3 Key Consideration for Homeschooling Teen Girls

Image Courtesy of Pixabay

Homeschooling is a time-honored practice that forgoes traditional schooling in favour of a more intimate and one-on-one method of teaching that is hard to get in a traditional educational setting. During 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic meant that many families were forced into homeschooling as schools in many countries were closed and formal education was suspended, and seeing the benefits, some families have chosen to stick with it.

Choosing to homeschool your children, however, isn’t an easy decision and comes with many considerations that must be addressed as it can greatly impact the work and home-life balance, especially with larger families. 

Some key consideration for homeschooling young girls include:

• Allowing them to Get Up a Little Later 
• Pursuing Their Interests
• Preparing them for College

Recent studies have found that females need more sleep than males and teenagers should be allowed to sleep in as part of their natural development, while the collaborative nature of young girls makes them a little less decisive than boys so they may need some help pursuing goals, and college preparations might need to include a little more advice for young and potentially vulnerable girls.

Allowing them to Get Up a Little Later 

Homeschooling means that you can essentially set your own school times that can fit around your family’s schedule rather than the other way around. You can choose to start the school day a little later in the morning as opposed to the structured and rigid timing systems employed by educational establishments like the Leicester High School for Girls. This comes in handy for teenage girls as they need more sleep.

As teenagers develop, they require more sleep than they previously did and their energy levels shift so that they stay up later in the night. A huge benefit of homeschooling means that you can accommodate your teenage girls’ sleeping patterns by allowing them to sleep in a little later and therefore staying more alert when completing school work.

Pursuing Their Interests

Teen girls tend to be more collaborative than individual when it comes to pursuing interests and it isn’t uncommon for girls to decide on a goal together, despite what they might actually want to do separately. While this is a commendable quality, it means that your teen girls might not actively pursue their own interests with as much vigour as they need to.

As a homeschooler, you can introduce activities that allow your girls to identify their own goals and pursue their passion. Given that you set your own curriculum for certain things, once your girls have taken an interest in a sport, art or science, you can cater for it by adding extra classes to your homeschooling schedule in order for them to develop their skills and interests in what they really want to do.

Preparing them for College

Pursuing and embracing their interests more than traditional schooling might allow means that coupled with the independent nature of homeschooled students, teenage girls can develop the skills and attitudes that can help them cope with college life. You could also introduce a class that further prepares them by teaching time management, study schedules and socialisation.

However, being girls, they might need a little extra advice than boys. Their final year in your homeschool could be used to prepare them for navigating some of the more disturbing yet common issues that face young girls today such as dealing with sexual harassment, being careful online and STD and safe sex awareness.