Show Me Homeschool Podcast
Guiding Parents Through the Wilderness of Home Education
Show Me Homeschool Podcast
Calming Your Concerns About Homeschooling Middle and High School
Have you ever wondered what homeschooling through the crucial middle and high school years entails? Today, Erin and Joe delve into the different approaches parents take, from mimicking traditional education to embracing individualized and interest-led learning. They also share valuable insights on finding extracurricular activities, resources, and building a high school transcript that prepares your child for various educational pathways. Whether you're new to homeschooling or transitioning into these grade levels, this episode offers practical guidance to alleviate your anxieties and help you navigate the exciting journey ahead.
Resources and Links
HSLDA, www.hslda.org
Cristy Stebelton, Podcast With Faith, www.podcastwithfaith.com
Connect with Erin & Joe at Show Me Homeschool:
- Show Me Homeschool Website
- On Instagram, @show.me.homeschool
- On X, @ShowMeHomeSch
- On Pinterest, @showmehomeschool
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Joe:
Hi. Welcome back to show me homeschool podcast. today, we're gonna be talking about the myths the fears, the concerns, anxieties around middle school, and especially high school. I know we talk with homeschool families, whether they have been homeschooling for a while, they're on the cusp of it, or they haven't homeschooled at all, There's a lot of fears and anxieties, a lot of unknowns about what is this gonna look like. I I don't think I can do this. We hear that a lot. What'd you talk about?
Erin:
When I talk to a lot of homeschool moms or dads, there's usually They fall into a couple different camps. There's the people who are just interested in homeschooling through elementary school. Maybe they'll take it year by year. They don't think that this is something they're gonna do through high school or middle school. It's really just that they wanna lay a foundation. They're not quite ready to send their child off or their child isn't ready to go, or they've got other things going on developmentally, that they just choose to do things that way. Then there's also the period who comes into it and says, you know, I'm gonna homeschool through through middle school, but by the time they get to high school, our local public school has a great tech program where they've got the great career center or my kid wants to get scholarships for sports, and that's why they are interested in sending them to high school. Now I don't know about where you live, but where we live outside of Kansas City, there is a booming homeschool community. And I know that not everywhere has all of the opportunities that we have, but there are more and more happening as more and more people are choosing home education.
Joe:
So that's a great intro. Talk more about those different types of people and maybe just kind of in general, what are the fears that go into? Maybe start with middle school a little bit. But I know the bigger one is probably high school, but there are some people that are pretty nervous when 6th, 7th, 8th grade hits.
Erin:
Well, I think you have to jump over that first hurdle, which for most moms or dads or both, the concern is, how am I gonna teach a child to read? And once they get over that hump and homeschooling, then they feel like those early years are the fun years. We get to do read alouds on the couch. We're doing field trips to the zoo. It's not quite serious yet. but what we're doing is fun. It's like fun school and a lot of hands on things. And, you know, it's it's a little bit slower paced. There's not as much pressure to perform at that age. And so what I see happening is Mom's get concerned that, well, you know, school's not it can't look like that going into middle or high school. We have to get more serious. We have to spend more time doing things. And that is true. There is a weight of responsibility, and I think a healthy concern that you're doing The best by your child is a good thing. We wanna have that as parents as a homeschool mom or dad. That's a really good feeling when you look at it in perspective, if that means you really care about the education of your child and providing something better than you maybe you had growing up or better than you think they would get doing any other option because really what's the point of homeschooling if you don't feel like you're going to give them a a worthwhile education at home, and it's just gonna look different. So to dispel the first miss of, I don't know what I would do, Come middle school, really, what I tell parents that I talk to is what you need is Just to do what you did when you first started, you're gonna research what classes that you're interested in your child taking, You're gonna seek input from the child on what they're interested in learning because if there's buy in, especially at that middle school age on the topics that you're discussing, the classes that they're taking, the activities are participating in, you're gonna feel much more at peace, and they're gonna feel much more at peace. And, you know, if you have a child, maybe that you're homeschooling in middle school or maybe you brought that child home, in 5th grade or maybe you brought them home from public or private school because there was something going on at school that was not okay with you or whatever the situation is that you've made a different choice in education, that's the time that you're really gonna need to seek your child input. And I think sometimes as parents, it's easy to forget. at least I've talked to some moms that Really, we're like, oh, I didn't think to ask if, you know, it's just something that they'd forgotten about, or maybe they've made all the decisions and their child that they've homeschooled since the beginning.
