Mason’s vision for high school reflects a step up in maturity and challenge without sacrificing living quality. The key descriptor for this Form's course of study is Mason’s aim for all levels: breadth and balance.

The CMEC curriculum for high school is based on the PUS programs, so it covers core subjects like history, science, and literature, but also art history, philosophy, economics, and other unique subjects Mason added in the high school years.

Our high school curriculum team is composed of women with expertise in various areas: science, philosophy, economics, literature. They are either homeschooling high schoolers themselves or have graduated children from the homeschool (or both!). They have all steeped themselves for years in Mason’s work.

Each member of the team focuses on finding the best books for each part of the program. The team then looks carefully together at the program overall to balance breadth, depth, and a need for leisure time.

Resources for High School Students and Parents

We have guides written for each Form as well as for particular subjects, like Plutarch, Shakespeare, and geography. These guides provide background resources and helpful tips for narrations. Also, by suggesting discussion topics, they are designed to aid student thinking and writing as well.

Additionally, we have a range of science guides to accompany our complete program for high school science. These guides offer suggestions for the lab work and field work students do alongside their reading. By balancing hands-on work with reading, they help create full courses for assigning credits.

Our extensive collection of resources for homeschooling high school with the CMEC includes a sample transcript and course descriptions, tips on effective meetings with high school students, a checklist for parents as their student’s guidance counselor, a curated collection of helpful links, and more. We also offer a video that covers how to view the post-graduation discernment process with the proper lens and how the CMEC prepares students well for college and beyond.

High School Form Meetings

There are three Form meetings each year, one per term, for high school parents to receive guidance, ask questions, and meet with parents who are in the midst of the high school years for the first time or have gained insights from children who have already graduated and flown the nest! It can often be challenging to find other parents who are homeschooling older students with whom to share the journey, but at the CMEC, we have a supportive group of member families working through these years together.

Form Leader Support

Members are invited to contact their Form Leader throughout the term with questions. These questions may be answered immediately or may be sent along to the CMEC Team to be answered live during the Form Meetings. We cover a range of topics including planning afternoon occupations and leisure, working toward independence, understanding the parent’s role in student compositions, and navigating the challenging books in the CMEC high school program (particularly in science, history, and philosophy.)

Ongoing Education and Training

All members of the CMEC are welcome to attend our retreats, workshops, and Mother’s Education Course, and at these events we always give special consideration to our upper-level students and their families. Perhaps because so many of us on the curriculum team have high schoolers ourselves, we at the CMEC are especially dedicated to making our high school program reflect the life-giving education Mason envisioned.

So often homeschool resources cater to younger students because it is more common to home educate in the early years. We have found that without a good sense of Mason's approach to the later years, it is hard to know what those early years are aiming toward in the first place. Toward that greater goal of understanding her sense of the student and his development over time, we have put careful work into teasing out her thoughts on older children. We pass those findings along to the community through our training events.