Home Schooling in High School — A Senior Trip
I always feel sad when I talk to a mama who has homeschooled her child since kindergarten but is about to send him or her to public school for high school. Parents make this decision for many reasons. Here are a few:
- Genuine concern about their own ability to do the job they need to do.
- Pleading from a child who wants to fit in with the kids at church.
- Desire for a child to participate in an extra-curricular activity such as sports or band that they don’t know how to provide at home.
I understand all those reasons and I have sympathy for parents who are faced with making that tough decision. It needs to be weighed prayerfully and carefully, while keeping in mind that every time we say yes to one thing, we are saying no to something else.
Sometimes our yes and no is a monumental yes and no. For example, when we say yes to the man asking us to marry him, we are saying no to imaginary men who could have come along in the future. I’m very grateful for the “yes” and “no” I said concerning that decision forty years ago!
Sometimes our yes and no is inconsequential. When we say yes to having chicken for supper, we are saying no to having beef.
When we say yes to public school band or volleyball, we are saying no to having as much time together as mama and student; and that is just one of the many nos involved in that decision. I am not condemning anyone for saying yes to something like band or volleyball, but I do hope she will count the nos that yes will create.
Our experience of homeschooling through high school was positive for each one of us; and when a graduation time came for one of our children, we were all ready to celebrate — not because we were glad the homeschool journey was over for that child but because of the joy the journey had been. We developed several senior year traditions. One of our favorites was the Senior Trip. Today I’d like to tell you about one of our adventures on one of those senior trips.
When we took Mary Evelyn’s senior trip in 2002, we headed to New England, which was her chosen destination. One of the many sites we saw there was the Great Stone Face in New Hampshire. We all enjoyed it, but it was of particular interest to Ray who had loved Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story The Great Stone Face since reading it in his youth. The moral of the story is that we become like what we have gazed at all our lives.
Let’s all spend our lives gazing at Jesus, so we will be like Him:
But we all, with unveiled face,
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image
from glory to glory,
just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18
On that fall day in 2002, we gazed at a rock formation on the side of a mountain, overlooking Profile Lake in Franconia Notch, New Hampshire, which is nestled in the White Mountains. The other name for the Great Stone Face is the Old Man of the Mountain. We could certainly see the great stone face of the old man of the mountain that day.
The Great Stone Face is very special to the people of New Hampshire. If you come across the state quarter of New Hampshire in your change sometime, you will see it there. The standard license plate in New Hampshire features the Old Man of the Mountain. Even the Children’s Librarians of New Hampshire give a Great Stone Face book award each year.
We are very grateful to have seen the Old Man of the Mountain in that fall of 2002, because on May 3, 2003, after many years of freezing and thawing, the giant granite boulders of the Great Stone Face fell down the mountain. Visitors continue to come to Franconia Notch State Park to gaze at the mountain to see where the Great Stone Face used to be.
Many of the opportunities in our lives are available over and over again. Some, like our viewing of the Great Stone Face, are only available for a short time and then they are gone. Being in the high school band is like that. We have a four-year window of opportunity and then it’s gone, but still, we might be in a community band for decades. We have a four-year window of opportunity to homeschool our child through high school, too. May God give you wisdom to say the right yeses and the right nos and the clarity to see what you are really saying.
Paul wrote to the Colossians:
Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders,
making the most of the opportunity.
Colossians 4:5
May we conduct ourselves with wisdom toward the “insiders” in our family, making the most of those opportunities, too.
Great story today. The Lord impressed on my heart and my husbands when I was pregnant with Jordan, to homeschool all the way through high school. As he has proven throughout scripture, he equipped people for his purpose. They may not have a clue, but he provided. Well, that is the same for our homeschool. I went to government schools all through my schooling years. In high school, I learned absolutely NOTHING. Only how to be better at socializing. I did take business courses, but I never took algebra, Geometry, or any other math. I didn’t care about math and history. I was sick of facts and figures and the dry, boring reading. But today, the government schools are very anti God. The agenda’s that are set forth for children are Anti God, I feel we are being disobedient when we send our children to a school that leaves him out of Everything. As Psalm 1 says “Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly” We could add the rest of the verse, but I think this says it all. The teacher may not be ungodly, but the books are. If you are not for God you are Against God. I don’t mean this as harsh, but has urgent in this world in which we live. Children that have to hear the things said and taught 7 hours a day 5 days a week, don’t get 7 hours a day 5 days a week at home of godly to counteract the bad. It is so confusing. I think Highschool years are more forming for a child than the elementary years. I pray for parents in America. God needs to be 1st in all. Especially our children. It is at an urgent point in our lives right now in America. God bless you and thank you for your wonderful blog. nancyt.
You are so right, Nancy. I admire your commitment to Jordan, a sweet and beautiful young lady. And thank you.
I like this! Either you’re for God or against Him. We don’t hear that much today, do we? I’ve been listening to Oliver B. Greene messages from years (50+) ago and I love the “tell like it is” messages. We need more of that in our homes and pulpits!!
Thanks, Rebecca.
Amen!! I definately need the Lord’s wisdom! I just want to mention a possible option to extracurricular activities. Check the Christian schools around your area. A lot of times, they are willing to allow homeschoolers participate in their activities. It has been a blessing that my daughter has been allowed to play volleyball with a Christian school not to far away.
Great ideas!
Very timely topic. We have been asked many times if we are sending our 9th grader to school this coming year. As we just received the last box of books, from Notgrass none the less 😉 we’ll keep on here at home. I’m also a bit excited about the idea of a senior trip!
It was a great tradition that was very special to all of us. Thanks for including Notgrass History!
Thank you for this encouragement. We will start ninth grade in late August, and while I am completely committed to homeschooling, and the daughter is perfectly amenable, it is just a tad bit overwhelming. I love the idea of a Senior Trip!
It does feel overwhelming, but you can do it!
Exactly how I feel about it! Giving up the eternal for the temporal….how many ways can that be applied? And honestly, having been a mom for 21+ years, I have found out that my high school kids need me just as much as my toddlers did, in some ways even more, in that spiritual, visceral way. They just want to know that, in the middle of them having to make decisions and grow up and beginning to feel that burden, that I am still maintaining control and making big decisions with and for them and “I got you”.” We (my husband and I) are your anchors and we have got this for you.” My oldest daughter has actually thanked us for doing it that way and appreciates the security this afforded her. She has said she missed absolutely nothing by being home schooled through high school. I know I sure gained much through having done it!
I appreciate your strong commitment, Rebecca. It is a very good example.
Reading this wonderful post and the comments have brought me to tears! Thank you for reminding me of the beauty and blessings of having our children raised at home. It, too, breaks my heart when I learn that someone has chosen to send their child to Caesar. Continuing to pray that the Lord will open the eyes of His children.
Thank you, Jackie. This was a heart-warming response. I appreciate it.