Joe:
So what I hear you saying is that what we hear and especially what you hear from moms is there's sometimes a temptation to think that as you get to middle school and especially high school, that you have to more so mimic the public school system or maybe even, like, starting to get them used to you know, college university type setups. Is that what might be underneath some of that?
Erin:
Definitely. I think especially once kids start talking to their peers or counterparts that do attend a public or private school, and it is more structured You know, you do this history in 7th grade and then you progress to this history and then this math or whatever. You know, math is pretty sequential. You're wanting to probably keep it pretty aligned with what is happening, generally, but It things like history and different sciences and even reading, abilities or programs that you may choose. You might cover different things at different times. And I think that that's the fear is that when a parent does something that's so off the beaten path, then the traditional school model that if they were to ever have to enter back into that model, they wouldn't feel like their child is -- at grade level or prepared, or that child might feel embarrassed that they don't know something or the parent might be told by the teachers that they didn't do a good job. you know, I've talked to people in public education that have said, you know, it's really hard whenever we do take a homeschooled student into middle or high school because that is the case. A lot of times, homeschoolers don't follow the traditional educational path that's laid out through the public or private education system. And so when that child comes in and the mom's like, here's the transcript, that school has to verify that that child is at the appropriate grade level so that they can be successful because, of course, the school, most schools would probably want the children there to be successful. And plus if you're sending them then at that high school or middle school level, especially high school, they're gonna have to be the one signing off on that transcript. And It's really on them to make sure that that child has the education needed to actually graduate with the credits.
Joe:
And there's I think some public schools or maybe even private schools have some concern over liability or taking responsibility that if they say Yes. So those transcripts or classes that they are then taking on that liability to say, oh, yeah. Everything that you, the parent, put in this transcript, or you've done up to this point, we sign off on and are now a part of our record, public record. I think that's makes some administrators or schools nervous to do. Right.
Erin:
And I think rightly so, but that's not a concern that parents really need to have a big picture. If you want to homeschool through high school, I just I really want you to hear me say that you can do it, and there are plenty of resources out there if you concerned. I mean, my advice and this might be silly advice to some, but it's just if you're really concerned that at some point, your child might go back to public school, In middle or high school, then look at the education department's website and see what the typical course of study would be. And then just find classes that follow along that path. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. You as the parent have the the right to choose The way that your children learn that the curriculum that you pick is is on you. So, ask your child. Okay. Well, in whatever grade they usually study whatever this topic is. So how would you like to learn about that? And They might have some ideas. Maybe they don't. Maybe you talk to a friend at your co op who's using a similar curriculum for that subject or you reach out. there's plenty of Facebook pages. There's, you know, we have a Facebook page if you're interested in asking that question there. It's just there are ways to go about finding that information and if it makes you feel better as a homeschool parent to follow closely what the public school is learning because you either think that your child college bound or may return to public school. I would say there's nothing wrong with that. Some people might think that, you know, never follow what the public school's doing. That's the freedom of homeschooling, and it is the freedom if you feel comfortable doing it. But you truly don't have freedom if you're living in seer, that your child won't be prepared. Right? So anything that we can do, even if it kind of mimics what they're doing, you don't have to do it in the same style or You know, there's there's freedom within that as well.
