by Sandra Devera

Created on: May 18, 2008

Homeschooling high school level students can be heaven or hell depending on what has led you to do it.

My children have always homeschooled and when given the option of continuing their high school education at home with me or at the high school where their father teaches, they opted enthusiastically to continue their 9th through 12th years of school at home. It has been the most fun we've had homeschooling.

The hard work of homeschooling for me came in the early grades where I had to teach them the basics of reading and math and tying their shoes. There was very little they could do without me reading the instructions for them or assisting them in collection of supplies. High school has been the payoff for all those years I read aloud to them. Now, they read aloud to me as I work in the kitchen or iron - and then we can discuss the book's character motivations and the author's techniques.

High school students are old enough to read, watch, and participate in activities that I can enjoy as an adult. Our Burger King days where I would watch them play in the plastic human habit-trail contraptions have become intellectual debates about music techniques over lattes at Starbucks. The early years of correcting language exercises is now spent enjoying reading their stories. The early years of trying not to cringe during music practice have become hours of enjoyment listening to them play.

My grade schoolers had to sit close by so I could keep them "focused" on the math page at hand. My high schoolers can be handed an assignment sheet and their texts at the beginning of the week and left to study in their own rooms, listening to their own music. They come out repeatedly all day to where I am in the house with a question, an observation, a finished story or project that they want my opinion upon. At the end of the week, they turn in all the assignments for grading and I make up the next week's assignment sheets. Home education through High School has been intellectually challenging for me and many days my children teach me what they've learned rather than the other way around.

Because my homeschooled teens have not learned that being with Mom is uncool they enjoy helping me shop and do chores around the house. They are both jealous of "private time" with Mom and like to have me sit by their bedsides while they talk about anything and everything with me. I like the people my children have grown up to be and enjoy that I have this brief time with them before they pursue their

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