by Renée Gotcher

Whether you are new to homeschooling teens, a few years into your journey with high school on the horizon, or still considering whether to homeschool through the high school years, you are probably struggling with concerns like:

• What if I’m not qualified to equip my teen for academic success?
• If we continue homeschooling, will my teen gain enough knowledge and skills to succeed after high school?
• What if I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing a lot of the time?   

Questions like these can be summed up with one word: fear. As parents, we strive to do everything right for our children, so we fear making mistakes. However, as homeschooling parents, bucking our society’s traditional education model, our fears are magnified by outside scrutiny and conventional definitions of success. We can easily become overwhelmed and discouraged as our children reach high school and our self-doubt escalates.

As a mother of three homeschooled high school graduates, I am well acquainted with these fears. And it’s natural to feel this way — we want the best for our children! But what if I told you that the secret to homeschooling success isn’t ensuring your teen masters every school subject or aces college entrance exams? What if the key ingredient to preparing your teen to thrive in adulthood is something you’re already doing?

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