I started homeschooling my kids six years ago, when one was entering 7th grade and the other was going into 5th grade. The task felt daunting, but I did lots of research and made the switch, mostly to lessen the pressures my kids were feeling in the public school classroom and increase the amount of learning we could do together through travel.
Homeschooling my kids has paid dividends: My son started his senior year of high school dual-enrolled with a local college because, on our own, we were able to work through his lessons more quickly. My daughter, now a sophomore, uses most of her free time to work with elementary-aged kids in local theater programs and hopes to become a teacher. I’ve watched my kids blossom into little versions of who their adult selves will be, and I feel a sense of pride knowing I played a hand in shaping who they’re becoming.
Homeschooling during high school is just different
Courtesy of Terri Peters
Still, homeschooling high schoolers requires more work than the middle and elementary years. There’s record-keeping, transcript-making, SAT-taking, and more. And, without the support of a school system to successfully get my kids through high school and off to college, I’ve been learning right along with them. At the end of the day, homeschooling a high school student isn’t hard, necessarily, it just requires extra work beyond simply following a homeschool curriculum.
The biggest advice I’d give to parents about to start homeschooling for the high school years is to do a lot of research about the graduation requirements within your state and county. In Florida, where we live, homeschool students do not get a standard high school diploma from the state.
I keep detailed grade records and transcripts myself instead. When my son graduates at the end of this school year, I’ll issue him a diploma I create and keep on file, along with his high school transcript and a notarized affidavit saying he completed the necessary coursework.
Homeschooling opens up so many opportunities for learning
Courtesy Terri Peters
My favorite thing about homeschooling is that I have some say in what counts as school for my kids. Our high school curriculum primarily comes from online schooling programs, but we also use things like community theater and group fitness classes at our gym to fill elective credits like performing arts and physical education.
Travel also makes its way into the mix: This year, my son fulfilled a language credit by studying Italian, and then we took a family vacation to Italy to further his knowledge. One year, when my kids studied marine biology, we took a whale-watching cruise in Baja California, Mexico, to make the experience feel more real to them.
During my son’s junior year, I learned a great deal about taking the SATs and tracking volunteer hours for college scholarships. My husband discovered through his employer that we had a college counseling benefit and an SAT tutoring benefit, so we utilized those to get a little outside help.
One of the best things parents of high schoolers can do when homeschooling is to research what support groups and community programs exist in their area, because, like anything, it takes a village to raise a homeschooled child.
Homeschooling can feel overwhelming, but it’s been worth it for me
Courtesy of Terri Peters
The year before we started homeschooling, I was at dinner with a friend whose twin daughters were about to graduate as homeschooled high school seniors. As she regaled me with tales of her girls being fluent in Mandarin and headed to college on full academic scholarships, I remember saying, “I love that you did all of tha, but I could never. I’d be too overwhelmed about where to get started.”
Months later, I found myself checking out books (one was literally titled “Homeschooling for Dummies”) and digging deep into how to homeschool.
Now, I’m about to graduate one kid and two years from repeating it with the other, I can say the biggest thing I wish I’d known about graduating a homeschooler before I started is this: Like anything, it isn’t overly complicated if you find out exactly what’s required in your state and county and work your way through it, checking the boxes as you go.
Sure, homeschooling has caused me to take on titles I never imagined for myself, from principal to record-keeper, but it’s also given me precious time with my kids that feels even more fleeting now that we’re almost finished with our homeschooling journey.
