Homeschooling Teens & Pursuing Passions

Kyler’s carrot harvest

One great thing about Homeschooling through the middle school and high school years is that the kids are really able to pursue their passions.  It takes a while for them to explore different subjects and activities for them to find something that they are passionate about.  As homeschool parents, we can offer them a wide variety of opportunity to do and participate in much of our everyday lives.  For a full time public school student, this just isn’t the case.  So, I am proud of my son.  He’s developed a real love of gardening.  He’s amazing at it, too.  He’s saved seeds from many of the plants from last year.  His favorites are melons and squash.  He now has some lights in our garden shed that he can use for his starts and he’s started plants earlier this year.  I have asked him to organize his thoughts and plans in a notebook.  He is keeping track of the time he spends gardening and making a list of the books he reads.  He has note cards for each type of plant he’s planted so far and cross referenced them with numbers on his pots.  He came up with his method all on his own.  By the end of harvest season this coming fall, he will have earned an electives credit for his sophomore year and he will have learned so much because he is doing what he loves.  And we will be eating well!  He had a huge part in our gardening last year, too.  We talked so much during the season last year about doing it this year as a high school credit and he must have thought about that a lot, because he is really taking the bull by the horns and turning it into a true course.  I am so proud of him.  Did I already say that?  By the way, homeschooling teenagers is fun when you let them pursue some of their learning.  Can you imagine how much more effective this is than learning about plants from a textbook?

Kyler working hard in the gardening shed.