Joe:
Stop. So that all makes a lot of sense. So you just kinda touched on it some about, sports, extracurricular stuff like, choir band, arts, things that are usually out of the house require other people to perform or whatever. I know when we talk with parents that especially ones that maybe aren't homeschooling right now or are about to, again, get into these ages of middle school and high school. There's a lot of concern for I, you know, I these kids, my kids really want these opportunities, and I feel like they're not gonna be there for us if we homeschool. We're gonna be completely cut off from that. There's no way that we can provide that for our for our children. What would you say to that?
Erin:
Well, I would say that this time to be homeschooling is wonderful because so many of those opportunities are provided by the homeschool community locally. Now, again, I know that not Everybody is in an area, maybe you're more rural, or homeschooling in your state is not something that you know, the laws are tough to homeschool. So maybe there's not as many homeschoolers, but I would say Search the Facebook page. Search the local or state home school group, that you have to see because usually there's a list of local resources on those pages, HSLDA would be another source of information for, maybe hooking up connecting locally. so those would be my first places to look. And then I search maybe there's a local parent magazine or, publication. I looked in the newspaper for a field trip opportunities any kind of local business. I mean, if your kids interested in, how do you make chocolate? Well, maybe there's a chocolate -- there's one close by in Kansas City, and that's a popular field trip because not only do they get to see how the footage or chocolate is made, They then get to taste it, you know, and it's a hands on experience. if your kid's interested in cake decorating, maybe the local grocery store offers a class. Like, there's places that you may not think are an opportunity that you could you know, research, but, think outside the box if there's a local place. I say local a lot because Typically, small business owners are, you know, very proud of the work that they're doing. They want to build relationship within the community and maybe they'll offer something for your group, an opportunity to come in and watch how they make the thing that they make or do the thing that they do or whatever could be an opportunity for your child to learn a skill, another place, local museums. we have some great museums near us that are free or very cheap, and they offer homeschool days. A lot of places now offer homeschool day or homeschool week, and you might find that maybe you drive an hour and you get to meet up with some people. another place to look into is local home school sports teams. we have several places that, offer homeschool sports or sometimes even private schools will allow homeschoolers to participate in their sports because they need more players for their teams. so you might check there, just doing quick searches for Local homeschool teams, might pop up something that you hadn't thought of. I, again, I I feel like I source a lot through Facebook posts and Facebook homeschool groups that I'm in that are specific to my city or area. our county has a couple of pages that are available where people ask questions. and if you don't find something, which may be the case, maybe you have a couple of homeschool friends, and you wanna put together a team, or maybe you put together a group that's, singing a choir, there's a local choir that's popped up that way, and then it just grows as the word gets out. Right.
Joe:
That's what I was gonna suggest is that if you end up fund not funding anything that suits you, it may be on you and and some of the communities that you've created to create it.
Erin:
Yeah. And we'll do another podcast episode That tells you some ideas of how to get those things started, like, co ops or sports teams and that kind of thing.
Joe:
Right. And just like our message with homeschooling in general, don't be, you know, scared to start something new. Don't be, thinking that it's this huge task that's all consuming and is gonna be a full time job. It it's not. It it's amazing how especially if you get just a few other people that are interested in doing it, how quickly it can get off the ground or just, you know,
Erin:
Right.
Joe:
Keith elephant -- Yes. -- unchunk at a time.
Erin:
The dance studio that my youngest goes to was actually started by a homeschooler when she was 6 teen, and she was just telling me this story. she is now a homeschool mom herself, and the studio started in someone's basement because they're like, oh, you take dance. Why don't you teach? teach some dance dance classes. And so she started teaching dance to a handful of girls, and now it's this a whole studio that she has built over the the years, and they do a huge performance every other year. They do showcases every year. They have many opportunities within the community So
Joe:
-- And it's professional. It it is. Yeah. -- wanna just say, like, we wanna --
Erin:
It's not homeschool quality if you know what I'm talking about. You know? There's homeschool, and then there's homeschool, and this is homeschool stuff. Like, this is good stuff.
