Homeschool High School – We Did It and So Can You! Part 1
Hey, and welcome this episode of TEA of Life Podcast. I am your host, Tiffany Thompson.
Last episode, I shared with you some of the changes on my podcast going forward and some of my thoughts about the current social media crisis. If you missed that make sure you go back and listen to that episode.
I’m not sure if I shared this already. I am positive that I have had to, but this past May, we graduated our firstborn from high school, but not just any high school…it was actually homeschool high school. It was scary, awesome, terrifying, amazing, and all the feels at the same exact time. We did it! We graduated our son from high school…by homeschooling him all the way through!
Which brings me to this episode…We did it, and SO CAN YOU!
I have had so many people reach out to me lately about homeschooling through high school. In fact, one of those people was my former podcast partner-in-crime, April. Next year, she will begin her very first year as a high school homeschooling mom, and she has a lot of questions. I am trying my best to help her feel a little less intense about the whole situation, and I have actually invited her back to the podcast so that she can ask some of those questions here. I am not sure when that will take place…hopefully very soon…but, make sure that you stay in touch by subscribing to this podcast so that you will be notified as soon as that episode drops.
I will also be happy to answer any of your questions that you may have. Just send me an email to tiffany@teaoflifepodcast.com.
So, you know…whether you homeschool or not, I am sure that it won’t come as a surprise to you when I say that homeschooling can be intimidating, overwhelming, frustrating, and ALL. THE. WORDS that would make this episode explicit instead of family-friendly. Homeschooling through the elementary and middle grades can be crazy enough. Forget having to do it in high school.
So…If you’ve found yourself homeschooling in high school, whether it was the plan all along or it has suddenly become the plan due to current circumstances, know that either way, you are never alone. There are lots and lots of people out there right now, in a very similar situation as yours, who is also trying to figure out this whole homeschool high school thing and what it REALLY means for their particular family.
Now, I do want you to know that the information that I am going to share with you today is not a one-size-fits-all idea of homeschooling. It’s just what I have learned along the way according to our family, our values, our needs, our past experience, current circumstances, and future hopes and dreams for both our kids AND ourselves. Yes, I do include my husband and me in those future hopes and dreams because my goal is to not wear ourselves out or destroy our relationship with each other (or our marriage) due to homeschooling. My husband and I are most important to each other, and our relationship takes priority to EVERY decision we make, even when it includes our kids.
I know I just heard a lot of you gasp on the other end of the microphone, but it’s totally true. If my husband and I are not in a good place with each other relationally, we absolutely cannot expect our kiddos to thrive emotionally or relationally with us, each other, or their peers. Yes! It’s all related! In our home, our number one responsibility is the relationship my husband and I have with each other.
If we are in a good place with each other, then we can expect to be able to help our kids be in a good place. Does it always work that way? NO! Absolutely not! However, most always…it does.
Like I said before, homeschooling in high school can be intimidating; especially, if you don’t have a degree in teaching. We can be told, at times, that it is absolutely necessary to have a degree, but I couldn’t disagree more. The teaching degrees are for teachers in the public and private school rector. Yes, homeschooling can be considered a private school, but it is not an accredited private school, so it falls under a whole ‘nother realm.
We can feel our intimidation coming from our own insecurities or what we view as inadequacies (uh, been there!) We can feel the intimidation coming from our friends (Yep! been there!) We can feel it from our families (OH! I’ve definitely been there!), and we can even feel it from our local school system (yep! I’ve been there too!) I’ve been doing this for 14 years now. There are not many places left where the intimidation hasn’t shown it’s ugly face. But, who are they to tell us that we are unable to teach our own children?
