7 Reasons You Can Homeschool High School
“But what do I do about homeschooling high school?”
I hear this question quite a bit from discerning parents who aren’t sure whether they have what it takes to homeschool successfully. And I get it. In fact, a large part of why I started Homeschool Connections with Walter Crawford was to help those very parents.
Many homeschoolers who are comfortable with homeschooling in the younger grades question their ability to homeschool in the high school years. High school is a different beast. It’s easy enough to teach a child their ABCs, count to 10, and learn shapes, but when you have to explain the structure of a mitochondrion or demonstrate the quadratic formula to a teen, things can feel a bit dicey.
The good news is, you are perfectly capable of homeschooling through the high school years (your limited knowledge of microbiology or triginometry notwithstanding). In this article, we will review some of the reasons why you should not be afraid of homeschooling high school. In fact, it’s likely a lot more manageable than you suspect! (See 14 Reasons Life is Easier When You Homeschool.)
Homeschooling Older Children Isn’t Necessarily “Harder”
Many parents are put off by homeschooling high school because they imagine the content is beyond their skill level to teach adequately. They tend to view elementary school as the “easy years,” while high school requires a “professional” to take over.
The truth is more complex than that. There are pros and cons to everything. Teaching littles can be easy in terms of content, but issues such as behavior and attention span pose unique challenges. Young children require more energy. They are squirmier and need more hands-on engagement. Homeschooling littles requires more “time on task” because young children don’t have the discipline to work independently as older children do.
Viewed from this perspective, homeschooling in high school is actually much simpler. Let’s break down six reasons why homeschooling teens is a lot more doable than you think.
1. You Don’t Have to Teach Everything Yourself
One of the biggest fears parents have about homeschooling high school is the subject matter itself. “What if my child needs Calculus? Advanced Latin? Physics?” The good news is that you don’t need to be an expert in every subject your teen will study. Today, we have access to an extraordinary range of support resources that simply didn’t exist a generation ago.
High school students can take online courses taught by experienced instructors, including both live, interactive classes and recorded, self-paced options. Homeschool Connections, for example, offers hundreds of high-quality courses taught by experts who specialize in their fields. Students can also work with private tutors, participate in local co-ops, or attend in-person classes for specific subjects. In some states, students are even permitted to enroll in individual public school or community college courses without being enrolled full-time.
In other words, being afraid to homeschool high school because you don’t feel qualified to teach advanced math, science, or languages is no longer necessary. Your role as a homeschooling parent isn’t to master every discipline. It’s to guide, oversee, and connect your teen with the resources they need to succeed.
2. High School Children Are More Self-Directed
Self-directedness is the ability to know what one ought to be doing and do it without external compulsion. A self-directed person does not always need to be told what to do. Whether at work or in recreation, self-directedness is a habit of “regulating” one’s own routine.
Ask yourself this: In general, who possesses more self-direction, a 16-year-old or a 6-year-old? Who is more likely to say “I’m bored” five times a day? To make a mess and not clean it up? Can’t be left home alone unsupervised? Needs to be constantly reminded of what they need to be doing lest they forget?
Younger children possess less self-direction than high schoolers. Teens are better at keeping a schedule without constant reminders. They can assess what they are supposed to do and get it done on their own. Generally speaking, they can work unsupervised with little oversight. Obviously, some high schoolers struggle with this, but in general, older students possess more self-direction than their younger counterparts.
3. Older Children Are Likely to Have Better Study Habits
Study habits are actions students regularly perform to accomplish the task of learning. Examples of study habits are reading, taking notes, working in groups, or studying for a test. It takes a long time and a lot of practice to develop effective study habits.
A high schooler will be far more experienced with positive study habits than a young child. Better study habits mean study time is more productive. They also increase a student’s confidence, competence, and self-esteem. These are more realistic for a high school student than for a young child just beginning his educational journey. (See Homeschool Connections How to Be an Excellent Student course if your teen needs assistance in this area.)
4. High Schoolers Are More Future-Oriented
High schoolers are more focused on the future than younger students. While young children do not think about graduation and college, high school students have begun to contemplate their lives after school. Will they go to trade school or college? If so, where? What will they study there? What will they do with their lives?
As a homeschooling parent, this is good news for you, as it means your high schooler has a heightened sense of the seriousness of their studies. High schoolers think more about why they must complete their studies relative to their future plans. They are aware of the importance of their studies and how school affects their future.
5. Easier to Use Online Resources
Homeschoolers tend to have a love-hate relationship with the Internet. On the one hand, it puts the entirety of human knowledge and experience at our fingertips—an inestimable blessing for any home education program! On the other hand, it also puts the entirety of human vice and ignorance at our fingertips—a regrettable fact every parent must reckon with. Its value and universality mean we can scarcely do without it, while its less savory aspects mean it should only be accessed with great caution.
Thankfully, high school students are much more capable of utilizing the Internet than younger children. Of course, proper safeguards and oversight need to be in place whenever any child goes online. Even so, high schoolers can use the Internet more effectively. They can access and read their tutors’ emails on their own. They can use search engines to do research with minimal assistance. And they have begun to develop a sense for what is and is not a reliable source of information.
Used appropriately, the Internet is a wonderful resource—a resource that high schoolers are fully capable of using to benefit their homeschool lessons.
6. You Can Lean More Into Independent Study
For me, a significant benefit of homeschooling high school is the high schooler’s capacity for independent study. It is an exhilarating feeling when you wake in the morning to find your 10th grader is already up, getting a head start on the day’s math exercises. Or when you can go grocery shopping and trust your 12th grader to complete his history reading while you are gone.
I recall one of my daughters telling me one day, “I’m good on my own. I don’t need your help.” She was almost entirely on autopilot, and it was blissful. But besides being convenient for you, this also helps your high schooler take on ownership of his or her education. And that’s ultimately the end goal of all our educational endeavors—to produce adults who can educate themselves outside of school.
7. The Elevated Responsibility of Older Children
I suppose this final point is really a summation of everything we’ve reviewed: homeschooling high school is easier because high schoolers are simply more responsible than young children. This responsibility means more of the nuts ‘n bolts of homeschooling can be assumed by the teenager as they approach graduation. As your child grows into a teen, he or she is equipped to actively engage in his or her education, to your benefit and theirs.
Conclusion
There’s much more that could be said, but hopefully this has helped you see that homeschooling for high school isn’t as complex as you fear. Obviously, not everything I covered will apply universally (for example, special needs students might still require a more “hands-on” approach throughout high school), but in general, homeschooling for high school is inherently simpler than homeschooling younger children. This should give you a big boost of confidence as you plan for the high school years.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Join other homeschooling parents and me in the Homeschool Connections Facebook Group or in the HSC Community to continue the conversation.