Joe:
Right. Right. It's it's really a moving, professional, performance twice or, you know, every --
Erin:
Every other year. Yeah. Well, and I think that's the thing is That's a miss to be dispelled in and of itself that there's no good homeschool stuff. You know, it's just like That we're not in the 19 eighties anymore. There's enough opportunity. There's enough people homeschooling. I mean, YouTube, the internet, We have all these resources at our disposal. If you can't find an in person class, I mean, COVID brought about all of these booming Internet classes or zooms that you can do, for your student. I mean, you can take piano over the internet now. You can find things on YouTube, art classes that you can learn drawing skills or painting skills. There's no shortage of opportunity if you're looking for it.
Joe:
And our son just started his soccer season, and it's pretty much a homeschool team. I don't know that it's exactly labeled that, but that's what most of the people are. okay. You're nodding your head. It is.
Erin:
It's -- It's all homeschoolers.
Joe:
Okay. Sorry. So It's, but it's legit. They're really good. I mean, they're smoking the other teams right now. And they're and they're not all homeschool teams either. We're talking private school teams, you know, Christian schools that are have legit programs that have been around for years, and we're killing it. And they have professional uniforms. They have great coaches. They have very good scheduling. So like you said, it can be 19 eighties homeschool quality, We're we're not trying to, you know
Erin:
We're not knocking that. For sure. Don't hear that. It's just that back then, there weren't the things that we have and the opportunities that we have. So it was just parents who
Joe:
-- I'm talking about the stereotype. --
Erin:
together. Yes. The stereotype.
Joe:
Yes. Mhmm. We owe a tremendous amount to the people that fought back then and established the laws and the traditions and stuff that we have now. It's just a joke. It's tongue and cheek, but It my point is that there's some really legitimate stuff, and you just have to look for it. Think like you said, is you have to think outside the box You have to I think once you get to the middle school and high school level, similar to what we've seen as far as support, for homeschool parents is that it seems like those things are not as obvious. Mhmm. You have to kinda go look for them. and I think that's what is gonna happen with these activities.
Erin:
Well, the same thing I think happens with co ops. You know, there's a lot of co ops out there, and there tailored to the case or 3rd crowd. You know, it's all the moms who have little ones and have little or little ones, that are not even preschool age and it's play group time or it's, you know, very loosely structured or it's a hiking group and I'm not knocking that at all. I think those are very beneficial things. That's how we started getting involved.
Joe:
Good.
Erin:
But as you reach the middle and high school levels, those things, like you said, drop off because so many parents are abandoning homeschooling for public or private school. And I, I mean, I think when you hear us talk, Obviously, we're very pro homeschool. We have a whole business. We were starting on this. We have a podcast about it. We wanna help other people continue
Joe:
to make, you
Erin:
know, to make that decision. So let's talk then about creating a homeschool economy based on we're homeschoolers While we may, you know, maybe you are that parent that feels more confident homeschooling, following a more traditional schedule with your classes, Awesome. That's for that's great. You have the freedom to do that. Now maybe you're the parent who has done this a while and you've realized I have so much freedom here doing things our own way. Maybe you're more unschoolier interest learn learning styles. Maybe that's what makes your family tick, and your kids are not ever going to follow a traditional path towards, you know, the the same classes that they would have taken had they chosen a different, you know, public school or private school where it's you take these forced sciences, you take these formats, you know, maybe they're not interested in those things at all. And you're really tailoring their education, and that's the beauty of homeschooling is that it is an individual education plan for each of your children. And if you're able to do that and then having that freedom where you're choosing some wonky classes that are on nobody's radar, but here your kid is thriving in that. that's wonderful. And, you know, I always tell people too if you think your kid may be college bound at some point, Colleges are they want your money. So regardless of what your transcript looks like, you know, I told my kids I took algebra in high school, Flunked it big time. What did I take my 1st year of college? Algebra? Because they wanted my money and I needed a remedial class for that, and they offered it. And, yes, I paid for it. and I guess that's the trade off. You either do what, you know, they're they're gonna require you to take in college, or you say, here's my transcript. What do do you need? And You know, obviously, that device isn't great if your kid has a very specific thing like archaeology, and they need specific classes for that. You know, the then find out what your kid's specialty is and you tailor what classes maybe you're taking archaeology.
