When looking for financial aid for college, you’ll want to cover all of your bases and investigate federal, state, and local sources of financial aid.

Helping your teens assess their strengths and weaknesses with a view towards discovering the possible careers for which they are well-suited is important during the high school years. The University of California – Berkley’s Career Exploration website provides tools to answer questions such as what do I do with a major in…or how do I network. The website also features over 50 articles designed to help teens as they look ahead and plan for their future careers.

OWL (Online Writing Lab) sponsored by Purdue University offers many resources to help you teach writing to your teens. You’ll find help with the writing process, common writing assignments and how to’s for writing book reports, research papers, argument papers, and more! Other sections cover mechanics, grammar, and punctuation.

Homeschooled teens can make the difference in someone’s life by volunteering and using their talents to benefit others. If you need ideas, see the Corporation for National and Community Service website. The hours your teens accumulate with one of the certifying volunteer organizations could earn them one of the President’s Volunteer Service Awards.

The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) provides students and parents with helpful information and resources on topics including preparing for college, finding financial aid, choosing the best fit college, and more. Your teen can watch a video that gives tips for making the most of attending a college fair.

A rubric is a tool that you can use to help you evaluate your teen’s coursework. Check out this You Tube tutorial video that explains Rubistar. Rubistar provides helpful hints for creating rubrics in many different subject areas.

If your teen is interested in local scholarship money, a good place to begin may be the website of your public high school. Some schools list local scholarship opportunities.  If the list is not available on its website, call the guidance office to ask if such a list can be made available to you.