Beyond Homeschooling – Starting a Conversation!
We need to talk 🙂
Have you got teenagers? Well then, I have been wanting to talk to you about this for a while. What happens towards the end of homeschooling and beyond?
We know that homeschooling works on so many levels. Home educated children have the time to follow their dreams and passions. Even if you have followed a curriculum, your children still have had the time and space to find out who they are. I believe that not following the crowd can become their greatest asset in their future careers.
And yet – when we hit high school age, the panic sets in! I know – I have been there.
Academic Qualifications vs Non-Academics
I had a real crisis when my daughter turned 14. Homeschooling for us to that point had been wonderfully relaxed and alternative. But everyone else was pushing their children to leave school (and homeschool) with a bundle of academic qualifications, and then onto college for more of the same. It was hard to believe that my children could compete in the job market without following suit. And so began a lot of worry filled nights.
Should I turn my back on what we had been doing and start her down an academic exam route that would take her off to university? Would that guarantee success? Or should I continue to help her to develop her passions and interests in the hope it would ‘lead somewhere’.
I am sure you feel the same, but I really don’t want to let my children down. I know academic success can open doors. But it would be a big switch for us and I needed to know that if we turned our backs on a non-traditional method and adopted the traditional route – it would be worth it.
Everyone was talking as if there were only two choices – an academic route vs a non-academic route. Was that it? Or was there more? (There is! I will tell you about that later).
In the end I decided that hand on heart, I felt we needed to continue allow her to be who she was – and not take time away from that to force a lot of tests on her. No matter how scary an option that was.
How about you?
I know that it is different for different children. Some kids take to academics like a duck to water. But how about you?
- Are you feeling pressured into going along with the crowd and take time with your teen to get them qualified?
- Have you made the scary move into continuing without taking exams?
- Are you comfortable with your decision? Scared? Confident?
- Do you know where your teen is going to go with this? Would you like to know more about the options?
- Would you like more support for your decision? How would that look?
I would really like to start talking more about this. But is anyone interested? I feel like there is just me!Â
You can leave a comment here on the blog, contact me via my contact form.
I would love to hear from you.
Julie.
Good topic! I have a son soon to be 13. I always worry 🙂 He is not particularly academic but is very observant. He is not arty, but is very creative. It’s very hard to know what to do, except I do know I will keep h/schooling him. Will love to hear other responses.
Thanks for the comment Petra. Yes, my son is 14 now so we are going through the same thing again that we did with my daughter.
My son is 16 and a junior in high school this year. This is our first year homeschooling. After going to a private Christian school K-8 and the public high school 9-10, he is very much used to a rigid academic based education. He is also very creative and loves to draw. My goal was to mix it up and do a blend of both. So we are doing math (pre-calculus), History (U.S. History) and Science (Physics) with a more traditional curriculum (Abeka DVDs), while English is a little more fun and allows him to express his creativity a bit more through writing (The One Year Novel), and Bible is more bible-based life skills – which I believe is SOOOOOO important for them to learn at this age (Dave Ramsey For Homeschoolers). For art I will let him explore on Blender.org. So far this is working well! He gets a little of both and its enough to keep him interested and exploring while still getting the college-expected academics done.
Glad you have found something that works for you Carol. Does your son know what he wants to do?
I’ve “graduated” a now 19 year old and I just want to say that no matter how much you think about it, plan for it, worry about it etc., that it ends up not looking at all what you thought it was going to look like. Yes the adventure isn’t over yet but I think what WE think it will look like is never what it ends up to be. Life is funny like that. I think for teens what matters is a) they either know what they want to do – so get them doing that or b) they have no idea what they want to do and may not be ready mature wise to even want to investigate that. That is where my son is – he is working at a “regular ole job” until he figures that out. He has some ideas now but I don’t think it will be for another year or two until he wants to do something about it. So that is my two cents …. for now 😉 I have a 10 year old coming up that is going to be a totally different “story”…. See how life works HA HA!
Thanks for comment Lori 🙂 I think letting things flow can be really scary so must people just plump for doing qualifications ‘in case’. My daughter is b)! She doesn’t really know what she wants to do as yet. Am trying to keep the faith that it will come to her.