When Tania, a mother new to Christianity and homeschooling, wrote in to ask advice on how to homeschool her high schooler, she received numerous responses from the Minute to Minute Readers.

 

It was such a blessing to hear of other homeschool moms who had undertaken the same challenge. These moms shared their helpful advice, gentle guidance, and encouraging stories with Tania and all of you.

 

May you feel refreshed and encouraged as you read what they wrote and learn with Tania how to homeschool a high schooler.

I know you have made the right decision. Your concerns are understandable, but very much 'fixable'. You said your son is 14. He is the perfect age to allow him to be kind of 'in control' of his own learning. I know this is a scary thought when you think that he hates to learn, as you said. Thoughts of him choosing the easiest courses possible run through your head. But keep in mind, no one hates to learn, they hate the way in which they are forced to learn. And besides, you will help him to choose; he won't have total control.

 

I'm sure you have heard and read enough about the different learning styles. Public school only teaches one learning style, and it sounds like your son doesn't learn well through that style. My advice to you would be to let him help you choose his curriculum, unit study topics, and so forth. If he is serious in becoming a police officer, let him investigate a path of curriculum that he will NEED. For instance, it is obvious that a police officer has to know how to read and write, but delve into an investigation and you will find that they have to have good record keeping skills, communication skills, organizational skills, mapping/geography skills, social skills, public speaking skills, psycho-analysis skills, photography skills, fitness skills, physical and mental agility, and psychological skills. These are all very important when a police officer is trying to talk a perpetrator into submission without physical harm. There is much more involved in this line of work than simply writing speeding tickets, as you know.

 

With that said, investigate this with him, and over the next four years you can map out a plan of curriculum that will help him pursue his interests and his career path. This is what is so special about homeschooling a high schooler. In public school, they have a career day every once in a while and a counselor may try to offer assistance in class placement to follow certain career options, but the truth is, public school kids do not get the opportunity to have a 'customized' curriculum, geared toward their own interests and career paths which is what makes homeschooling so special.    

 

Your son will have the four basic subjects: math, language arts, social studies/history, and science, plus all of the skills I mentioned above woven into these subjects. If Unit Studies excite him, make a unit study on some of the skills he'll need. Unit Study worksheets can be found all over the Internet. You can download a basic unit study form to follow and make your own in no time. After you do a couple, you will be able to do them quickly and easily, and you will have formed your own ideas for them. Your son can even help with these. And, this will help him to understand a syllabus which is basically what a unit study is. It's a syllabus to follow for a topic of study, and it's what professors and instructors use in college so that their students will know what to do and when to do it for class. This would be helpful to him as it teaches how to follow instruction independently. Whether he attends an academy or takes Criminal Justice in college, a syllabus will be used.

 

Hope this helps to calm some of your fears. Chances are your son will get excited about homeschooling if you let him be involved and not just make him a 'student who is subject to always do what someone else chooses for him.' 

 

God Bless!

Kim