447 | Homeschooling During High School: Pros, Cons, and Tips (Jessica Smartt)
Show Notes:
What is it like to home school in high school? In this episode Jessica offers her experience so far with the nitty gritty honest feedback about what's hard, what's great, and what she recommends!
About Jessica
Jessica is a wife, homeschool mom of three, author, and blogger. She lives in sunny North Carolina on a big family farm with chickens, goats, cousins, and lots of mud.
Resources
The Tuttle Twins: American History
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Show Transcript:
Jessica Smartt Hey, everybody! Welcome to The Homeschool Solutions Show. My name is Jessica Smartt and I'm one of the many hosts here on the podcast. I'm also the author of Memory Making Mom and Let Them Be Kids, and the creator and founder of Homeschool Bootcamp. Each week we bring in encouraging conversation from this busy and blessed journey of educating our children at home. While the title is Homeschool Solutions, of course, we don't pretend to have the answer to every question. It's our hope that this podcast will point you to Jesus Christ, that you'll seek his counsel as you train your kids in the way they should go.
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Hey, everybody, this is Jessica Smartt. I am here with you today to talk about homeschooling high school and I'm excited to dive in. I have a lot of experience because we have homeschooled for one year, so obviously I'm pretty much an expert. No, just kidding. I'm not an expert, but we have learned a lot. And so I'm going to share kind of what we have learned so far in our journey and how we've made the decision to go forward another year. We're entering my oldest son's Sophomore year this year. And so I'm going to just go through like pros and cons here of homeschooling high school and our experience so far. And you'll have to forgive me — we had the flu run through here. In a summer, weirdly. We have had all sorts of sickness in the summer, which you're not supposed to have. But anyway, I have that cough kind of at the end of the sickness, so hopefully that won't be too distracting. But just getting my voice back and all of that.
So a little bit about me if you're new here. I've been homeschooling for 11 years, which is crazy. I was not homeschooled myself, but I was a teacher at the middle school level and it's just been a wonderful journey so far. So I have a 10th grader, an 8th grader and a 4th grader, my daughter. And so two boys and a girl. Definitely always an adventure, somewhat loud, lots of things happening. But overall, we just really have loved homeschooling. So the reason that we decided to continue homeschooling through high school... Although of course I felt all of the feelings that you feel of, can we do this and should we do this and is this right? But basically we pretty much just followed the super systematic test of it's not broken, why fix it? And that's just another way of saying, I just was really happy with how my son was doing. And not just academically... Not really at all academic, I mean, yes, academically, but more just big picture.
And so I don't know, we were kind of just scared to change it because we're really proud of him and he's just able to, you know, follow his interests and do all this stuff. And, you know, of course, not perfect. We're working through stuff here like everybody else, but in general, it seems to be working. And so that was really solid encouragement to keep going in our homeschool journey. And then again, same thing — I've always held high school homeschool, really open handed. We have a good option near us that's a three day on, two day off system. And so I kind of have always thought that might be where we would end up. But again, every year we kind of assess things and things are going well and so we try another year. I don't know what next year will hold. I think junior and senior year are really big years for kids. Lots happening. A lot of them jump off into different jobs and all of the things and I see strong reasons to homeschool. I can also understand the strong pull to not, so TBD. I'll keep you posted. But at least for right now, it's just going pretty well.
And so here are some of the things that I've noticed. Okay, so we'll start with the pros. And these are in no particular order. So this would maybe not be my biggest, but it is big, okay? And that is sleep. It is just crazy and the more I read, like there are so many studies coming out about the body and circadian rhythm and all that and just how formative and essential sleep is for every process that's happening in the body. And of course, so much growing and changing happening in the middle school or high school years. And so having the flexibility in our schedule to be able to sleep in if you've had a crazy night or you had a late practice or late game or you're fighting something off. That has been amazing. I am so glad that I do not have to wake people up from sleeping because I know that it is so how helpful. And my son is going through an allergy desensitization program and so his body is going through extra changes and work and so just having that flexibility — I absolutely love it. And I think it's a huge gift that really can't be understated. Think about how you feel when you aren't getting enough sleep, like chronically. It literally affects everything. And so I think that that really is a pro, especially for athletes and stuff.
