A Vision for Homeschooling High School
Many of us who are on the precipice of homeschooling high school started this journey when our children were very young. We have already been homeschooling a long time, but are nervous about navigating the high school path. Some of us are at the beginning of this journey and have chosen to pull a teen out of school and are beginning the homeschooling journey with high school.
No matter how long you have been homeschooling, you need a fresh vision when you begin high school with your teen. Without a vision for the high school years, a mom can quickly become consumed by fear and doubt, not to mention stress.
A vision for high school grounds us and gives us confidence to keep moving.
So how do we find this vision?
When I began my homeschool journey fifteen years ago I went through a process with God. Years before, I had been involved in a summer of culture studies. One of the things we learned was “envisioning.” Envisioning is a process of picturing the end—sort of an imagining of where you would like to end up. Once you have this picture of where you are going, you can plan your route. So at the beginning of our homeschool journey, I felt God leading me to first envision where we were going.
I began with reflection and prayer. The next step was to begin envisioning what I desired my children to be like at the end of our journey. What sort of people did I think they would become? What lifestyle and characteristics did I want to impart to them? What kind of character would they have? What will they love? Where will their giftings take them? I thought through these things for each child. Then I knew where we wanted to go and worked backward from there to plan our course of action.
This proved to be such a wise place to begin. Of course, all God’s plans are. {grin} The vision that God planted in my family through this process proved to help me navigate the maze of learning styles and curriculum choices without losing my sanity.
Then we reached high school…
This plan I had mapped out was set into motion when my oldest child was five years old. Now that he was beginning high school (a decade later) I wasn’t so sure that I still had a clear picture of the route he should take. It was time to reassess. I revisited the envisioning process and asked God to give me a fresh vision for his high school journey.
I am so glad that I reassessed at the beginning of his high school years! I was feeling a bit overwhelmed at the thought of how to prepare him for college and studying his field of interest. A fresh look at his interests, his talents, his giftings, and where God may be calling him really helped me to begin to see how to guide him down his path.
We all need this fresh reflection at the outset of the high school years—whether we have been homeschooling for 9 years or 2 years. The high school years are important, and they are so much different than the years preceding them.
Your time with your high schooler will be much more productive and much less painful if you have a vision not just for homeschooling… but for homeschooling high school.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Proverbs 29:18, KJV
If you would like to find out more about envisioning and forming a vision for your homeschool (whether you’re just beginning or reassessing at the beginning of the high school years), grab a copy of my ebook, Finding Your Vision: Beginning (or Continuing) Your Homeschool Journey With the End in Mind. The book walks you through the process step by step. It is free for subscribers but you can also buy the pdf version if you would rather not subscribe.
If you are looking for support for homeschooling high school, check out the HomeSchool High Link-Up that happens at my blog every Friday or join the HomeSchool High Support Facebook group.
Connie is the wife of a bi-vocational, associate pastor and momma to five children. She has been home educating for 14 years and is still trying to figure out how to keep up with highschoolers and grade schoolers (K & 5) at the same time. She writes about all things homeschooling momma at the daisyhead. Connie also does blog sponsorship consulting to help other bloggers form a partnership with a brand they love and navigate the waters of getting conference sponsorship. In her spare time, she runs a knitwear design business and blogs about her creations at DaisyHead Creations. You can also connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.
Haven’t read other posts in the Homeschooled through High School Series? Catch some more below:
Homeschooled through High School: Taylor Landrie
I so agree that you need to pray and ask God what direction to lead your children. I also think you do need to look at your children’s God given gifts and what their interests are. 🙂 Thank you for sharing your experience and advice with us!
You’re welcome, Joy! It can be a challenge, especially when you have more than one child, but tailoring their high school experience to their giftings and interests is worth the extra time. 🙂
I think what you are doing sounds like exactly what it meant to be. I really admire you for homeschooling 5 kids at one time! plus being a mom and running a store on the side. Your children are going to have a lot of good memories with their mom when they grow up.