Excerpt from:
"Homeschooling:
The Teen Years"
Ten Reasons to Homeschool Through High School (pg.
38)
Reprinted with permission of the author, Cafi Cohen © 2000 by Prima
Publishing. All rights reserved
1. Efficiency
Many homeschoolers
complete standard high school academics eighteen to twenty-four months,
very quickly compared to the four years most high schools take. Using
self-instructional materials, they chose, and learning in ways that
make sense to them, most teens can cut the time for traditional high
school by half.
2. Head Start on College:
Homeschooled teenagers
often take college classes to supplement high school homeschooling.
3. Self-Directed Learning:
The absence of experts in the home
promotes autonomy and self-directed learning. Most homeschooled teenagers
not only learn to teach themselves, they also become expert networkers.
4. Travel:
Freedom from the teaching constraints of school allows
homeschoolers to take advantage of travel opportunities whenever they
present themselves.
5. Work Experience:
Teenage homeschoolers
have time for volunteer and paying jobs. Often they get better jobs
than those who attend school simply because they are available during
school hours.
6. Time:
Homeschoolers not only have more hours
each day for creative endeavors and learning activities; they also
have more time to be alone, to think, to daydream – to develop a private
self and a personal identity.
7. Family Closeness:
In contrast
to many adolescents who pull away from their families, homeschooling
parents almost universally report that their teenagers grow closer
to all family members.
8. Limited Peer Pressure:
Removed from
the near-constant peer pressure in schools, most homeschooled teens
develop mature manners and values.
9. Saving Money:
Both parents
and teenagers may earn money while homeschooling, making home education
less expensive than attendance at a public school where average yearly
costs for extracurricular activities can exceed $500 per year.
10.
Fun:
Homeschooling teens is fun for parents, who – in the light of
their life experience – enjoy learning all the math and history and
foreign language they missed the first time around.