So that's actually another point that we can go into. But the schedule allows for so much pursuing of your individual interests because you're not necessarily stuck in a classroom. Now I know that schools have tons of different options and that in itself does offer different ways to explore your interests, but it's been cool to kind of have the time and flexibility to invest a lot in sports, to invest a lot in, you know, my son plays guitar. Or if you want to get a job, one of his good friends is making quite a bit of money because he has a flexible schedule and so he's able to arrange his classes around and so that really can be cool. I think especially for guys that can be kind of like a good way for them to begin to be independent and responsible and all those things. So we love that part.
I love that we can customize the classes and curate your exact schedule. That's been such a gift. You know, a lot of people get overwhelmed by homeschooling high school, but the amazing thing is that there are so many options out there. We do a co-op and I'm actually teaching high school American literature, which was a little bit scary to think about it first, but has been super fun and I have really loved it so much. So I'm teaching that at the Co-op and then they're taking environmental science with a mom who was a nurse and is just like really passionate about that field. And then actually one of the dads is coming in who was a former pastor to teach apologetics, and then they have a study hall so they can just kind of chill. So that's what my high schooler is doing on our co-op days. But then we've also supplemented with online classes and we've done a couple of different things, but we are so thrilled with Scholé Academy. Cannot recommend them highly enough. This year my son will be taking geometry and then also American history, and I am so overwhelmed with what they are able to do. The caliber of work and the caliber of... I want to call them professors, but I guess they call them instructors, although a lot of them do actually have their PhDs and they're doing the entire thing. Like I'm really just kind of there as like a coach and like checking in, but they manage the entire thing, the grading, the schedule, all that, and you just pick a time that works for you.
So it is no longer the day and age where, "Oh, I could never homeschool high school because I couldn't teach physics." Like there are so many options. A lot of friends of mine have done the North Carolina public school option, which is completely free online, but there's also Liberty and so many other are just different... Classical Academic Press has one online academy... Now that's Scholé. Sorry, Scholé is with Classical Academic Press but Veritas is another one that a couple of students that we know of do. And so, anyway, this is just touching the tip of the iceberg. There are so many resources and so many classes, and I love that we can kind of pick and choose based on their interest and how rigorous we want it to be, when we want to have it and all that kind of stuff.
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Another huge thing would be lack of... I mean, peer pressure is such a dated word, but just being able to be a little bit more proactive about what and who our kids are exposed to. Now, of course, they're in the world, they're going to be going into the world, and so I'm not at all saying like, "Put them in a hole. Put them in a bubble." But I think that it is just a pressure cooker to be in high school for so many hours of the day. It can be just a lot to carry. And of course, there's good schools, there's friends you can find, all the disclaimers. But I certainly love that we have just a little bit of a break from that and that we can, for example, my son is 15, almost 15 1/2 and doesn't have a cell phone. And I mean, that would be pretty unheard of in most school settings. But we've been able to buy some time with that and, I think, preserve him from a little bit of just that junk that he could be exposed to because we do homeschool and he's just not around all of that. Now, he does have an Apple computer, so he's able to text some people and that's been a good way to kind of step into that world. And of course, like I said, he does play sports and so he is around people that have it, but just... There's something to be said for moderating the quantity of all of that coming at you so hard. I think that it allows you to be able to have a more healthy perspective of that stuff so you can see it and you can see that there's stuff going on that's not great and, you know, you see the kids that are doing that, but it's not your entire world. And I think that's just a giant gift that we can give our kids.
And then related is time with family. And I've heard so many people say this who have older and really younger kids, like they wouldn't know their little siblings as well. I just love the time that we can have together and related. I love the chance that I have to kind of have my pulse on how my kids are doing. And, you know, there is just so much happening with high schoolers at that age and they're changing and their minds are changing and their hearts, and they're just dealing with so much. And so I'm not in the dark about that. I can see what's happening. And so you have the gift of more time to be able to process with them and just more insight because you're watching it and you can see. And that's just not to be underestimated. There's so much happening in these years. Losing my voice here, guys. So that ability to observe is another one.
