National Home Education Network

10 Reasons to Homeschool Through High School

by Cafi Cohen

from her book, Homeschooling the Teen Years


  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.

  1. Head Start on College:
    Homeschooled teenagers often take college classes to supplement high school homeschooling.

  2. 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.

  3. Travel:
    Freedom from the teaching constraints of school allows homeschoolers to take advantage of travel opportunities whenever they present themselves.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. Limited Peer Pressure:
    Removed from the near-constant peer pressure in schools, most homeschooled teens develop mature manners and values.

  8. 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.
  9. 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.