10 Places You Can Homeschool High School and Love It! Homeschooling your teens doesn’t need to take place in a *schoolroom*! Make high school interesting with these ideas.
10 Places You Can Homeschool High School and Love It!
Let’s get real about what counts as education and what counts as a legitimate place to conduct that education. I’d like to share a couple of facts that I’ve learned over decades of homeschooling my kids, homeschooling in community with my friends at co-op or group classes, and as academic advisor for local homeschool high schoolers:
- There’s not ONE right way to homeschool!
- All of life is education!
- There’s not ONE right location to homeschool!
So where is the RIGHT place to homeschool high school? Depends on your goals. What are your goals for your teens? What are their goals for this year? for high school?
Here are some goal-oriented questions to ask yourself and your homeschool high schoolers:
- Are you wanting to develop independent learners?
- Do your teens want more independence?
- Do you want as much togetherness as possible before your teens graduate?
- Does your teen like sameness or mixing things up (as far as where they study)?
If you answer these questions, then think about the suggestions below, you can experiment with what works best for you and your family. Here are locations that many of the homeschooling high school families that I know have used. (What many people find is they have a mix-and-match approach that changes over time, according to the needs of the family.)
10 Places You Can Homeschool High School and Love It!
In an official schoolroom
Some homeschool families have a dedicated schoolroom. For *schoolroom families*, a dedicated location in the house works best for keeping everyone on track with their studies. They like the rhythm of going to the schoolroom to do schoolwork, then leaving it behind at the end of the day. (This is similar to us working moms, we try to leave work at work at the end of the day.)
All over the house
My homeschool high schoolers each had different rooms they favored for doing their studies. Some liked their bedrooms, some preferred the sofa in the living room, some preferred a picnic table outside when the weather was nice.
Some of my kids preferred doing some studies in their bedroom and other studies were more fun when working in the living room with their siblings nearby. For online courses, studying in a separate room is often helpful. (If you’re looking for online music appreciation courses, you’ll like the short courses from our friend, Gena, at Music in Our Homeschool. We aren’t affiliates, just like her work.)
In the yard
At least some lessons need to be outside: nature studies, astronomy labs, some physical education (Need some fun ideas for outdoorsy non-athletic physical education? Check out this post.) Some homeschool high schoolers learn best if they are in the fresh air, even while they are working on typically indoor lessons like Algebra.
On a field trip
One of the benefits of homeschooling is the freedom to take field trips. Unfortunately, with all the pressure of earning credits, many families with homeschool high schoolers start skipping field trips. They often feel like they can’t take time for the *fun stuff* and still get all the hours in that needed in order to finish the Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Science, World Language, Phys Ed, Fine Arts and electives that are required form graduation.
Homeschool high school IS a lot of pressure, to be sure!
However, some of the most powerful education, is the education done while in a fresh location with real-life experiences. Our homeschoolers who have graduated high school and gone on to college or career can usually tell us about favorite field trips and the things they learned on those trips.
Want some great field trip ideas? Check out this episode of Homeschool Highschool Podcast.
In the car
By the time we have homeschool high schoolers, many of us have already done a fair amount of *car schooling*! Some homeschoolers love reading or doing workbooks in the car. Some teens love carrying along the laptop or iPad and working on their editable pdf Literature Study Guides from 7Sisters. (The Chronicles of Narnia for High School is one of our most popular Literature Study Guide bundles.)
At co-op
We 7Sisters love homeschooling in community, so we have loved our co-ops. (We have been in many over the years.) When they are available locally, homeschool co-ops can be a great blessing to high schoolers. If you’re thinking about co-oping or starting a co-op, here is a comprehensive post with LOTS of information to help.
At group classes
Sometimes co-ops get big enough that they incorporate as group classes or even small hybrid, charter, or umbrella schools. Homeschool high schoolers can often find a level of support for classes and advising that they really enjoy. We eventually started a local umbrella school that has helped hundreds of teens graduate and get onto the next part of life successfully.
At a friend’s house
When my daughter was homeschooling high school, she loved to study with her friends. She had a little pack of girls would switch houses and study together. This was a lovely skill to develop, since it led to her ability to easily gather study groups in college. (Study groups, by the way, is a top skill for success in college, according to my sister, Dr. Renae Duncan, Associate Provost of Murray State University. Check out this Homeschool Highschool Podcast episode with more college success tips from Renae.)
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In an interest club, organization or sports
ALL of life is education. Capture it on the homeschool transcript. Your high schoolers are learning in many educational settings. If they are at debate team, cinematography club or in a sport, they are in an educational setting. Log those hours!
At church
It probably wouldn’t be cool to log every time your teens walk into the church doors. Here are some things that we have logged from church:
- Service hours
- Specialized trainings
- In-depth Bible studies
Where can you homeschool high school? ANY place, really!
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I love the idea about developing study groups, and how that translates into an important college skill. We’re a few years off from highschool just yet, but I’ve definitely flagged that idea for later!