In the thought provoking words of our 35th president, John F Kennedy, ” Change is the law of life.  And those who look only to the past or the present may miss the future.”  You may have never considered homeschooling before.  You probably are filled with numerous questions and maybe a little trepidation.  Can I really homeschool my high school aged kids?  Can I find the necessary resources? Can I homeschool a year an enter back into the school system?  Can they get into college if I homeshool them?  Can I homeschool through high school successfully?  My answer is Yes!  You can say Yes to High School!

So let me quickly introduce myself.  My name is Gina.  I’m going to share a little bit of my story with you.  I have four kids that I homeschooled over a period of 19 years, and have successfully homeschooled through high school.

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My oldest son graduated from high school and attended Liberty University.  There he met his wife and they are both teachers.  He teaches middle and high school math.  After my daughter graduated, she attended the Gulf Coast State College and got her Physical Therapy Assistant degree.  She was hired within a month of graduation.  My middle son graduated in 2017 and is currently attending Troy University.  He is seeking a degree in sports broadcasting and journalism.  My youngest son just graduated this year.  He will attend Gulf Coast State College in the fall, where he will get his AA in business before moving on to Troy University.

But enough about our family.  I’m going to give you a few tips to get you started homeschooling through high school.  My goal is that you will be encouraged, strenghtened and resolved that if you choose to, you can indeed homeschool through high school.

Since we have always homeschooled, my experience may be slightly different than yours, but I feel we all struggle with the same fear and insecurity when it comes to homeschooling through high school.  When my oldest son, Matthew, was in seventh grade I attended a homeschooling through high school meeting.  I sat and listened to several wonderful women, who had kids older than mine, and who had knowledge and experience I desperately needed.  But instead of leaving that meeting feeling encouraged, I felt overwhelmed and discouraged.

It was just way too much information at once.  My heat was filled with fear.  My brain was overloaded.  I doubted myself and my abilities.  I felt like homeschooling, which had always been creative, fun and doable was now transitioning into something that was super structured, stressful and nearly impossible.  Have you ever been to one of these meetings?  If you have I am sure you can relate to what I am saying.

So now fast forward fourteen years from that meeting.  Today I want to give you three tips which will help you get started and help you to know that you can confidently Say Yes to High School!!

Tip #1 Learn Everything in Bite Size Pieces

How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.

I think this is the biggest mistake we make as homeschooling parents.  We try to learn everything at once and it is just too overwhelming.

Which homeschool program is best?  Should I hire an outside tutor?  Should we do online courses?  What about dual enrollment?  Does my state do it?  Is my child eligible?  What are the requirements? Should my child take the SAT or ACT?  When should they take them?  How many times should they take them?  Do they need volunteer hours?  What about leadership roles?  Should they join clubs?  Can they join through their local public school system?  What about scholarships?  Where do you find them?  When should they apply?  What about the dreaded transcript?  How do I make one?  What should I include on the transcript?  Do they need a resume?

Does hearing this list of questions give you anxiety?  It definitely does me!

This is why when I was sitting in that room full of very awesome and dedicated homeschool mom’s, who wanted to help me succeed, I still felt like a total loser.  I was taking notes like crazy but everything they said said was spinning through my brain.  And my brain was shouting…ummmm no!  You can’t do this!

But don’t you agree if you could learn about just one of those high school topics at a time it would help you feel confident as opposed to overwhelmed?   That is what I want to encourage you to do.  Give yourself a break.  It is enough that you decided to take on this amazing adventure, so give yourself grace in learning all the things.

Tip # 2 Do not compare yourself or your child to other homeschooling families.

This is huge!  Who finds themselves in this boat?  I fall into this boat all the time with homeschooling or just with lief in general.

Each family is different.  Each child is unique.  Each student has both strengths and weaknesses.  They have God-given gifts, talents, dreams and aspirations.  So with that being said each of our homeschooling through high school programs are going to look slightly different.

There is not a one size fits all homeschooling through high school program.  If we compare ourselves to other homeschool families, we are going to feel frustrated and maybe even a little defeated.  Several years ago I did a study with some other homeschooling moms.  It was called Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe, by Todd Wilson.  I highly recommend this quick read,  that is filled with truth and encouragement.

Bottom line: we don’t want to compare ourselves or our children to others.  If we do one of two things will happen.  Either we will look around and realize our kids are more intelligent, better looking, better in sports, harder-working, more confident, more outgoing, better prepared and overall more well-rounded than other kids.  It is at this point we begin to take all the credit and get puffed up.  And we all know that pride comes before the fall.  I believe God truly has a sense of humor.  He gives us children to prove that we aren’t all  that and a bag of chips.

