Interview with a Homeschooled Teen

My almost 15-yr-old son agreed to share some of his thoughts on homeschooling.

Here is what he had to say:

When did you begin homeschooling? 

When I was about 4 years old. 

Have you ever been enrolled in school before? 

I was in Islamic school before, but it wasn’t a full year. It was only for about 3 months. 

Do you know why you left school? 

I don’t remember 100% why. I just know I was struggling and I didn’t like it. 

What is one of your earliest homeschool memories? 

I remember one Winter, meeting up with homeschool friends at night to go stargazing outside. We looked at the stars through the telescope and spent the night playing in the snow. 

How long have you been homeschooling? 

About 10 years. 

Have you ever wanted to give school another try during that time? 

Not really. I was already comfortable in homeschool and had homeschooled friends to do things with. I’ve gotten curious about school but I’ve never actually wanted to go. 

Why did you ultimately decide not to try school? 

Mainly the homework. Schools tend to give a lot more work than I get in homeschool. I also don’t like to go out of my way to try new things. 

What do you enjoy about homeschooling? 

I like the freedom to explore the things I want to do. You have a lot of time in homeschool, apart from your studies, and you can use it to explore the things you’re passionate about. I also like the people I’ve gotten to know through our homeschool co-op. 

Tell me about your homeschool co-op. 

It’s a group of homeschooling families who meet at the same location to learn. I’ve always been part of some sort of a co-op. My mom has always kept us involved with other homeschooling families and learning in groups. 

What kind of things do you get to do and learn at co-op? 

We learn different subjects like science, history, math, and language arts. We also have electives and get to choose which classes we want to join. I like electives because it’s a variety of different things we get to explore. 

What do you like about learning in a co-op? 

I like the freedom of being able to pick my own classes and learning with friends. I’m not forced to study specific subjects. I get to choose where I want to be and what I want to learn. 

Have you ever felt like something was missing from your homeschool or that it wasn’t enough for you?

I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. I’ve always had everything that I need to be able to learn and get on in life. 

Do you feel like homeschooling has given you a good foundation for learning later on? 

Yes. It’s given me a very solid foundation to move forward. I also learn a lot through the co-op; it has a good structure with its classes. 

What has your homeschooling at home been like over the years? 

When I was little, homeschooling would be very basic. We read Bob Books, learned basic math, and spent a lot of time learning while playing. As I got older, we moved into more complicated topics like History and Writing, and learned more through projects. My mom always helped us as we learned. She had books and curriculums that she taught us from and fun learning tools to use, and we got to move at our own pace. We met up with homeschooled friends often. 

Now that I’m in highschool, I still get to move at my own pace, but I get a lot more group learning and more structure in my classes. The learning is more routine with scheduled assignments and due dates, and we dig much deeper into the topics than we did when I was younger. I think this helps prepare us for the next stages of our life, like going to college. 

What is one of your favorite things about being homeschooled? 

The freedom to do the things you want to do while still learning the things that you need to. I also like meeting up with my friends. 

What’s something you like to pursue with your freedom? 

I love art. I like being able to express myself in images. Sometimes I just doodle, other times I take art classes, and I create my own art. I love to explore different mediums and materials and mix them up. A painting with a sketch inside or food art. Recently I’ve been working on my animation skills. 

What animation are you currently working on?

I’m working on sketching out some characters. I’ve thrown a few ideas around but the one that I’m focused on building out now is taking food and other items that belong in a kitchen and trying to create different action scenes with them. Like a cup falling from the counter top and shattering. I also designed a spoon cop who may end up chasing a watermelon criminal. It’s still a work in progress.

What would you say is the hardest lesson you’re learning in homeschool right now?

Probably time management and learning not to procrastinate. I usually think things won’t take as long as they actually do, and it can cause me to rush or forget about my work all together.

What are you doing to help make time managemet easier for you?

I am working on organizing myself better. My mom has shown me different techiques for time managemet and I’m learning to adapt them and find what works for me. I use lists and cross items off when I finish them. I’m also learning to spread out my work over time to help make things more manageble. I’m also trying to focus working on only one thing at a time.

How do you think homeschooling has prepared you for the future? 

I don't really know what my future will be yet, but homeschooling has taught me and is still teaching me important fundamentals like working on my time management. Also, paying attention to the quality of my work, and having personal and academic responsibility. 

Do you feel like homeschooling has helped you to become independent? 

It’s definitely helped me learn to follow directions to be able to do things on my own. But I wouldn’t say that I’m fully independent yet. It’s also helped me learn how to learn what I want to learn. That’s important. 

What is something important you think all homeschools should include? 

Passion Projects. I think all kids need time to explore the things that interest them. It gives you a break from academics but in a way that is still focused and you’re still learning. You need to be able to choose what you want to learn and how deep you want to learn it so you don’t feel like everything is forced or just needs to be gotten out of the way. You need to be able to focus on the things you enjoy, too. You can pick up new skills you’re interested in, give yourself a refresh, and just explore yourself in different ways. 

What advice would you give to homeschooling parents? 

When your child is young, just let them explore. They don’t need too many worksheets or lessons; it won’t benefit them much. Let a kid be a kid. 

As they get older, you can give them more structure for learning because then they’ll be able to focus and actually think about what they are doing. 

For teens, let them learn with others, and don’t make it all formal learning either. Let them learn through activities and fun stuff so they don’t get bored. This also lets them see concepts in action which helps with understanding.