Yesterday I wrote about the possibility of homeschooled children wanting to go to public school. I also gave you some questions you might want to ask should they bring up the subject. Likewise, many public schooled children approach their parents asking to be homeschooled. Here are some questions you should ask your high school aged child who wants to homeschooler.
I am addressing high school aged kids in particular because they are usually the most adamant about deciding they want to homeschool. These are also the kids who are going to be the most serious about homeschooling, or the ones who want to use homeschooling to “drop out” of school. Some of these questions can also apply to middle school aged kids as well.
Why do you want to homeschool? Wanting to get away from a bad school experience can be a good reason for homeschooling, but homeschooling should not be used to flee adversities, but to gain skills to help your face adversities later in life. Likewise, however, is the school environment makes it difficult for your child to learn, and then their pleas should be strongly considered.
How many hours a day will you commit to your studies? Your child needs to be realistic about the time it will take them to homeschool. They need to have good study habits and be willing to work five or more dedicated hours a day, especially if they are in high school. For a child who thinks they can do it all in an hour or two a day, they will have to change their expectations, or not homeschool.
What do you want to do for extracurricular activities? What are your children’s interests outside of academic classes? How do they hope to keep them up? If they want to continue in sports, or even get into sports for the first time, this is possible with homeschooling co-ops and groups. If they are into art and theatre, there are lots of resources. The key reason for asking this question is to have your child consider and choose how they will enrich their education.
Stay tuned for more questions to ask your teen who wants to homeschool.
*Have a question about homeschooling? Just ask.
*Want to know more about homeschooling? Start with the 2006 homeschool blog in review!
* Have you seen the homeschooling curriculum glossary?