And then I would say, and I've alluded to this, but just the flexibility of life is a huge gift. They can pursue their interests, they can pursue their sports. Just in every way the flexibility is just such a gift. And of course, there are cons to this setup and I'm not, you know, putting my head in the sand about that. I think the big one, which you probably would guess, is that you just have to work harder to get them more social opportunities and that there is a little bit of a feeling of just kind of like being left out. I think we have a huge gift with, you know, we do have a handful of kids in our co-op and then just living here on the farm and we have cousins all around. So in some ways it's a little bit of an artificial homeschool environment, right? But they're going to feel left out and they're going to feel sad and there's definitely been seasons where my son has, you know, kind of just longed for what he's seen other kids have. And so you have to work pretty hard to... I heard one mom say about homeschooling high school, that you just are going to accept that you're going to be in the car because you're going to take them to see friends, they're going to be playing sports. You might take them to jobs, activities. You just have to work harder to get those opportunities. And so, you know, I realize that even though I wouldn't love to be in the car all the time, that I need to at this point. Like that's something that he needs. He does need to be around kids. And so we just have to kind of work harder on our own, whereas if you go to a school, of course, a lot of that is baked into the cake.
One of the cons, of course, is higher level classes. I'm not going to lie, you know, you do have to pay for a lot of them. And so your options are limited if you need to use your state resources. But there are still so many resources available and obviously still so much cheaper than private school. So higher level classes can be a negative, but I have felt like a lot of workaround for that. And then obviously you do have to work harder to curate your transcript and your schedule. Like you're the guidance counselor and you know, they're not going to just like, here's your plan and here's where you're taking it. So it does take some time. But overall, I think that it's actually almost easier to homeschool in these upper years. In fact, I would say for sure it is because, you know, they are taking some ownership as well. And I don't know, for me, it's a lot easier than teaching someone how to read.
So I think that the last con that I would kind of mention is maybe particularly for guys, I can see this being for both, but young men (because that's what I have in high school) really need another male voice in their life. And so I think that this is a lot of times the reason that moms might stop homeschooling, especially boys, is that that relationship between the mom and the son can only go so far. And so having the dad be really involved is of course, super awesome and very helpful, but also just needing other men to speak into your son, because I think that's absolutely essential. But again, you don't have to have that through a school. And of course, it's not a given that you're going to have that even if you go to school, but you have to work harder for it I think.
So like for us, what that looked like is my son has always had a soccer coach and we've been blessed to have some really great ones who, you know, invest in him and it kind of feels like a mentor relationship at times. You know, I mentioned that he plays guitar and he has 3 or 4 guys that have kind of taught him guitar and really like poured into him and taught him like how to lead worship or, you know, how to play these bluegrass songs or whatever. And they're people that he looks up to and that just has been such a gift. And I was reading a book the other day and was just reminded to pray for that for our kids and that I do believe that God can bring those kinds of relationships into our kids lives. So, yeah, and then just uncles and grandparents and all that kind of stuff.
So again, like I guess the theme is just it's all out there. You just kind of have to work a little bit harder for it. But I am so grateful for the time that we have and I kind of, you know, you see some of the other options out there and I just think I'm so grateful for how it's going over here. And that's not to say that we would not switch, you know, eventually. Like you got to get out there. And so, again, next year he may dive into another schooling situation. But it has been such a gift and way less overwhelming, way less stressful, way less difficult, way less intimidating than I ever thought. So I hope this is an encouragement to you that at the very least, to look into it, to consider it, to try it. You can always try it and, you know, I'm here. You can chat with me on Instagram, you can find me at Jessica.Smartt, and I'd be happy to share with you some of the resources that have worked for us or bounce any ideas off of you. So blessings to you as you're considering this. Please pass this on to somebody if they're considering it and I hope that you have a wonderful day with your kiddos.
Guys, thanks so much for joining us this week on The Homeschool Solutions Show. You can find show notes and links to all the resources mentioned at Homeschooling.mom. Don't forget to check out my friends at Medi-Share because you deserve healthcare you can trust. To learn more about Medicare and why over 400,000 Christians have made the switch go to GreatHomeschoolConventions.com/MediShare. That's GreatHomeschoolConventions.com/MediShare. If you haven't already, please subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review, and that'll help other homeschooling parents find our community. And finally, don't forget to tag us on Instagram @HomeschoolingDotMom. That's @HomeschoolingDotMom to let us know what you thought of today's episode.
