Schooling with High Schoolers by Ashlee Williams @ashlee_graceandgrit
When you first take the plunge into the homeschooling world, you're met most often with some doubt, maybe some uncertainty, maybe even a little fear if we are being honest. Then months and years go by and you see your children thriving, your home growing in closeness and it all makes sense. You start to feel confident in your choices and abilities. Then if you're in this homeschooling thing for the long haul, you arrive at the doorsteps of HIGH SCHOOL. Suddenly all of those initial feelings you had when it came to homeschooling come right back up to the surface. Family members may question you. The doubt just starts to hit at all angles. But this time you're wiser, you have experience, you've seen God's tangible hand in your homeschool for all the years that lead you here, and you know he's not abandoning you now!
There's almost this instant pressure when it comes to homeschooling high school. It's as if teaching numbers, letters, and how to use scissors are perfectly acceptable for a mom to teach, but the bigger stuff... that's a no go. I mean, how can you teach algebra if you don't remember it yourself? (spoiler alert: there are programs for that). How wonderful is it that God doesn't give it to us all at once? I am confident that that is why we get years to work on the addition facts and multiplication tables before we head into the more complex stuff. He's equipping us for the journey we are on. Teaching us so much as mothers, but also teaching our children, who are now on the young adult doorstep, how to work hard and work with you. Homeschooling a high schooler is no different than homeschooling a kindergartner. You use the skills you've always used. You purchase your materials as you've always done. You get to do the heart work with family bible study as you have done. When we start to see that it's not really that different, some of that fear and pressure starts to fade.
Another thing I've felt personally as I begin the next phase in my homeschool mom journey, is the thought that high schoolers who are homeschooled, basically need to be removed from the family unit to receive what they "need" for their education. The thoughts of no more morning basket, no more read alouds on the couch, no more family bible studies, and definitely no more family history studies; no more family art days, or even a gardening project with younger siblings. Definitely not. They are too old for that--is what they say. These highschoolers have work to do. Credits to earn. Now don't get me wrong the credits and classes for graduation are important, but what makes that most important? We've spent years developing family culture and togetherness and now because they turn 14, they are suddenly not included in any of the what's made homeschooling so special all of the years previous? Why did our priorities change? Why did the call on our hearts just disappear because the word high school entered the room. I want to challenge that thought as a mom of a homeschooled highschooler. In fact, I can't think of a more important time to draw them near--to have them be a part of your homeschool--not just off at their desk with textbooks and iPads. My homeschool is what I make it, and that doesn't change just because the level of course work does. Togetherness and memories are still the most important thing.
Schooling with highschoolers doesn't have to be this daunting thing. It doesn't have to be a time where you abandon all you've spent years creating. I think the best way to homeschool with highschoolers is to continue the work you've been doing. Continue loving them, guiding them, and enjoying them. After all, there's never been a time in a mom's life where the reality of how quickly your children grow is evident. The marathon isn't over, let us finish it with endurance.
James 1:4 "And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
2 Timothy 4:7 " I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith."