What, no Prom?: Tips for Homeschooling High School Aged Children

Homeschooling your children in the "K" years is, if not necessarily easy, definitely doable. After all, kindergarten and preschool are essentially glorified day cares, albeit government-paid ones. Similarly, the elementary grades are not enormous burdens for homeschooling parents because anybody can make a volcano with play-doh and baking soda! The middle school years are when things become more difficult, however, and homeschooling high school age children can be an insurmountable burden.

The problem doesn't lie so much in the educational aspect as much as it does in the social realm. It has been said that all life is basically a repeat of high school. How, then, can a child conceivably understand the experience of those pivotal four years when their only educational experiences have taken place in the laundry room? Homeschooling high school children doesn't have to be so difficult, though. Essentially, the main things to watch out for, and the things that a child lacks without the typical public or even private school education, are basically companionship and shared experience. The companionship aspect is easily understandable: To create meaningful and lasting relationships in the real world, a child must use their formative years as practice to understand people and interaction. This can be accomplished without a public high school, though.

Taking your child to field trips and outside functions should be par for the course for any homeschooling parent. This is the only way their children will be functioning citizens in the future and taking your child to skating rinks, bowling alley, or any similar youth filled area will allow them to mesh with their future peers. It may be overwhelming to the youngster but, after all, we must all be the new kid at certain points of life.

Shared experience is a bit trickier. Even kids who hated high school have memories of prom, homecoming, the big game, and other John Hughes fare. Not taking part in such activities may cause a child to lament his or her homeschool education in later years when they think of all the things they missed out on that are tropes of mainstream existence. This is something that is hard, if not impossible, to substitute. Then again, people can watch war movies without having been in a war and still gather the concept. Getting your child interested in current events and the state of the world will allow the child to take part in a collective consciousness that is in fact greater than the petty things that high school has to offer. Enjoying the shared experience of watching a meteor shower that only comes along every thousand years is definitely more meaningful than being able to laugh at the concept of a "swirlie".