When our homeschooled teens start complaining that doing school at home just isn’t fun, it’s easy to start blaming ourselves. As homeschool parents, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. We decided to homeschool because we thought it would be best for our kids. We thoroughly researched curriculums and chose the ones we thought would best allow them to thrive. We work tirelessly to manage the home instruction of three, four, sometimes more children of different ages on a daily basis, all while balancing our normal parent and life responsibilities. And after all this work, your kid just doesn’t seem to be having any fun – and come to think of it, maybe you aren’t, either.
If this sounds like you, you are not alone. This is actually one of the most common challenges faced by homeschooling families with teens. Just like kids who attend regular schools, those who learn at home sometimes struggle to enjoy the process of learning. Perhaps they find the material boring, or maybe they are just get sick of their daily routine.
There are some aspects of school – whether regular school or homeschool – that your student won’t find fun, and that’s okay. It’s important that teens learn certain facts and skills so that they can graduate from high school, go onto college, get a job, and function in the adult world. If your homeschooled high schooler doesn’t love every course she takes or struggles with certain subjects, remind yourself and your student that this is okay (learning to do things you don’t love is do part of a good education too).
That said, there are many ways to make homeschooling more fun for high schoolers. Sometimes a few simple changes can really enliven your schooling routine and help homeschooled teens get more excited about their education. Here are six suggestions on how to make homeschooling more fun for high schoolers.
Make Socialization a Priority
Homeschooling does not mean that your kids have to miss out on normal socialization. Socialization is an important part of education (and life) for your kids, and it’s also important for your own well-being to connect with other homeschool parents. Thirty years ago, if you lived in a small town and were homeschooling your family, you might have to drive an hour to find a homeschool coop and give your kids regular interaction with their peers, but this is no longer the plight of homeschoolers (even if you live in a rural area).
Leverage Social Media
Homeschooling has never been as popular as it is today, and it has never been as easy to connect with other homeschoolers as it is now, thanks to social media. One of the best ways to find socialization opportunities for your homeschooled teen is to get on Facebook and look for local homeschool groups in your area. Chances are you’ll find more than one, but if you don’t find what you’re looking for you can also create your own group and invite others to be members. Through these social media connections you should be able to find plenty of opportunities for your teens to make friends with other homeschooled kids their age. Just as you would do with math, history, or any other part of your teen’s education, pencil “socializing” into your homeschool calendar on a regular basis. Not every social activity your teen does should be a formal, planned meet-up.
Encourage Extra-Curricular Activities
Allow and encourage your kids to spend time with their friends – including their non-homeschooled peers – on a regular basis. Sports, scouts, and all sorts of other activities are available to your homeschooled teen, even if they take place at your local school.
Create Study Groups
Also consider allowing your teens to do some of their homeschool instruction with or alongside their homeschooled friends. Speak with their friends’ parents about their education plans and find out if there’s a way your kids could occasionally work together on projects or other school-related goals. Allow your high schoolers to find creative ways to work together to teach you the material they are learning. Perhaps they’ll decide to put on a Shakespeare play with a group of other high schoolers, build a sophisticated model airplane with a homeschooled friend, or cook a traditional Spanish dinner for their friends as part of their homeschool foreign language course. Creativity is often sparked when kids get together, so encourage your high schoolers to find ways to involve their friends in their homeschool studies.
Move School to a Different Location
Just because your high schooler is homeschooled does not mean that he always needs to be doing all his learning at home. One of the best ways to enliven a dull homeschool routine is to move it to a different location. If the weather permits it, encourage your high schooler to take her work to the backyard or a nearby park. If being outside isn’t a good option, allow your teen to take one of his assignments to a coffee shop or the local library. Not only will this change of scene help your high schooler gain a fresh perspective on the material, it will also help her develop a sense of independence while homeschooling.
Let Your High Schooler Take the Lead in Her Education
One of the beauties of homeschooling is the opportunity it provides for your kids to take the lead in their own educations. While there will be certain subjects and skills required by the state in order for them to graduate from high school, we homeschoolers have a lot of choice when it comes to what we want to teach our children. One of the best things we can do to make learning fun for our kids is to pass some of that choice along to them. What are they interested in? What are they good at? What skills do they want to learn? Sit down with your teen before the school year begins and find out what subjects they’d really like to delve into. Then make a plan together for how you’ll go about incorporating this into your homeschool routine.
Foster Their Curiosity
For example, if your tenth grader is interested in medieval history, perhaps you will want to choose a great history curriculum focused on this era for his social studies course that year. On top of this, you might decide to purchase some books about this period and schedule in regular time for him to read these each week. If he’s interested in medieval castles, you could suggest he build his own model of an authentic castle over the course of a few months. Figure out what materials he’ll need and start gathering them. Do some internet research with your student to locate a historian of the Middle Ages that works in your area. Encourage your teen to email him and find out if he might be willing to meet with him sometime and tell him about his career path and what his job is like on a daily basis. You might also want to plan some field trips to museums with good medieval history exhibits – maybe you’ll even incorporate this into a family vacation!
Because of their age, homeschooled high schoolers are able to do much more learning on their own than can younger kids. Encourage them to take advantage of classes and events in your community, even if these are not specifically geared toward teenagers. Many community colleges, art centers, and other organizations will allow teens into their courses. These kinds of opportunities can allow your high schooler to develop their skills in ways not possible at a regular high school. Also encourage your student to reach out to experts in the fields they are interested in, especially if those individuals are based locally. Artists, scientists, musicians, writers, chefs, professors, pilots, and politicians are often happy to meet with a high school student and provide guidance on their studies beyond high school
Whatever path your high schooler takes, encourage her to take the lead in creating the education she wants to have. This is the foundation for learning she will need to be successful long after her homeschooling days are over!