Joe:
so I think we've provided a decent look at, you know, what could be out there what how to how to maybe go find it, try to dispel some myths. But, you know, we're show me homeschool. So show me or tell me How do we structure our older kids as they've, gone through middle school and now into high school? We've graduated 1. Not that we are trying to give a formula, but share, you know, what our experience has been, what our plan was or is and why. Mhmm.
Erin:
Yeah. So our oldest, we Fostered and adopted. And so she actually went to public school until 7th grade when we pulled her to homeschool. So she was very much used to the traditional public school education. And so when I tried to incorporate her in our very couch school, read alouds, hands on stuff. Like, that didn't make her feel like she was learning. You know, as much as I would have loved for her to be a participant in that. So what we ended up doing was an online, curriculum where I was more of a facilitator than the primary teacher. And, that really worked for her. My desire That wasn't my idea of what homeschooling looked like. It wasn't what we had done with our other children. So, that's a whole other topic, but We did model her high school education very similarly to the course of study that she would have taken at a public high school because that's what she sought. the education needed to look like and that worked for her. She was very good at taking the list of things I gave her to do and checking off that list And
Joe:
-- And that was also her personality.
Erin:
Yes. It was her personality. It worked for her. So that's very much how we modeled, her high school.
Joe:
And you may have children that still need that. Regardless of ever having gone in the public school, there are some kids that thrive on lists --
Erin:
and textbooks -- Yeah. -- learning. And, yeah, that was just what worked for her. Now for our two boys who are now in high school, We have done things a little bit differently. they have a lot of time throughout the day for interest led learning. I do have them taking you know, the typical history classes. They're taking typical math classes that she would take. so That's something that we do, but they have a lot of time. Both of them are interested in, you know, one's really into coding and has spent hours upon hours coding amazing things for his friends or for games that he likes to play and modifying things like that. And then the other one is really interested in three d printing. And so he's had a lot of time to investigate different models and formatting them and saved up money and bought his own 3 d printer.
Joe:
He's done it from the ground up. He figured out. He did all the research on everything. Yes. And that was part of it is we set him loose to say, okay. You're interested in this. If you could absolutely stuck, I'll help you out, but re do all the research. Get the thing, set it all up, which he did.
Erin:
Mhmm.
Joe:
And then he's learned to use all of the software programs and everything for modeling and bringing abstract things into real life. It's really incredible.
Erin:
Yeah. So each kid's different. Each need is different that they have. I just wanna encourage any homeschool mom or dad that's nervous about homeschooling through middle or high school. You know, maybe you you do just Just look at what's right in front of you. What did they learn this year? What are their interests and tailoring that to what you want for your home school. What is the feel that you want for your the atmosphere of your home?
Joe:
And you've also, though, in case they would wanna pursue, tech school or college, even community college. is that you have tried to tailor their transcript transcript to get as many of those classes in or subjects in as you can.
Erin:
Right. It's a balance. I feel like
Joe:
-- Right. --
Erin:
having that balance of preparing them for college if they choose to go, which None of mine have, at this point, expressed interest in that. But if they were, they would have a transcript that would be readable, and probably get them into a school that they would wanna go to. yeah.
Joe:
Alright.
Erin:
So if you have any questions, if you want us to cover anything else, you can email us anytime at info at show me homeschool.com. and we really appreciate you listening. If you find what we've shared, it helpful, or encouraging, please share with your friends, so they can be encouraged too.
Joe:
Thanks a lot.