In the beginning, it was mostly family who told me that I wasn’t smart enough or educated enough to teach my own kids. Yep! I was literally told that by a family member! It was a few members of my family who said that I would screw up my kids if I pursued homeschooling. Then, it was the public education community who has tried the hardest to discourage me from homeschooling, by telling me that I am not qualified to teach my own children and that public school is the best option for them in order to get a good and free education. Well… in my opinion, there are many things wrong with that statement; however, my biggest problem with it is that you’re telling me that the education system that I went through for many years did not prepare or equip me to teach what I learned? If it wasn’t good enough to prepare me to pass on, why would I send my kids through the same system that didn’t give me what I needed to pass on to future generations? I mean, this should actually be a compliment to them. They could look at it from a different perspective and say that they taught me so well that I am now able to pass it down and teach my own kids, but no! Instead, they’re telling me that it wasn’t good enough and that they did not prepare me and give me the tools I needed.
We decided to homeschool for many different reasons. For our family (and when I say “our family”, I mean our household of four), I don’t really know that it was a decision that we made, per se, but more of a prompting that we felt God leading us in that direction. I’ve told you my story before and why we decided to homeschool. If you’d like to hear that story again, you can go WAY back to Episode #4, but I’m sure I’ll share it again sometime…at least, in bits and pieces here and there.
At first, I wasn’t even on board with it, but the closer we got to signing our firstborn up for kindergarten, the more I felt that homeschooling was the path that we would trudge at least for the first year. After that, I would have fulfilled what God was asking me to do, and He would cut me loose, and we would go a different route…we would analyze where we were and where we wanted to go and decide what the following year would look like for us. Throughout the years, we have taken it one year at a time, and every year, we keep going back to homeschooling because, as it turns out, we love it, and God knew that it would be the absolute right fit for our family!
And, this past Spring, in May of 2020, we graduated our first-born from highschool.
And… then we started homeschooling high school all over again with our second born. One down, one to go, but this experience is already different than the first. We are WAY more relaxed, and our days are somewhat easy-going. We don’t stress as much as I did with the first one homeschooling through highschool. In fact, I think I am even more laid back about it than my son. He sees his peers stressing over school, and he is not, and he sometimes thinks he needs to, so he ends up putting unneeded pressure on himself that he doesn’t need to. Then, after a chat with me, he quickly comes back to reality and realizes that school doesn’t need to be stressful like that. Just because we’re doing it differently, doesn’t mean we’re doing it wrong. And, who’s to say that they are the ones doing it right anyway? Maybe they are the ones who got it wrong. We only think that way because that’s what we’ve been programmed to believe.
Homeschool, itself, can be crazy…or not. It doesn’t have to be crazy at all! It can be totally relaxed and fun. I’ve seen both sides from the outside looking in. I’ve been on both sides. Crazy is not really my style or my husband’s style. We are both pretty laid back people, who tend to think through things a little differently than others do. We’ve been known to be somewhat rebels when it comes to the social norm. What is a priority for others, may not be a priority for us. We approach life differently than some, and that’s ok! In fact, I totally prefer life this way!
I am not here to tell you what’s right and wrong. I want to tell you how we did it, and what I’ve learned along the way.
So, I think I’m gonna leave this episode right here and start with a few simple things that you need to do when you’re considering homeschooling. Next episode, I will have 6 things that you’ll either need to do or consider before starting your homeschooling journey. I’m excited to share them with you. I have them all ready to share with you!
In the meantime, remember that if you have any specific questions regarding homeschooling, please email them to me at tiffany@teaoflifepodcast.com, and I will be sure and answer them during an episode. Also, if you know someone who could benefit from this podcast or these homeschooling episodes, feel free to pass this along to them. They are definitely going to want to tune in to the upcoming homeschooling episodes if they are considering homeschooling in high school…or even just homeschooling in general. Most of my episodes will also have great information for anyone anywhere in their homeschooling journey; even those who have been homeschooling for a while can sometimes use a bit of a kick-in-the-rear or an uplifting encouragement to Transform Every Attitude they may have about homeschooling right now.
Thanks for listening y’all… I can’t wait to chat again next time!