Or the more likely scenario is that we will look around and see all the “perfect homeschooling families”.  Oh you know what I am talking about.  Billy just got a academic scholarship to Yale.  Kimmy is a Junior on the swim team and has already been selected for a swim team at FSU.  Johnny is taking Physics in eighth grade and the baby is already sleeping through the night, diaper trained and reading.

But it is worse than that we see a mom, cool as a cucumber, joyfully toting 6 kids around in a minvan.  When we see “perfect” homeschooling families we mistakenly think that this includes every family except our own.  Behind our smiling facade we know that our homeschool family is far from perfect and we stress out that we will never be as good as….

This can be a downward spiral.  When we think everybody else has it all together but we don’t, or they have been homeschooling for years and I just started, we are deceived into thinking “I’m the only one who struggles with…”  We are the only family with challenges.  While this can’t be further from the truth, we will develop a lack of self-confidence.  And believe you me we need to have faith in ourselves and our abilities when we choose to educate our children at home.

Tip #3 Find Your Why!

Years ago, one of my homeschooling mentors said, “For most of us the reason we chose to homeschool in the first place doesn’t change when our students get into high school.  This always stuck with me.

If we started homeschooling:

To avoid the classroom and germs during a pandemic.

To share our faith.

To build strong sibling relationships.

To travel with the family on our own schedule.

To teach specialized studies to our children.

To work with my child’s learning style.

To exercise certain freedoms.

If you have homeschooled your kids up until this point, or if this is the first time you ever considered the idea, I would encourage you to shift your question from should I homeschool through high school to how will I homeschool through high school.

This requires us to find our Why.

What is your oeverall objective?  What is your specific reason for homeschooling your kids?  Each family is different.  Their hopes, dreams, values and aspirations are different.  So their Why is going to be different.

Ask yourself: Why am I homeschooling?

What do I want my child to accomplish in their home education program?  What am I preparing them for?  Think to yourself I only have four years.  What do I want to sow into their lives during those four years of high school?  What are my big rocks that I want to place into the jar of their home education?

At this point most people would probably want to share their best homeschooling victories, but I am going to share my biggest homeschooling mistake.  Why?  Because we can learn from our mistakes and others can learn from them too.

I have had so many parents ask me this question: What classes do my children need to take to graduate from high school?

The answer: each state is different.  Usually your state will have a recommended list of classes that your student needs to complete high school.  In Florida, you can find those recomendations at the Florida Department of Education.                                           (www.fldoe.org/schools/school-choice-options/home-edu/)

No let me share the huge mistake I made with my oldest son, Matthew.  I printed off the list of recommended classes that I got from the state of Florida.  His senior year when he was deciding which college he wanted to attend, I realized my mistake.  When I looked on the websites for Liberty University and Florida State University I discovered that there is a big discrepancy between the minimum requirement necessary for admission to the college and the average student accepted.

Let me explain.  The university may say you only need three years of science and two labs for admittance to their school, but if you look at the average student accepted you may find that most of the students actually had fours years of science and three labs.  Thankfully my son was admitted to all four colleges he applied to, but it was still a real eye opener.  Can you say #missedthebus?

This is my personal recommendation.  If your student has an idea of what they would like to do after high school, look specifically at that particular college, job or program.

1. Look at that college, school, military program, ministry or occupation that they may be interested in.
2.  Don’t ask them for the minimum requirements for admission, acceptance or hiring.  Instead ask them for the statistics on the average student admitted, accepted of hired.

If you know where you are going, as you traverse the journey of homeschooling, then you can work your way backward.  You might need to tweak your goals and objectives along the way, but you will surely have a road map for success.

If you are interested in learning more please check out my Say Yes to High School Course.  This is a three day video training course that will encourage, prepare and empower you to confidently homeschool through high school.

The course includes:

Day 1 Set Your Vector!

This class will help you figure out where you are going, and then help you work your way backward; setting overall objectives and goals for your high school home education program.

Day 2:  Community Service and Leaderships Roles Rock!

This class will help you discover how community service and leadership prepares your student for success in college, employment, scholarships and special opportunities.

Day 3:  Everything Transcripts!

This class will show you how to create  quality transcripts; what to include, what format to use, and how to highlight your students achievements.