How to Manage Temporary Homeschooling a High Schooler

How to manage Temporary Homeschooling a high schooler.

How to Manage Temporary Homeschooling a High Schooler

During much of the worst of the pandemic, most of our local public and private schools have closed for the rest of the school year. We  had some requests on how to make *temporary homeschooling* work.

Since that time, more and more people have asked about how to handle temporary homeschooling. There are many reasons for homeschooling for a brief time: a family move, health, bullying at the school, etc. (Homeschooling can help give an environment of healing for a bullied child.)

We hear parents being concerned that if they homeschool their teens, they mind find the young folks:

• Gaming for the rest of the year
• YouTube bingeing for the rest of the year
• Getting seriously behind on their studies

While gaming and YouTube are part of adolescent life these days, it is not optimal for the school year. So here are some ideas to help you manage the time you will be temporarily homeschooling.

In this post we will discuss:

• How do I find curriculum for high schoolers? (check out this post for k-8)
• Educational resources to enrich these weeks at home
• A Suggested Schedule
• Dealing with Anxiety Related to the Virus

How do I find curriculum?

Many schools have been sending home packets of work for high schoolers to finish so they do not fall far behind. Some schools are even doing some work daily online.

The families we have heard from have found that these material simply are not enough to keep their adolescents engaged and off social media. They would like to use this period of temporary homeschooling to:

• Have some time to build expertise in a favorite subject
• Fill in some educational gaps
• Experience some richness in learning that normal schooling does not have time for

• Let’s look at all three:

  • Have some time to build expertise in a favorite subject

If you ask an adolescent, they would probably say that the goal of having two weeks off school should be to have some fun and relaxation. Parents, on the other hand, do not want to totally waste these couple of weeks.

How to Manage Temporary Homeschooling a High Schooler: Here are some resources for building expertise in a favorite subject:

• • • AP

      • FiveAble has videos and resources to enhance AP courses. Free.

    • Technology

      • Online class on the introduction to game programming (grades 4-12). FREE, no optin required. At FundaFunda Academy online.
      • Free courses to start learning coding at CS CMU Academy.
      • Homeschooling with Technology podcast. Amazing amount of information on all kinds of tech for teens!
      • VidCode.com is offering free courses during the coronavirus outbreak.
      • Strengthen typing skills for free at Typing Club.
      • Disney’s Imagineering and Khan Academy with online lessons.

    • Literature Resources

      • Free public domain audiobooks at Librovox.
      • 7SistersHomeschool.com gives a clear explanation of high school Literature requirements.

    • English/Language Arts

      • Literature Guides for High Schoolers. No-busywork literature study guides for building inferential and comprehension skills in 7Sisters’ downloadable activity guides for favorite classic books like:
        • God’s Smuggler
        • Little Women
        • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
      • Create a Tall Tale unit study with using this post and 7Sisters Tall Tale Writing Guide.
      • Poetry. Ezra Paul Tillman’s YouTube channel with fascinating illustrations of twelve famous poems put to music, including:
        • The Wind by Robert Louis Stephenson
        • The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
        • If by Rudyard Kipling
        • No Man is an Island by John Donne
      • Listen to some free short stories on Audible. Some of these are good for teens. (Aim for 10 and count as a book read, if you are logging.)
      • Solid resources for research papers. JSTOR is used by college students but some content is now available to public for free.

• • • Math

      • Hoodamath.com has free math games for kindergarten and up.
      • PurpleMath.com has free math lessons and help.

    • History

      • History.com has a wealth of videos on just about every history topic you can imagine.
      • Horrible Histories are worth the investment. Purchase here.
      • Study presidential elections with this delightful resource from Silverdale Press. Download a free chapter.
      • Take tour of the best museums in Dubai
      • Our homeschool friend, Corinne sent us these links:
        • Virtual Geography Trips
        • National Parks Virtual Trips

    • Science

      • American Chemical Society has some resources for teens, such as magazines and videos. Check out their website.
      • NASA’s digital library is now free.
      • Build your own birdhouse.

    • World Languages

      • Maintain or strengthen your high schooler’s world language skills with these resources:
        • Conjuguemos.com
        • Duolingo.com
        • Memrise.com

  • Fill in some educational gaps

    • General

      • Easy Peasy has free, online courses in core subjects for all ages.
      • Edmoto.com has free, online courses in several areas.
      • Outschool.com has amazing numbers of courses.
      • FreedomHomeschool.com has SO much free homeschool material in all core areas in various grades!
      • HippoCampus.com has lots of videos to enhance learning in lots of core subjects.
      • Junior Achievement has some awesome online learning opportunities.
      • Khan Academy has free online courses and even offers suggested schedules for students. Click here to get started. Lessons on YouTube.
      • LearnInColor.com has posts on great movies and videos that will fill out your homeschool day.
      • PBS Learning Media has odds and ends of interesting subjects for various ages.
      • Scholastic’s Learn at Home series is offering twenty days of learning, reading and inspiration for free.
      • Study.com has many good courses. (They also included 7Sisters in their list of top homeschool high school blogs.)
      • TeachersPayTeachers.com has lessons and activities for just about every subject. Some free.

