Can I really homeschool high school? I see this topic asked about, or commented on, over and over again on social media, or during one on one or group conversations. People think it is impossible to continue home education through high school and they need some other kind of diploma. People think it’s far too difficult to “teach” a teenager, or to provide them with “enough”. I have already graduated one child, who decided to go on to college, completed one semester, and did exceedingly well. He has a parent issued diploma and a parent made transcript. His college accepted his transcript with no issues and never asked for his diploma. I have currently a 16 year old in what public school would place her as 11th grade. I can only speak from my experience (but I do know there are many parents who graduated teenagers).

I hear this a lot, “I don’t have the patience” to educate my kids at home, or “I can’t get my child to do the work”. Also, I hear parents say their kid begs to go to public school and the parents either do it or consider it because they just keep butting heads with their child. They say their teenager refuses to get out of bed, complete work, doesn’t try, etc. Some seem to think people like myself that continue the journey must have some special skill or ability or never have those issues. I’m here to tell you, that is not so. My youngest began educating at home before she would be entering 5th grade in the public school system. She did not want to leave public school. The decision, however, was not hers, it was mine, I’m the parent. I decided what was in the best interest for my children, despite what a 5th grader thought. She came around pretty quick to the idea, but even if she hadn’t, she wasn’t going back to public school. So, do I have some special skill or ability to continue home education? No. Have my children always done what they were told? Absolutely not. Has school at home never been difficult to do? There are some difficult times. Have I never felt overwhelmed? Of course I have. Haven’t you considered putting them back into public school then? Not even once. That is the absolute truth. My reasons for taking them out of government school don’t change because I have a difficult time getting a child to complete work, or follow the directions or because my teenager gives me an attitude of anger, annoyance, or whatever else. For me personally I can’t imagine any scenario where I would put my child back into the government school system, willingly.

What has it been like for me to educate teenagers at home? In general, it’s been pretty simple. They are given their texts or online access to a course and they have a schedule of sorts to follow that tells them how much to do, what do do, and when something is due. My teenagers made the transition into a more independent way of study beginning in 7th grade. Slowly at first, with myself still pretty involved. By 9th grade, however, they were expected to be more self accountable. I always check their progress, grade work, and make sure assignments (usually given in their texts) were completed per the instructions and I am always available to answer questions or help or supervise with labs. This is deliberate on my part. If they should decide to go to college (and my oldest did) this is exactly how it will be. My youngest, now in her 11th grade year and now doing all her courses by herself, without her brother (they did some courses together), had to transition even more this year to more independence. From witnessing how her brother is dealing with college courses (he is a attending a local college) where he does just what I’ve been preparing them for, this is the way to go. He has a mixture of in person and online courses, but in both he is responsible for his own study, getting his work done, and asking his professors if he has a question about something. He has to create a schedule for himself to get everything completed. He has due dates for assignments, he needs to take notes during class, he needs to read his texts (online or not) on his own time and be prepared for his next class session. He studies on his own for his tests and exams and had to come up with a method to do so. Study skills and note taking skills are very important for your teenager to learn. If you haven’t implemented it, do it before they graduate. I have made them do this from the beginning, but it was more focused on in the high school years. Being able to write effectively is also a very important skill your teen will need in college courses.

Not every day or every week goes perfect when you’re home educating. Don’t set your expectations that way. It doesn’t matter what age. Teenagers can be more challenging and because their futures can be shaped with how well they do or don’t in 9th -12th grades, this brings a bit more pressure. If your child is not college bound than a focus on their grades or transcripts is less important, however, I would suggest you encourage them to do their best and make a transcript for them anyway. My oldest said he wasn’t going to college, but half-way through his 12th grade year he changed his mind. I’d already been prepared for it though by having made a transcript at the end of 8th grade and began inserting information at the end of 9th grade and kept it updated. You have many options really in choosing their path and their course of study. Utilize what works for your teen (and you). Maybe your teenager can take courses at a local college, for example. If they know they will attend that college they can earn early credits.

