When you’ve told your teen for the umpteenth time that day to get back to work.
When your teen is nitpicking their younger sibling.
When your teen’s room looks like a bomb went off in there.
When you wish just once you could ask your teen to do something without them either a) backtalking you, or b) forgetting what it was two seconds later.
These are the moments when you will second-guess your decision to homeschool through high school, lol. And they might happen not just every once in awhile, but often several times a day. It can get frustrating.
But also consider these:
When you hear your teen laughing out loud while reading Shakespeare.
When you find your teen playing Candy Land with their younger sibling without being prompted by you.
When your teen makes lunch for everyone on a day you are feeling under the weather.
When your teen offers a hug and says, “I love you, Mom” because they’ve noticed you are stressed.
These times happen, too — and they happen more often when you stick with homeschooling all the way through high school.
You see, while homeschooling high school may not always be easy, the benefits really do outweigh the struggles.
I mean, let’s just be blatantly honest here and admit that homeschooling high school is NOT a walk in the park. Teens are a whole different breed of animal. Now they have opinions of their own and the desire to express them. A lot. And sometimes loudly or rudely.
This can affect the entire family, and sometimes you might just prefer to send that teen away for hours every day so that you can get back to the relative peace and quiet you used to enjoy while homeschooling.
Although if you think back, was it really that much more peaceful and quiet?
In reality, homeschooling itself is not for the faint of heart, is it? Other moms get lotsa hours to themselves every day, while we sacrifice a clean home and our sanity, sometimes, to be juggling a houseful of crazy kids and making sure they are learning what we think they should.
Homeschooling high school is not any more difficult than what you’ve already been doing for years
(if you started when your child was young).
There are different challenges, yes, but as I’ve been sharing with you as a contributor here on Homeschool Solutions with Pam Barnhill for the past year, they can all be overcome.
Socialization? Check. See this post: Socialization, Take Two. For High School, that is.
Prepping for college? Check. Lookee here: The First Step to Prepare Yourself for Homechooling High School (I know it doesn’t sound like it’s about getting ready for college, but it is, lol.)
Other future plans? Check. A long list of ideas here: College is NOT the Only Option for your Homeschooled Teen. Really.
Time management? Yep. 5 Ways to Guide Your Teen in the Art of Time Management
And seven more articles discussing different aspects of homeschooling high school, which you can find by searching for “high school” in the search bar at the top of this page.
And if that’s not enough information for you, check out my own website, where I’ve got you covered about all things homeschooling high school, all in one place.
Transcripts, graduation, curriculum planning — it’s all on there. Click here to see it: It’s Not That Hard to Homeschool (formerly Annie & Everything).
The struggles can be dealt with. The benefits last forever.
What benefits am I talking about?
How about really getting to know your teen? Instead of talking to them at the end of the day and hearing about everything they’ve done after-the-fact, when you homeschool high school, you’re there in real time.
You are there to help them through the daily fight with math or watch them light up about what they’re reading in history. You see what makes them laugh and what makes them cry. You’re available to hear their woes as they happen and provide a hug when they most need it. That is valuable, y’all.
The relationship may be strained sometimes, but in the long-run, you will send your teen off into adulthood with a strong sense of who they are and where they belong.
They will NOT tell you this, lol, or possibly even realize it themselves, but it will be there as a rock to lean on when they are faced with the challenges of life.
We’ve always told our kids, “Your family members are the only people who will stick with you through thick and thicker. Your friends will come and go, but family is forever.”
Homeschooling all the way through high school is a way to strengthen the bonds.
No, it won’t always be good times. But bonds don’t get strengthened without being stretched and tested. It’s by having the good times AND going through the bad times that commitment is forged and proved.
It’s showing your teen that you are there for them every day, all day, and will always be willing to restore the relationship when it has been broken by their behavior (or yours, hello). This gives them the fortitude needed to take on the world. It’s a difficult place out there, as we well know.
And yet, so many homeschoolers want to send their teens to high school outside the home as the way to start taking on the world. They want to toss their kid into the pond and see if he can swim. They want to take off the training wheels and have their kid ride alone.
But in my opinion, high school is the WORST time to do this. Your teen is experiencing the most self-conscious, insecure, emotionally volatile period of their entire life, and you want to throw them to the wolves (aka other teens going through the same angst) at this fragile time?
All in the name of opportunities, or academics, or because you just want peace and quiet?
I’ve been through this with four of my teens now. I KNOW that there are challenges, sometimes large ones. But I also know that I gave my all to see my kids through this angsty time in their lives.
And we all lived through it, lol, and are stronger as a result. I know that, even if they don’t, yet — and may never completely understand until they have children of their own.
The huge benefit of homeschooling high school is the RELATIONSHIP. The relationship that gets tested and tried. The relationship that causes us to question why we wanted to have kids in the first place, lol.
And yet the relationship that during this time begins to transition from being a parent-child relationship to a FRIENDS relationship. And all the deeper because it’s been through the fire of daily, hour-by-hour interaction.
And listen, just because homeschooling high school isn’t always easy, it doesn’t have to be all that difficult, either.
In fact, if you join my Facebook group called “It’s Not that Hard to Homeschool High School,” you’ll find that out by sharing your everyday experiences with over 19K other moms who are in the trenches just like you! Click here to ask to join: It’s Not That Hard to Homeschool High School.
Homeschooling high school is totally worth it, y’all.
Don’t give up. Stay the homeschooling course all the way through graduation. You will be VERY glad you did!
P.S. It’s been a GREAT year here at Homeschool Solutions with Pam Barnhill, but I will no longer be contributing after this month. (A big THANK YOU to Pam for the opportunity!!)
If you want to continue receiving information and encouragement from me about homeschooling high school, come to my blog and grab one of my freebies — that will put you on my mailing list.
Here’s one with a printable list of 100 ways to encourage your teen (and many of them would work for younger kids, as well!): 100 Proven Ways to Encourage Teens. HUGS!!
- Homeschooling High School with Youngers Around - July 26, 2018
- Homeschooling High School? Priceless. - January 18, 2018
- College is not the only option for your homeschooled teen. Really. - November 30, 2017