Working Moms: Homeschooling Your High Schoolers

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Working Moms: Homeschooling Your High Schoolers. This post is running concurrently on the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Working Moms: Homeschooling Your High Schoolers

Every single homeschool mom is a working mom!

If we are homeschooling, we are working at it, juggling our kids’ needs, growing, and managing households. Many of us also hold jobs outside the home (or inside the home) to bring in extra income for the family.

As most of our podcast listeners know, Vicki worked as a licensed professional counselor while homeschooling her kids through graduation. It helped pay the homeschool bills, and besides, it was her calling.

Encouragement for being a homeschool working mom with teens

It can feel intimidating and tiring to hold a job and homeschool high school. Vicki wants to encourage you that you can do this. Remember: There’s not ONE right way to homeschool. Homeschooling for working Moms can look many different ways! You can do this, and your teens can do this!

Include your teens in the planning and process

When you are facing high school with your teens, sit down with them. Talk about your priorities (yours and theirs). What are the most important things that you need from them? What do your teens need out of their high school experience?

Remember: you are homeschooling high school in the way that is right for your family. There’s no right or wrong set of priorities.

Some priorities will include:

• Meeting their graduation requirements
• Completing high school in four years (for most teens, although some graduate early and others need extra time due to illness or other complications)
• Doing some career exploration
• Clarifying or discovering what their gifts, interests, or their talents
  • Building their transcript with lots of electives in their interest area
• Being prepared for college, for a vocation, or the military
• Discovering the best-fit resources for curriculum, courses, electives, and extracurriculars
  • For asynchronous (self-paced) courses, check out 7SistersHomeschool
  • Live courses are offered at FundaFunda Academy (the online school sponsored by our fellow podcasters at Homeschooling with Technology)
• Looking for good-fit service and volunteer activities
• Learning self-directed study skills like using a syllabus

Think about your career and personal needs

Make sure you define your own career priorities and goals. Do you:

• Need to advance up the career ladder?
• Want to maintain the status quo in your career?
• Pay off some bills?
• Are you caregiving for an aging relative or for a member of the family who has a chronic illness?
• Do you homeschool multiple children?

Remember: there’s no such thing as a Pinterest-perfect homeschool

Perfection is only in Pinterest photos. In real life, you are a real human, and your whole family is full of real humans. Real humans are messy, busy, and complicated! So, do what you can with the best heart you can.

Let go of “perfect”.

You may feel like your teens are not receiving the world’s most amazing homeschool education. However, if you all stay aligned, if you stay together on this, they will get the education they need. And you will get through it.

And, you may be tired, but motherhood’s all about tired.

Someday, they will be all grown up and out of the house.  You can sleep in on those days.

Don’t forget to pray

Remember to pray because we need God in on this. (That’s not cheesy.) 7Sisters Kym always says,

“Pray first, last, and always.”

Then you start planning. Check out 7SistersHomeschool’s useful blog post: Authoritative Guide to Planning Homeschool High School.

Find your community

We homeschool working moms need community as much as anybody:

• Church community
• Family community
• Homeschool community (digital and/or in person)
  • Join Facebook groups like our friends at Simply Homeschool or Homeschool Mama Self-Care

Don’t forget to join 7SistersHomeschool Facebook Group. Ask questions. You matter! We will get this done.

You may need to be working to bring in some income. That’s not a bad thing. If this is what God has given you to do, then it’s the right thing. You can work the process in the way that works for your family. Community can happen in the homeschool world, in digital forums or in person. You can communicate with your teens. They will get educated and be well-prepared well for the next phase of life.

Thanks to Seth Tillman for editing. Hey, would you go to your podcast network and leave us some stars and/or a review? THANKS!!

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