10 questions to ask your teenager before deciding to home school them

No matter what the reasons are, if you are thinking of pulling your teenager out of a mainstream or private school then it is not a decision that can be made lightly, not when they are so close to taking their GCSE’s because this is the most worrying time for parent and child. Here you will find a free downloadable task for your child to help you and them decide.

Every parent wants what is best for their children but how do you know if it’s really right for them and for you, how will you know where to start and how will you know if they have asked to be home schooled for the right reasons?

You don’t need to make all these decisions based on your own thoughts as your teenager is probably able to give you some pretty clear answers and ideas that will help you make your mind up.

Ask your teenager to answer these ten questions in as much detail as they can and you will be able to see the reasons behind their choice and if they have made it for the right reason.  It will show you what they expect to achieve from homeschooling, you will be able to spend some time thinking about it and researching to see if you are able to fully help your child to receive the results that they hope for.

If you can find out what things your child did like about school then you will be able to find solutions that you can still incorporate at home.  For example, if their only answer is because of their friends than you can try to ensure that your child still gets the appropriate amount of time to spend with their friends.  Or if they loved history then you will know that they will probably want to spend quite a bit of time learning more about it and perhaps visiting some places, such as museums that help bring the history to life for them.

The questions will help you to identify what GCSE’s your child wants to take and you can look into seeing if you are able to provide enough assistance to make sure that your child can take those GCSE’s, either by deciding if you have enough resources to teach them the subjects yourself or if you have enough finances to hire a tutor and pay examination fees.  If your child has a certain career in mind then you will be able to find out what qualifications they will need for that type of work and you can start to find resources that with help them.

Ask your child to write the answers down for you and you can keep them to refer back to if ever either one of you begins to lose track of the path you are following.  They may act as a reminder for you to look back on and see how far you and your child have come over a certain period of time.

Write a description answering each of these questions in a much detail as you can

1. Why don’t you want to continue your education in school?
2. What things do you like about school?
3. Why do you think home education will be the better option?
4. What do you hope to achieve from home education?
5. What careers are you considering doing when you are older?
6. What do you think the advantages and disadvantages of home education will be?
7. What subjects would you like to study and why? This can include subjects that are taught in schools and ones are not usually taught in schools
8. Are there any other subjects that you think you should study even if you are not that keen on them - and why?
9. If you want to take your GCSE’s, what ones do you want to take?
10. What affects do you think home education will have on you when you are older?

You can download this task as a pdf file to print and use at home.

Ensure you research the correct procedure for deregistering your child from school as you will need to send in a letter to them.

Once you have thought about the answers, done all the research on homeschooling that you need to do, then all that is left is to enjoy the journey!