Are teenagers perfect listeners? Well, not mine and I’d say not any. Even the seemingly most well behaved teenagers will butt heads with their parents at some point. Nobody does everything perfectly. So what sorts of things have I experienced? I’d be lying if I said my kids never gave me any problems or never ignored my instructions. In general most curriculum I buy has a schedule, but even if it doesn’t, I simply assign x number of pages to be done per day and I expect all the work to be completed per the texts instructions. Teenagers often don’t see the need or point as to why they are being given an assignment or why something has to be done exactly the way the text book says. I do grade completed work fairly, which means if something is incomplete or done incorrectly the grade reflects that. Often they get one chance to correct something to achieve a higher score. An example is my teen had a research paper to do. The text laid out exactly what was required, including footnotes and a proper bibliography. This is very important to learn how to do. She had quite a long time to complete this paper. She turned it in without the footnotes or proper bibliography. I graded her accordingly and she has the opportunity to correct it. She thinks it’s stupid and doesn’t see the point. She says she’s not going to college therefore she doesn’t think it’s important. This is the type of thing many parents will face, even if your child is in a brick and mortar school. She has a choice. I can not make her do the right thing, but I’m not going to change her grade either and she can explain herself to our evaluator. This is accountability. So, my fellow parents, you are not alone. I understand a difficult child. But even with this, I would never send her back to public school.

The best advice I can offer is to have a conversation with your teen. Don’t yell, or get angry. Sit down and tell them exactly what they did wrong, what they need to do to correct it, give them a timeframe of when you expect it to be done, and don’t leave out the respect factor. A teenager who ignores your instruction is disrespectful. Remember, you’re supervising their education so you are the head of the program. Deliberately not following directions because they think something is stupid is not respecting your authority. Don’t be afraid to tell them that. You’re teaching your child lifelong skills. If you are a Christian family, like mine, you also should express that disrespecting you is not honoring God.

Home education is not just about your child learning math, science, history, etc. Educating your child at home needs to also include skills for life, and this should be every parent, regardless of where your children are being educated. Be an involved parent. Don’t give in and don’t quit because your child gives you an attitude or gets angry or tells you something is stupid. Lay down the rules. When they break the rules, they suffer the consequences. Don’t feel defeated and make rash decisions. I could not send her to public school just because it was getting hard at home. What would change? Your teen would likely do the same thing anyway. Can teens make things more challenging at home? Sometimes. The reward still outweighs any hard days.

Can you homeschool high school? Yes. Will it always be easy? No. Can they learn, “enough”? Of course they can. What is “enough” anyway? By who’s standards? Set goals with your teens. Make a 4 year plan in 8th grade for their 9th-12th grade years. Have a plan of what subject areas you need to cover to fulfill the law requirements and what subject areas your child wants to study. Nothing before the 9th grade year typically goes on a transcript. Will the plan change? It could. It doesn’t matter, it’s just a starting point. If your teen already knows they want to go on to college you can start looking into the course of study they are interested in and seeing what is required to enter the program. For example, even though my son told me he wasn’t going to college, his focus in high school was computer technology; programming languages more specifically. I had checked into various colleges and their requirements for computer science (and the like) majors in order to shape his high school courses. I knew that he would need more math and science courses than is required for graduation in the Pennsylvania home education law. Therefore, he took extra years in those areas and continued to take computer programming courses. He took pre-calculus and trigonometry. Taking those benefited him in applying to college and registering for classes as there are often pre-requisites and they do in fact look at your transcript grades. I had him take a free online college level course through Harvard open courses on computer science which gave him a taste of what it’s like to sit in a classroom for hours listening to a professor and practice taking notes.

With my daughter not really knowing what direction she wants to go, it’s a little more difficult to shape her courses around her interests but it’s okay, they often change their minds anyway. What I do know is that she is more interested in cooking and baking as she has tried several different things which high school provides the opportunity to discover likes and dislikes. She was focused on interior decorating, so she did 2 years of that, but decided she didn’t want to continue so she switched back to cooking. If your child doesn’t know what they want to do post graduation, that’s okay. They don’t need to have it all figured out. They don’t need to jump into college right after they graduate either, it’s okay to wait (if they ever go at all). Trade school is a valid choice as well. She has another year of homeschool to complete and she may well have a better idea by the time she graduates.

My final suggestion to home educating your teens is to grade their work. Grade their work fairly. Have some sort of standard system that you use. You don’t have to grade everything they do, but I suggest writing assignments, and worksheets, or tests that were given. Don’t arbitrarily choose a grade, but have a reason for why that grade was given. Make use of rubrics. These can be very useful for labs or hands on projects, be that of art, computer programming, cooking, etc. Rubrics work very well for writing assignments and my son’s college English professor even uses them. You can create your own or get some ideas online for rubrics. Here is an example of an essay rubric:

https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts