The Ultimate List of Homeschool Electives for 2023

This post may contain affiliate links. You will not pay more but I may receive a small commission which helps put gas into my truck’s VERY empty gas tank. Thank you.

My youngest child is going into the eleventh grade and it’s time we start looking into and planning some elective classes into her last two school years.

I always enjoyed my elective classes when I was in public school. I knew that I wanted to go to nursing school so my electives ended up to be prerequisites for nursing classes in the future.

Unfortunately, some kids don’t know what kind of career path they want to follow and that makes choosing electives a little bit harder.

Fortunately, there are career exploration type classes that count as electives. This is a great way for your child to get a feel for different jobs that they might be interested in.

What Classes Count as Electives?

When you choose electives WITH your child, the objective is to have them learn skills and information around topics that they are passionate about and interested in.

A common question that some homeschooling parents have is, “What counts as an elective?”

The first way to answer this question is to look at your state laws and then look at your oversight group’s policies. (If you have to have an oversight group.)

If there is a required amount of credits that are needed to graduate in the core subject areas, then you should get those credits first. Sometimes the laws may even specify particular classes in those core subjects that are required. These required classes are not electives.

For example, suppose you need four credits or four years of math classes. Your child takes Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Precalculus. If your child loves math and wants to pursue a career that requires higher level math skills, then Trigonometry and Calculus would then be extra math classes that you could count as electives.

Same goes with science. If your required or basic science classes are: General Science, Physical Science, Biology, and Chemistry, then your electives could be Astronomy, Computer Science, Anatomy & Physiology, etc.

Below are class ideas that can be counted as electives. I’ve tried to group them according to subject area, but some classes may fall into more than one area, so make sure you look through all of the lists to see if what you’re interested in is listed.

By no means is this every elective class available. I came up with this list from my oversight group’s list, SchoolhouseTeachers.com‘s elective list, and the offerings from North Dakota’s Center for Distance Education (NDCDE).

I’m not an affiliate for NDCDE, but I will tell you that my daughter took all the Veterinary Assistant and Animal Science classes. My niece took an agriculture class, and my nephew just finished the welding class. They are worth looking into especially if your child is interested in agriculture.

If you want all of your children’s classes to be on one site, check out everything that SchoolhouseTeachers has to offer in my post: Everything You Need to Homeschool Successfully with SchoolhouseTeachers.com.

Can you think of any other electives to add to the list? Just let me know in the comments. Thank you!

Last Week’s Letter “D” Articles

Did you miss any of last week’s “D” articles? If so, just click on the title listed below.

Megan from My Full Heart: Daily notebooks
Kristi from Bailey’s Homeschool Adventures: Ideas to Help Your Dyslexic Child
Kristen from A Mom’s Quest to Teach: D is for Disease During the American Civil War
Dawn from The Schoolin’ Swag Blog: D is for Danny and Daisy Dolphin
Dawn from The Schoolin’ Swag Blog: The Letter D Preschool Activities
Laura McKinney Adams: 4 Characteristics of a Successful Homeschooler That Start with the Letter D
Homeschooling Highway: Animated Bible Stories. Donkey Ollie
Homeschooling Highway: Homeschooling Tips that Start With the Letter D