Does home schooling your high school student seem intimidating? Have you been told by countless people that only a certified teacher should teach their high school child at home? If you are currently home schooling an elementary child, chances are you have been wondering what will change when your child hits high school. Rest assured there are many home school high school opportunities out there!
Online home schooling opportunities are particularly popular with the tech savvy home school crowd. With an online home school high school environment, your child interacts through the computer with qualified educators who can answer questions whenever you cannot do so. Usually the child also works through a curriculum book, completes projects, and takes tests in the traditional manner. The difference is the online classroom environment is available whenever the child needs extra help or instruction that you are not able to provide. Also, the online home school high school gives you as the parent easy access to record keeping tools. You can visually see and track your child’s progress through the course of study.
Another option for the home school high school parent and child is to hire a tutor for particularly difficult subjects. If you as the home schooling parent have a difficult time grasping geometry, for example, you can hire a tutor to come a couple of days a week to just work with your child on geometry. This way you are not passing your weakness in the subject down to your child, yet you are still able to keep the home schooling environment you have worked so hard to build.
Video home schooling is another excellent option for parents of high schoolers. One benefit of video schooling is that children do not have to watch videos for every subject. If, for example, both parent and child are comfortable with English, they may choose to work on their English materials without the use of a video, while using a video for science. One benefit of home school high school videos is the opportunity to learn from various teachers who are all experts in their subjects. The downside to this type of educational system is that the child cannot interact with the teachers on the video. Sometimes, however, the parent is better able to answer questions after watching the videos with their children.
Some home school high school parents choose instead to take advantage of the public schools in their area for a few subjects a day. If you are paying income tax, the public schools are required to accept your child for some subjects. This means that if you want your child to participate in art or shop class, which can be difficult to duplicate at home, you can sign them up for these classes through the public school. Keep in mind that some schools are not cooperative in this arena, so study the laws in your area and stand up for your rights as a taxpayer.
Home schooling co-ops offer another excellent opportunity for the home school high school child. Some parents wonder if their children are missing out by not being involved in the sports and other extra curriculum activities of a traditional high school setting. A home schooling co-op is a group of home schooling families in the same area who meet once a week or so to enjoy group activities, such as sports, field trips, and group classes.
So as your children get older and enter the junior high and high school years, do not be afraid that you will no longer be able to home school them. The home schooling community offers high school students and their parents a variety of activities and programs that make home schooling the high schooler not only possible, but also enjoyable and quite effective!