Take a Field Trip (or a Whole Vacation)!
One of the best opportunities we have as homeschooling families is the ability to take school on the road. I don’t literally mean move your family into a big camper and drive around the country seeing all the sites you’d normally just read about (although more and more, some families are choosing to this!). Rather, I simply mean trying to incorporate field trips into your homeschool routine as much as possible. In some cases, this might be very simple, such as sending your teen to the park down the street to take photos of different types of plants that she can later classify in her nature journal. On other occasions, you may want to visit local museums or historic sites that have exhibits related
to the subjects your high schooler has been studying. If you have been studying space, for example, plan a visit to a nearby planetarium. If you have been reading about the Civil War and happen to live within a couple hours’ drive of an actual battlefield, skip your regular routine one day and make a visit there as a family.
Use Field Trips to Inspire Learning
While field trips are a great way to reinforce learning done at home, they can also provide an excellent opportunity for inspiring learning in new subjects. If you want to spark your high schooler’s interest in art history, for example, you might take a field trip to the nearest major art museum. When you are there, have your student choose the one piece of art that he wants to further research after the field trip. Whatever he chooses, incorporate research about that piece of art and artist into your homeschool plan for the next few weeks, maybe having your student finish with a writing assignment about it. Then return to the same museum after your student has studied the artwork and have him look at it again. What does he notice about the piece now, after his studies, that he did not see before? Does the museum own other works by the same artist that your student can now tell you more about? This same process of taking a field trip to the same place twice – first to inspire interest in a subject and later to revisit an object or exhibit after your student has studied it – can be carried out in all kinds of locations, from museums and historic sites to zoos and wilderness areas.
Plays, concerts, ballets, and operas also present wonderful opportunities for homeschool field trips. If you live near a big city, you will have great access to these kinds of performances, but even if you live in a rural area, there are still opportunities to enjoy the performing arts. Look for local productions as well as touring shows – you may have to drive an hour or so, but such a show will be well worth the time to your high schooler!
Travel to Learn
Finally, if it is feasible for your family, think about traveling as a way to make homeschooling more fun for your high schooler. One of the benefits of homeschooling is that you do not have to live by the schedule imposed on you by your local school. This means you can take advantage of great airline deals and visit tourist spots at times when they are far less crowded. When planning a family vacation, think about what your high schooler will be studying in the weeks and months before your trip. If she is doing a homeschool course in American history and you’ve been wanting to see Boston, plan to walk the Freedom Trail and visit Lexington and Concord when you are there. If you aren’t sure where to vacation next, let your high schooler make a suggestion for a place that relates to his studies or the subjects that interest him. If it’s at all feasible, make the trip happen. Not only will such a trip make homeschooling fun; it will also show your teen how much you value his interests and desire to learn.
Consider Dual Enrollment
Another great way to make homeschooling more fun for your high schooler is to consider dual enrollment, which allows your student to take some classes at the local school while being homeschooled for the others. This is a great option for extracurricular classes like band, choir, drama, or woodshop. Maybe your teen plays an instrument and wants to participate in the high school jazz band or enjoys drama and would like to participate in school plays.
Use Dual Enrollment for Difficult Subjects
Dual enrollment is also a wonderful option for subjects that you don’t feel comfortable teaching at home and know are taught well at the local school. Perhaps there is an amazing chemistry teacher at your local high school; your teen might be able to enroll in that teacher’s chemistry class and do the rest of her courses at home. Many dual enrolled high schoolers enjoy learning foreign language at the public school because these classes offer fun, collaborative projects that are difficult to replicate at home (and often times parents do not feel skilled enough in a foreign language to teach it at home).
Dual enrollment can offer a great balance to your homeschool routine, allowing your student to experience some time at the local high school while still completing much of his studies at home. You will first need to check the rules and requirements for dual enrollment if your area, as these can vary by state and district.
Use Materials That Go Beyond the Curriculum
Finally, if you are looking for ways to make homeschooling more fun for your high schooler, consider different kinds of materials that go beyond the traditional curriculums you may be using. The most obvious of these is books – if your student loves to read, allow reading (of any kind) to be a regular part of his school day. Gather books on subjects your teen is interested in, and schedule in time for her to read about these on her own. Also consider subscription boxes or magazines to help supplement your high schooler’s education. There are wonderful subscription boxes that can supplement your teen’s education in a variety of subjects, from history to science to cooking. Think also about what kinds of manipulatives and online tools might be available to supplement your student’s courses. While traditional curriculums can be important tools for many homeschool families, your high schooler’s education should never be limited by them.
Check out our science subscription box recommendations here.
Conclusion
Whether school is done at home or in a school building, it isn’t always fun, and that’s okay. Homeschooling, however, offers unique opportunities to make learning enjoyable. When planning your homeschool year, sit down with your teen and look at curriculum options together. Let him play an active roll in his educational plan for the year. Throughout the school year, check in with your high schooler and find out what he is and isn’t enjoying. Don’t be afraid to make a change if something isn’t working.
More than anything, high school is the time to teach your homeschooled kids how to take charge of their own education. Let them do some of the work you did for them when they were younger – such as choosing topics to study or thinking up with ideas for field trips. They might even be ready to come up with some of their own assignments. If there is a topic your teen wants to learn about or a skill she wants to develop, encourage her in every way you can. Allow your kids to take the lead in their education as much as possible. Though you don’t know everything about every topic out there (and never will), you can teach your homeschooled high schoolers how to teach themselves about the things that interest them. In this way homeschooling will become much more fun for you and your kids alike, and it will also build skills that will prepare them for a lifetime of success!