No doubt, the thought of homeschooling through the high school years can be daunting. That’s why we’ve included a thorough high school how-to section in the Colorado Homeschool Guidebook. Here’s a glimpse of what the high school years can look like.
Thousands of Colorado homeschooling families have successfully home educated through high school, finding great success and accomplishment in doing so. Whether you are beginning or ending your home education journey with high school, we want to encourage and prepare you for the years ahead so your student can finish strong!
The Benefits
Homeschooling in the high school years can be a great joy for your family. If you have had the opportunity to teach your children through their early, formative years, then now is the season of harvest! Your teenagers can be a tremendous blessing in your home. They are more independent learners, helpful around the house, and excellent companions.
There are many advantages you can provide for your teens through home education. They can continue to learn responsibility and self-governance, develop confidence, grow spiritually, and pursue academic goals.
Many homeschooled teens are able to experience more of “real life” than their counterparts in a classroom. The flexibility of homeschooling allows time for volunteering in the community, working at a part-time job, traveling, and spending time with a wide variety of people. There is also time to develop special talents and work on personal projects such as writing a novel or preparing for a senior music recital.
Understanding the Purpose of High School
In the early years of our country, most people’s education ended at eighth grade. Soon afterward they entered adulthood, either through marriage, employment, or apprenticeship. Many young women started teaching school when they were 15. Many young men entered college at 16.
It was not until the beginning of this century that what we now call “high school” came into existence. From its roots as a method of training workers and assimilating immigrant children, high school has now evolved into a basic educational entry level into society — either directly into the world of work or to further studies at the college level.
In order to get the most benefit from these years, take your focus off the specific “subjects” young people study in high school, and step back far enough to look at the bigger picture. What kind of adult would you like your child to become? What are their interests, passions, and gifts? What areas of special ability do they demonstrate?
Involve your teen in this discovery process. During the elementary years, you took the primary responsibility in setting the direction for your child’s education; in high school this responsibility should be shifting. It is almost impossible to motivate a young person to work and strive toward a challenging goal for which they feel no personal ownership.
Hopefully, you will have provided a wide range of studies and experiences in the younger years so that your young person has an idea of what interests them. Through prayer, reading, evaluating, and asking many questions, you and your teenager can together begin to sketch out a future destination.
Chapter is continued in the CHEC Homeschool Guidebook, available for preorder now!
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