While our homeschool style is more of an unschool style, I thought I’d share what that looks like for us. My oldest is 15 and has lots of goals for herself. For us that means what homeschool looks like for her is so obviously tailored to meet her goals. Today, I thought I would share how I am encouraging independence for my teens. When they were younger, my goal was to expose them to as many different activities as possible. Now, my goal is to help them reach their goals.

Her goal ultimately is vet school. She’s always had a good handle on her goals and what she has to do to achieve them, even when she was much younger. She realized a couple years ago that she didn’t want to be in college forever! She has a friend that she rides horses with and she asked questions and learned about PSEO that way. Now, her goal is to start college next year when she is in 10th grade. What that has meant for us is that we had to do some research on what the colleges expect and require from her going into that. She has also formed a great relationship with a vet that’s at our barn often. She has known him since she was four, and he has really helped to guide her with where her strengths need to be and what classes she will need to focus on. From there, we decided to start with biology. We researched multiple curriculums and used the free sample lessons to see if they were best for her learning style. Finally, we decided on one and ordered it. I need to ensure I am not the reason she doesn’t achieve a goal she has set. She has to ultimately do the work. Her days are structured in a way that allows her to do the things that matter most to her – ride and train horses multiple days a week. I give her the weekly assignments and she has to manage her time to get the work done for that. She’s also working on other subjects that she needs to strengthen before college and just has me tell her what she should be doing a week. Sometimes, it’s a challenge. Tuesdays are a slow day for her where she spends a large portion of the day doing book work. She recently started driving but until then, she used the drive time to do her school work. Her independence comes from allowing her the opportunities to do the things she finds that work for her goals. She’s always been an easy child and trusting her judgement has come very naturally. She trains horses – a bunch of them. And she’s learned to manage her time and set her own goals with them.  She even altered when she wakes up so that she gets up an extra half hour early each day to make more time to work on her school work.

My son who is thirteen – our learning time looks so differently. He loves interacting with adults and just asking so many questions about what is happening. His independence looks so different than what my daughter’s does. He likes the freedom to bike to a friend’s house or the ice cream shop. He likes being able to go to the theater with his friends. This has led to many conversations about how to do these things safely. I have an app on his phone so I can see where he is and know he got to his destination safely. He gets his independence and I get my peace of mind.  The other thing he absolutely loves is to put the tent up in the yard and sleep so he feels more independent.