that it does not test knowledge of a prescribed curriculum, like traditional school exams. Instead, it tests SKILLS, mainly reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. The tests are presented like comprehension tests where the candidate must read with understanding and use the information provided in texts, diagrams, graphs, maps, charts or other to figure out or calculate the correct answer. There is no memorisation and studying the night before the test.
The ability to write a good essay is also an essential skill to start practicing and developing as it will be required on the Reasoning Through Language Arts exam on the GED. This takes time to develop. It’s not something you can learn in a very short time.
Anyway, until then, I’d focus mainly on those four subjects and anything else that you decide as a family is important.
And even when using curriculum products, always work at your child’s own pace and modify things to suit your family and your lifestyle. You can still avoid doing school-at-home!
You don’t have to change the amazing lifestyle of living and learning together that you have been giving your child. Just add the resources needed for GED prep to the things your child does in a day.
Your teen could also choose to add some of the valuable (non-academic) life experiences to her high school years and add them to her resumé: 10 Things for a 15-year old to do before the GED