Many people enjoy homeschooling young children, but do not even consider it as an option for high school. There are a lot of reasons—concern about making sure they get a solid education, are prepared for college and do not miss out on the traditional high school experience. The list goes on. I did not plan on homeschooling my children through high school (that makes sense since I did not actually plan on homeschooling at all). However, when the time came, all the pieces fell into place, and it felt right. I want to talk a bit about the advantages we saw from homeschooling our kids through their teenage years. 

Besides concern over the academic rigor of homeschool versus “real” high school, common concerns often revolve around the social experience high school students might miss out on—proms, friends, sports, and extra-curricular activities, leadership experiences, learning to jump through teachers’ hoops, and being able to handle the structure of a higher education setting. Those concerns are definitely valid, but it actually is not nearly as hard to meet those needs as it might seem. There are opportunities to participate in sports, community theater, musical groups, and most other extracurricular activities that might interest your child as a home schooler. We found plenty of leadership and service opportunities. It was not uncommon for people in our area to get together and organize non-school-sponsored proms attended by public school and homeschool kids alike. As we met together for co-op classes, our teens developed close friendships with other peers. They took concurrent classes at the junior college, which gave them valuable experience negotiating formal school settings and meeting teacher expectations.  

There were also enormous advantages to home schooling. Here are a few: 

Time. There is a lot of wasted time in a traditional school setting. Our children were able to complete necessary coursework and still had the majority of their day to pursue other activities. This left more time for extracurricular activities, hobbies, social activities, reading, and, most importantly, for being part of the family. Our family life did not have to revolve around their crazy schedules.  

Flexibility: They were able to adjust their schedules to accommodate whatever was going on in their lives. Several of my children were serious musicians. During competition season, they were able to get 4-6 hours of practice in during the mornings, fit their schoolwork into open time slots, and still be available for all the other community and church activities they enjoyed with their peers. Because of their flexible schedules, they were able to hold jobs that would never be available to a student in public schools. This not only gave them great experience, looked good on their college applications, but also enabled them to fund most or all of college themselves.  

Strong Family Connection: During a time when most teens spend the bulk of their day away from home and connect with everyone except family, our children spent time at home—they talked, enjoyed each other, worked together on projects, and did things as a family—opportunities many of their peers missed out on. At a time when most teens were detaching from home, we were able to strengthen our connection and became real friends, not just family members. 

More Academic Options: Some of my children who excelled at home would have also excelled in high school. However, some of them had difficult personalities or challenges that would likely have resulted in less-than-stellar grades and limited university admission options. Because we had complete control over their high school experience, we were able to customize it in a way that made success much easier for them. Things that would have ruined their transcripts before they finished 10th grade could be shifted until they had a bit more maturity behind them. We could take time to ensure that they first had the foundation in place needed for success. In the end, they all accomplished what was expected of college-bound students, but having flexibility in how we made that happen was a tremendous advantage. 

Social Well-Being: Despite the worry that home-schooled children are not well socialized, we found the opposite to be true. First of all, they were not thrown into situations where peer pressure was greater than their readiness to deal with it. We had a lot more control over who they associated with and the influences they encountered. Some might think that not having to deal with that peer pressure early on might result in children who were socially backward and less resilient when they finally encountered it. In real life, we found that our children had much more confidence in standing up for themselves and their values. Our home became kind of a hub of social activity. Hosting lots of parties, activities, and group events helped our children develop leadership skills. Most importantly, we found their socialization was not limited to their immediate age group. They were comfortable around much younger children, interacted naturally and easily with adults, and had close friends of all ages, including adults.  

There is a lot we will talk about regarding the how of homeschooling through high school, but none of that seems as important as the why. Not only is home schooling through high school a very viable option, but it also offers unique rewards that deserve serious consideration.