Homeschooling High School for Real People, Interview with Ann Karako

The Homeschool Highschool Podcast

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Homeschooling High School for Real People.

Homeschooling High School for Real People

Many of our friends know our friend, Ann Karako, from her popular website: Annie and Everything and from her wildly popular Facebook group: It’s Not That Hard to Homeschool High School. We are so excited to chat with Ann today about one of our favorite topics: Homeschooling high school when you are just ordinary folks!

Ann has a high school senior this year! The last of her five kids who have graduated from homeschool high school. We agree with Ann that the high school years are the best years of all!

Ann’s mission is to encourage REAL families enjoy and have success homeschooling high school (and you don’t need a magic formula to do it.) Real people are simply average people…which is what most of us are! (In fact, we talk about how to be a mom of a just-average teen in an earlier episode.)

Ann gets frustrated with all the SHOULDs that some people and publishers foist on new homeschooling families. You SHOULD do this and use this curriculum. They seem to promise that if you do “A, B, and C” your teen will graduate with a full-ride scholarship to some Ivy League college.

The problem is, that most teens do not get full-ride scholarships to Ivy League colleges, no matter what they do or what curriculum they use. Usually the teens that do get those fancy scholarships were super smart to start with. Most teens are smart, but in their own way- not Ivy League smart. The result is that teens and parents can find themselves feeling guilty or like failures because their teen graduated but not as spectacularly as those FEW future Ivy Leaguers.

So, for those of us who are ordinary folks, here are Ann’s tips for homeschooling high school for REAL people

Ann’s teens have been real teens. They sometimes:

• Argued with her
• Did not earn great grades
• Had stress

They have been real teens, but they have (along with Ann) loved the homeschool high school years. That is because Ann worked at matching curriculum, causes and activities to her teens’ needs with the goal that everyone ENJOYS the high school years.

Ann feels like anyone can homeschool high school:

• Confidently
• Competently
• Contentedly

Confidently homeschooling high school

• You can be confident when you researched your state laws for homeschooling high school
• You can be confident when you research the requirements that they will need in order to do what they aim for after high school (college, vocation, etc)

Competently homeschooling high school

• Find the resources that will fit your teens’ needs (that is what Facebook groups are for, like It’s Not That Hard to Homeschool High School or 7SistersHomeschool). Join the group, describe your teen and get some feedback from other homeschool moms
• Read blogs on how to grade papers and tests and create syllabi

Contentedly homeschooling high school

• Beware of “keeping up with the homeschool Joneses”. They are not you and your family!
• Lean into the way God made your teens: enjoy their uniqueness, their interests, skills, abilities and goals.
• Remember your own needs and wants.
• Tailor the family’s educational experiences to meet the families needs: and enjoy it!
• Have time to simply talk to your teens and enjoy the high school years.
• Discuss your teens educational and life goals and help them achieve them.

Want encouraging how-to homeschool high school resources from Ann Karako? Check out her books: Save Your Sanity While Homeschooling High School and Homeschool High School Planning Book.

Also check out Ann Karako’s podcast: It’s Not That Hard to Homeschool High School!

You will also be blessed by our other interviews with our friend, Ann:

• Keeping Up with Homeschool Paperwork
• The Importance of Homeschool Community

Join Vicki and Ann for an episode full of encouragement!

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Homeschooling High School for Real People

The post Homeschooling High School for Real People, Interview with Ann Karako appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.