What Does a Teen Need Most from Homeschool High School?

What does a teen need most from homeschool high school years? How do you set priorities on what you and your teen invest time, money and effort in?

Having walked through homeschool high school with my 5 kids and served as advisor to a couple hundred others in our local homeschool community, I’ve watched what has worked for teens and their families – and what has NOT worked.

Here’s a thought: teens need to learn to live in the present AND to be prepared for the future. For some teens this is a challenging task. (For some of us parents, too…)

It is a real balancing act. I’ve worked with teens who are so *get ready for college* oriented that they can’t tell me a time when they took a day off to hang out with friends. I’ve worked with teens who are so interested in online gaming that they don’t want to do academics and have been caught with an answer key, copying out the answers to text questions.

But the happiest, healthiest homeschool high schoolers that I know spend their high school years learning to balance these 5 priorities:

Grounding in faith- Teens need to internalize the great training they’ve received as they’ve children. You can’t do this for them but you can model it for them. Somewhere
along the line, I realized that my personal devotions, although deep and meaningful to me, are so early in the morning that none of my kids were observing me during Bible study and prayer. I had to give some intentional thought to how I show intentional faith-growth in my life to my kids. I also needed to make sure they had tools available to them that helped them find their own devotional rhythms. (This is one reason why we captured some of my more interesting prayer activities in our prayer journals and offer a FREE apologetics course.)
Character development- Homeschool high schoolers, just like any teen, learn the most from watching their role models (parents, youth group leaders, teachers/tutors). They also learn tons from *paper mentors*- the role models of good biographies and fiction. (That’s one reason we 7Sisters had our teens study Great Christian Writers.) They also learn from failing and getting back up on their feet and from good life-training courses like Financial Literacy.
Knowledge of self- Your teens learned from their Human Development course that the major job of adolescence is *identity formation*. Who did God create them to become? What are they supposed to do with themselves? What are their strengths and weaknesses? That’s why a Christian Career Exploration course is indispensible– it covers those questions and more.
Click here to see what Focus on the Family says about supporting your teen’s interests.
Academics that fit their callings- Notice that academics is #4 on the list? It is a top 5 priority but, in my opinion, not #1. However, homeschool high schoolers must be prepared for next steps in life. If they are college bound, they need a transcript that will sparkle academically and be college-attractive. If they are career bound, they need to begin training and/or apprenticeships as soon as is practical. For a great how-to homeschool high school *course* for parents, you need our online, self-paced course for parents- it is SO inexpensive and empowering!
Fun- My young advisees who worked so hard at their academics that they never stopped to spend time with friends were on the fast track to burnout and anxiety disorders. One of the projects I have given them was to make a time-audit and then pray over the results. With that information, they can restructure their schedules to have some fun each week and are soon feeling much better- and their academics were better because a little fun helps build mental resilience.

Homeschool high schoolers have a lot to learn. Just like their parents. Watching them grow is one of the things that makes homeschool high school the best years yet. Don’t forget to visit our store and download some great resources AND sign up for our newsletter for support!