Unschooling Teens and Transcripts – How does that work?

Unschooling Teens and Transcripts

How do teens who have been living an unschooling lifestyle - without modifying it for school - create a transcript that will be acceptable to colleges, trade schools, or jobs?

What if they'd like to create a transcript in case they need it later down the road - how can they do that?

These are the typical questions parents have when facing the teenage years. Usually, they come from 3 different "camps" when they're searching for answers to questions like these.

• Parents who have been living an unschooling lifestyle with their teens, and are now faced with how to translate it into a format that might be acceptable to a college, a job, or simply to have.
• Parents with younger unschooler is about to become a teen and they’re wondering if they need to modify their approach so they can have a transcript down the road.
• Parents who are considering unschooling, and one of their big hurdles is worrying that doors will close if they pursue this unconventional path.

Maybe one of these seems familiar?

Teenagers do NOT have to switch gears to have acceptable transcripts. Yes, unschoolers have moved away from most of the trappings of school - grades, report cards, testing - but those are focused more on the teaching aspect.

Unschooled teens have NOT moved away from the learning though!

It’s just up to parents to see what they’ve been doing through a different lens. Yes, traditional subjects are easier to check off. But the CONTENT of those subjects - the topics - have woven throughout everyone’s lives.

It’s hard to see this at first, because we’ve had a lot of conditioning telling us that those hoops are required! We’re told that no one succeeds without “finishing high school” or “getting into college.” Neither of those universally true. But when we’re fearful - and we’re talking about our own children - we do not want to screw them up!

(Sometimes I feel like I’m pulling a thread on a sweater… as I write something, then that leads me to even MORE to say on the subject! lol)

Because that fear of doing something wrong, of not veering off the status quo path - those were conditioned into us for years - decades even. We were given the impression - openly or implied - that we could not be trusted. Our kids could not be trusted. We HAD to rely on “the experts” to make sure we didn’t mess it all up. How convenient for a system to convince you that you NEED them. Sigh.

And that’s the big part of what we have to work through.

Knowledge + Support = Unschooling Success

And this applies here too! As parents pursuing this unconventional path, we have to find resources to helps us navigate our way. After 25 years in this unschooling community, three grown unschoolers of my own, and countless conversations with families who have found their way, I have resources to help you do the same! (Whew, right?)



You really don't have to do this alone!

Everything Counts E-book

What ARE some of the topics that make up a particular subject?



This ebook has tons of suggestions to help you see where the learning has been hiding all along! Every page is full of Real Life examples for all the typical subjects a teen would face in high school. It's amazing how, once you begin to read through it, you begin to see all sorts of examples. It's like taking off blinders!