High school electives give students a chance to explore their interests, learn life skills, and prepare for future careers, all while earning credit for their transcript. Electives are as valuable to a well-rounded education as core subjects like math and literature. However, elective courses can put a strain on a homeschool family’s education budget. Since these courses are more specialized, they often come at a higher cost. Fortunately, there are some affordable options available. Here are a few curriculum companies that offer a wide variety of reasonably priced electives:

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7 Sisters Homeschool

7 Sisters Homeschool offers several high school electives to choose from. Their courses are presented in PDF textbook format, which helps keep the cost low. To save printing costs, your student can view the PDF on a computer or other device. Most of the courses cost $30 or $35. However, Speech I and the Career Bundle are priced even less. You can reuse these PDF texts for other students in your family if they decide to pursue the same electives, allowing you to save even more. All of 7 Sister’s courses are taught from a Christian perspective. These are the electives they offer:

Early Childhood Education
Financial Literacy from a Christian Perspective
Health for the Whole Person
Human Development from a Christian Worldview
Introduction to Psychology from a Christian Perspective
Philosophy in Four Questions
Speech I
Career Exploration Curriculum Bundle

7Sisters Homeschool offers Freedom Homeschooling readers 50% off their entire curriculum selection, including their electives! Use coupon code 7SistersCousinSarahMay at checkout to get the discount. The coupon code has no expiration date, but customers may only use it once. Also, the coupon code can only be used on carts with a total of $75 or less (before the discount).

Skillshare

Skillshare is an online learning platform that offers thousands of video-based classes. Skillshare has courses in art, crafts, graphic design, photography, film, business, writing, music, web development, entrepreneurship, culinary, sewing, and much more. Experts and industry leaders teach the classes. Students can take an unlimited number of self-paced courses and watch the videos anytime.

Power Homeschool

Power Homeschool offers an extensive selection of affordable, secular homeschool electives. All of their courses are taught online through prerecorded video lectures. A quiz or activity follows each video lesson. You may enroll your student in up to seven courses for $25 per month. These seven courses can include any of Power Homeschool’s core classes (math, science, history, language arts) or electives. These are self-paced courses, and your student can start at any point. There is no commitment, so you can also cancel at any time. These are their elective offerings:

Intro to Accounting
Agriculture I
Business Management
Principles of Business, Marketing, and Finance
Investigating Careers
College & Career Readiness
Collaborative Theater
AP Computer Science Principles
AP Computer Science A
Electrical Technology I
Electrical Technology II
Mastering Microsoft Excel
French I
French II
German I
German II
Health
HVAC Technology I
HVAC Technology II
Information Management I
Information Management II
Instructional Standards in Education and Training
Medical Terminology
Music Appreciation
AP Music Theory
Personal Finance
Plumbing Technology I
Plumbing Technology II
Psychology
Spanish I
Spanish II
Spanish III
AP Studio Art – Drawing

Lifepac

Lifepac is a reasonably priced workbook-style curriculum, which is taught from a Christian perspective. Lifepac’s electives vary in price from $50 to $100, depending on the course and where you purchase them. Besides purchasing the courses directly from Lifepac, you can also buy them from other retailers like Rainbow Resource Center and Christian Book. So, shop around to find the best price. These are the electives Lifepac offers:

Accounting
Art
Consumer Math
Family and Consumer Science
Foundations for Living
Health
Spanish I
Spanish II
Speech: Essentials of Communication

Christian Light Education

Christian Light Education (CLE) provides a wide variety of electives courses. Most of these courses use textbooks or a combination of textbook and workbook. Others are workbooks only. The prices vary widely by course. For example, the one-semester Computer Basics elective only costs $22, while all of the Accounting course’s components add up to almost $350. However, most of the courses are in the $50 to $200 range. That is more than the other options included in this post but still reasonable, considering some of these electives aren’t offered by many homeschool publishers. CLE’s more expensive courses all include a traditional textbook. To reduce the cost of these courses, you could purchase the textbook used and then sell the book when your student finishes it. Here’s what CLE has to offer:

Accounting
Exploring Agriscience
Automobile Fundamentals
Auto Upkeep
Carpentry
Charting a Course
Christian Ethics
Computer Service and Repair
Consumer Math
Home Economics I
Home Economics II
Introductory Horticulture
Modern Residential Wiring
Music in Biblical Perspective
Print Reading for Construction
Recordkeeping for Christian Stewardship
Small Engine and Equipment Maintenance
Small Gas Engines
Technical Drawing and Sketching
Exploring Woodworking

 

 

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Note: This post was originally published on February 5, 2021 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.