    • Career Exploration

      • 7Sisters has a popular Career Exploration workbook that gives teens a good start on their career discovery journey.
        • Get started with these 2 freebies:
          • Career Exploration Questionnaire
          • Career Exploration in the Bible

    • History

      • History of Vikings Podcast. Cool podcast by homeschool graduate, Noah Tetzner. Check out his interview with Homeschool Highschool Podcast.
      • Learn how to build your own history elective with this post.
      • Memorize historic documents at Ezra Paul Tillman’s YouTube channel with these illustrated, musical versions of famous American documents (download this freebie from 7Sisters with the links) or click:
        • Preamble to the Declaration of Independence
        • Declaration of Independence – We Hold These Truths
        • First Amendment of the Constitution Song
        • Gettysburg Address Memorization Song

    • Math

• • • • 7SistersHomeschool.com has a popular, interactive Financial Literacy course that will change your teen’s view of money.
      • DeltaMath.com has free lessons to explain specific topics.
      • Thinkwell.com has a math curriculum that offers a free fourteen-day trial for grades 6 and up.
      • XtraMath.com has free math activities for young people.
      • IXL.com has interactive learning activities in core subject areas. Free trial.
      • Zearn.com has free math lessons for all ages.

• • • Science

      • Here are some teacher resources/tools.

• • Experience some richness in learning that normal schooling does not have time for

How to manage temporary homeschooling a high schooler, while busy schools with limited time and resources often must short some of the enrichment that comes from exposing children to the arts. During this coronavirus crisis, many organizations are making the arts available to your family for free!

• • • Music

      • Music in Our Homeschool has so many great online courses about music history and music appreciation. Some are free.
      • Berliner Philharmonie: free digital concerts for your family
      • Seattle Symphony: free video broadcasts and livestreams

• • • Art

      • • Virtual Museum Tours: This Travel and Leisure post has links to twelve free virtual-museum tours to places like:
          • National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC
          • Van Gough Museum in Amsterdam
        • McHarperManor.com is providing free video art lessons for the next couple of weeks. Subscribe to email for details.

    • Cinema

      • Have an educational excuse to watch great movies: Learn the literary themes and tropes with 7Sisters’ Cinema Studies for Literature Learning Guides. Choose from 34 different guides to classic movies like:

        • Hook
        • The Miracle Worker
        • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
        • The Importance of Being Ernest
        • Rudy
        • The Incredibles
        • Life of Pi
        • Even more
          • Check out this post with even MORE resources

Sometimes a good curriculum is sometimes all that is needed. Some can be used by the student with little or no input from the parent. Online instruction is available in most subjects, try checking YouTube for videos on just about everything.

Check out this episode of Homeschool Highschool Podcast for a helpful discussion on teaching what you don’t know.

• How should I schedule my day?

While each homeschool is unique, a teen being pulled from school is often more successful beginning with a fairly set schedule. It is easier to begin with a more rigid schedule, then becoming more flexible as you and your student adjust to the new routine.

• How long should it take each day?

This will depend on factors such as your student’s grade level and motivation. A high school student may take several hours.

Dealing with Anxiety about Coronavirus

Adolescents might experience anxiety about the coronavirus and not know what to do about it. When helping young people deal with this anxiety, you can help in these ways:

• Give accurate, age-appropriate information
• Create and keep a gentle schedule
• Create special moments
• Practice and teach mindfulness to your teens

Let’s look at all of these:

• Give accurate, age-appropriate information

  • How do you explain coronavirus to a younger teen? Brainpop is providing a series of free videos and lessons.
  • This cute comic from NPR is good for middle school or high school students. 
  • This post will help parents understand how children of different ages deal with crisis.

• Create and keep a gentle schedule

  • Routines help calm adolescent anxieties. Copy the schedule above and adapt it for your teen’s needs.
  • Here’s a helpful post about teaching teens time management.

• Create special moments

  • Research shows that predictable schedules accentuated with special moments can help children deal with anxieties. Daily choose one or more of the enrichment activities from the resources above to experience together.
  • Check out this post with 43 special things to do for homeschooling during Covid-19.

• Practice and teach mindfulness to your children

  • Practice deep breathing (it will lower your stress hormones). Download this freebie from Vicki Tillman Coaching to learn some easy breathing exercises for you and your children.
  • Choose some mindfulness practices from this post for folks who are not naturally mindful. Practice them daily, if possible.
  • Check out these posts on teens and anxiety and  helping teens manage stressful times.

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How to Manage Temporary Homeschooling a High Schooler