“So, how will you get into college?” If you’re a homeschooling high schooler, you’ve heard that question. I did, and it worried me. Now that I've been accepted to college, I’ve learned the answer is: “Just like everyone else.” Homeschoolers have the same rate of acceptance as brick-and-mortar school students, and there generally aren’t any application requirement differences for homeschoolers. Nevertheless, the process will inevitably feel different sometimes.
“The only thing in his sock drawer is a sandwich!” my brother said as he frantically prepared for school one morning. It was Holy Week, and he was looking for socks. He couldn’t find any in his dresser, so my mom told him to look in his brother’s drawers. He found only a sandwich, forgotten by our exhausted brother one night after services. We were trying to juggle the demanding work of private school with the many services we had during that week.
Three years ago I moved to Goldendale from Wenatchee. Many things changed for me then, and one of them was that I was now minutes away from a large women’s monastery. Many of the Orthodox families in the area attend monastery services to be with family, soak up the grace, or simply because they live closer to it than to a regular parish. Although I attend the mission in town, I still visit the monastery often to assist the sisters with their work, and it has been highly beneficial. My and my parents’ plan was to make visiting the monastery part of my education. And I have been learning a lot–it almost feels like a type of home economics course. I’ve discovered how to chop the perfect size of lettuce and how to fold fitted sheets (yes, it’s possible). However, my education and learning is not the only thing that’s flourishing–let’s not forget that this is a monastery!
Every student–whether public schooled, private schooled, or homeschooled–has routines, priorities, and expectations. Attending a public or private school requires schedules and routines to fit the mold of their calendar and requirements, while homeschooling allows the space and flexibility to focus priorities on God, His Church, and family, while still fulfilling state requirements for homeschooling. Being a homeschooler has allowed me to participate in and experience the life of the Church in ways I otherwise would not have been a part of.
I made the unusual switch from public school to homeschool for high school. Typically, many teens decide to do the vise-versa, wanting a “normal high school experience.” There seems to be this common belief that you can’t have a standard and exciting education when you’re homeschooled. I’m here to talk about why I switched and how such stereotypes terrified me at first.
Two years ago, I made the decision to leave public school to pursue a classical homeschool education. This was a difficult, but ultimately extremely edifying process. I chose the online homeschooling route: taking classes with online Christian academies. I was very unsure of what to expect when I first began this journey, so I hope this article will offer some clarity and encouragement to those exploring homeschooling, specifically the online option. I will elaborate on the reasoning behind my switch to classical homeschooling, the Orthodox homeschool pedagogy, and its effect on my spiritual life.
A common struggle for homeschoolers is finding a supportive community in which to thrive. This is especially true if you attend a small parish or are a part of a church community with few homeschoolers. It is easy to feel alone and cut off from society, but that does not mean one must despair.
The desire for independence also increases as we become teens. Whether conscious of this or not, we want to stretch ourselves and practice all of the beautiful treasures our parents have passed down to us. This is good and natural. So how can we do this when we feel limited in the number of people we are surrounded by or too shy to approach those in our presence?
High school is often the time when families shift from homeschool to "real" school (the misnomer commonly used in our house, at least, for brick-and-mortar school). I am very grateful to my parents, though, for giving me the opportunity to be homeschooled from preschool through graduation; and I believe I came out of the four years of high school a better-formed person with more knowledge and skills that will be of use to me the rest of my life than if I had gone to public school. Homeschooling has also offered me more freedom in my education and with my time than I would have otherwise had. As the oldest child in my family, there was certainly a learning curve to homeschool highschool, but it was a blessed journey! Here are some tips I learned along the way that helped me make the most of my four years of high school
