We need to have a chat about balancing life and the homeschool transcript! Homeschool moms sometimes feel SOOO much pressure to perform. What if their kid doesn’t get into Wossamotta U on a full-ride scholarship? What if their homeschooler doesn’t even get into Wossamotta U at all?
Under great pressure to have the world’s best academic transcript, some homeschool high schoolers are graduating and heading off to college with some solid academic skills but little preparation for life, love and the pursuit of their faith. THERE JUST WASN’T TIME! SAT prep and across-the-board honors courses swallowed up the hours…
Balancing Life and Homeschool Transcript
What if you gain the whole world and lose your kid? When life gets out of balance from too much pressure from academics and worry about college, it is not difficult to imagine that it could have a poor outcome for personal growth and health.
Let’s take a look at one of my favorite verses from the *Homeschool Application Bible*:
Mark 8:35-37 Homeschool Application Bible:
For whosoever mom will save her pride shall lose it; but whosoever mom shall lose her pride for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
For what shall it profit a mom, if she gain great SAT scores for her homeschooler and a killer-transcript, and lose her own teen?
Or what shall a mom give in exchange for her own kid?
Instead of endless hours on academics and no time for life preparation: Why not aim LOWER?
Here are 7 things to check to see if your homeschool is out of balance:
1. Does your homeschool have appropriate-leveled expectations for your high school kid (honors where honors is due, average where average is best use of time)?
What are levels? Levels are the ways your teen shows rigor for their courses. Competitive colleges often want to see some highly rigorous courses on the transcript.
- Here’s a post on how to increase the rigor of courses
- Here’s a post on how to explain the rigor of courses
- Here’s a post about choosing levels.
However, if your teen is not college-bound or is starting at community college or a less competitive college, why overwork them. Allow them time to explore other areas of life! Listen to this Homeschool Highschool Podcast about homeschooling *just average* teens.
2. Does your homeschool high school day include spiritual development?
Have you genuinely taught and modeled for your teen how to have a deep and meaningful relationship with God? How to read the Bible for more than “obligation”? How to pray intercessory for others? How to pray for oneself? To have fun with prayer? How to listen? (Here’s a link to a classic book I think upperclassmen should read and discuss: Hearing God by Dallas Willard. Here’s a link our Prayer Journals that take in interactive, light-hearted approach to prayer.)
3. Has your homeschool high school wrestled with the tough areas of living faith in a faithless world?
Have your teens been exposed to the hard questions facing today’s young people like sex, drugs, and homosexuality? Have they studied Apologetics? Dr. Gerald Culley’s Apologetics classes are FREE here.
4. Has your homeschool high schooler done some solid Career Exploration?
Have you done enough Career Exploration to record a credit on the transcript? Has your teen noticed how God is leading? What God has already done in his life? The gifts and talents He has given her? The desires of his heart? Here are links to our FREE Get-Started Career Exploration Questionnaire and the Career Exploration Workbook.
5. Does your teen practice social skills?
No, really. Out in the world, the way people present themselves can make a difference in college and career. Does your homeschool high schooler know basic etiquette and social skills? Can he start a conversation? Can she use the right fork at a restaurant? Can he sneeze politely? Can she contribute appropriately to a group conversation? Can he show respect to a college teacher? Try these basic networking skills from Vicki’s VickiTillmanCoaching.com site.
6. Do your homeschool high schoolers know how to manage relationships?
Do they know healthy friend skills? Do they know boundary setting skills? Do they know how to have a healthy romance? (I personally like the Boundaries series to help with this.)
7. Does your teen know how to practice basic self-care?
Does he or she remember to eat and drink appropriately? De-stress? Sleep well? Online game or use social-media responsibly?
Homeschool Moms, you will not have to worry about standing before God and proving that your high schooler had an awesome transcript. It would be good to balance the eternal with the academic. God bless!
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You are right, Karen. We can do all the “right” things, but we have no ability to guarantee our kids’ outcomes. Praise God, we know Someone who works in all our kids’ lives. We don’t HAVE to be successful, we can aim for balance and do a lot of praying 🙂
“For what shall it profit a mom, if she gain great SAT scores for her homeschooler and a killer-transcript, and lose her own teen?” – Every parent, homeschooler or not, should remember this. There is way too much emphasis placed on the standardized test scores that students (and parents) often lose sight of what is really important until it is too late. Even when you do all the ‘right’ things for spiritual development and worldviews, etc, there is no guarantee that your teen will not make their own decisions about that when they are older. I would rather lose the whole world and gain my teen, than the other way around.