Homeschooling a Business Course in High School for 1/2 Credit Hour

This post has been sponsored by Beanstalk Know How LTD, and yet still represents my personal opinion about having your child complete a business course for high school credit.

I’ve graduated a child from homeschooling and I will graduate my second child from homeschooling next year. With four more children still waiting in the wings for graduation down the line, I’m thinking about what kinds of courses each might like to do to complete the elective requirements we put in place for our kids – which is basically that each child fills in enough credit hours with topics of their choosing. We have a minimum number of credits for high school graduation and a set number of classes in the “required for college admission” section. After that, we fill in with electives.

One child in particular would be very interested in owning her own business or pursuing a business major of some type. It makes sense to me then, that a solid business course in high school is a good idea. Just like when we had a student interested in graphic design, we filled up her electives with awesome graphic design classes!

Really, truly, any high school student would benefit from a basic business course because no matter what you end up doing in life to earn a living, you have to do business. Whether you are working for yourself or working as an employee, you need to understand how to succeed and help your employer succeed and the more you understand the more invaluable you will be.

So here we go. How exactly would you go about getting a 1/2 credit course in business for your homeschooler?

I personally would start with the Beanstalk Know-How Course. The course includes five modules, covering the fundamentals of a business from accounting to profitability and growth. Each module includes videos with extra papers to read, exercises to complete, and a quiz to test the knowledge gained.

Topics covered include:

• double entry
• debits and credits
• the accounting equation
• the chart of accounts
• accruals
• prepayments
• provisions
• accounting jargon
• trial balance
• depreciation schedule
• balance sheets
• income statement
• cash flow statement
• key performance indicators
• budgets
• the essential components of a business
• what business structure is
• the six areas a business plan must cover – Marketing, Operations, Human Resources, Technology, Financing, and Innovation
• four ways to grow a business
• the various strategies necessary to grow a business
• business levers
• the need to grow your team
• doing the business housework
• preparing for what comes next
• staging the exit (selling the business)
• more

The Beanstalk Know-How Course gives the student a really solid understanding of the basic whys and wherefores of running a business, and takes about fifty hours to complete all five modules from start to finish (ten hours per module). Your homeschool high school student can complete the videos in a little over 3 hours per week in a fifteen week semester. You need about 75 total hours for a half credit high school course including homework assignments. So you will need to add a few things (about 25 hours of homework or 1.5 hours per week) to Beanstalk Know-How to make a 1/2 credit course for your teen’s high school credit.

• Have your student write a paper on each module, applying the information learned to a fictitious business of their choosing.
• Have your teen start his own business and apply the principles learned in the course.
• Add required reading such as books on leadership, marketing, or entrepreneurship, requiring an essay about each one.
• Your student can talk to the chamber of commerce in your town and find out if any speakers will be presenting or if he/she can attend the chamber meetings.
• Have your teen interview business owners and local experts about the various topics covered in the course to get a personal perspective on how it all fits together.

All of these activities will contribute to the foundation laid by the Beanstalk Know-How course and give your teen a well-rounded 1/2 credit in business for their homeschool high school transcript.

If you want to have your high school student take Beanstalk Know-How’s full 50-hour course for just $135 use the coupon code ENCOURAGINGMOMSATHOMEDEAL. This is a huge discount! Steve (the owner) will also give those who mention it a code that will get them a login for themselves, their spouse, or other children for just $20 each, once the first course login is paid for. Simply email [email protected] with your email address used to register for the course.

Giveaway

Beanstalk Know-How is giving away a full copy of the complete 50-hour course to ten winners! Enter the giveaway below.

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