The Homeschool Highschool Podcast Archives

College Safety and Fun for Homeschool Graduates with Seth and Caroline Tillman Replay

August 11, 2026 by Vicki Tillman Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: College Safety and Fun for Homeschool Graduates with Seth and Caroline Tillman- Replay.

College Safety and Fun for Homeschool Graduates

This is a replay of a favorite episode. We feel like it is useful information for our grads who are heading to college soon.

Featured in this college safety and fun:

Safety Tip #1: Walk in a group
Safety Tip #2: Lock your dorm or apartment doors when you leave
Safety Tip #3: Ride-share advice
Safety Tip #4: If you are walking around while listening to music or podcasts, leave one earbud out
Safety Tip #5: Use the share your location app on your phone
Safety Tip #6: Have a friend who leaves their phone on sound at night for you (and you for them)
Safety Tip #7: When going on college tours, what kind of campus safety measures are in place at the school?
Safety Tip #8: When going to an event, make sure that at least one or two of your group will stand up for you

Vicki’s five homeschool high schoolers are all graduated from college now, even her youngest, Seth, and his newlywed wife, Caroline. Seth and Caroline loved their years of homeschooling. College was a big change for them both, but they loved it and made the most of their experiences there by getting involved in college activities and mentoring relationships. They also made lots of friends.

From the many experiences they or their friends had, Seth and Caroline offered to share some safety tips for homeschool high schoolers who will head off to college (or anywhere in the big, wide world).

Seth and Caroline Tillman, photo used with permission

So here are Seth and Caroline’s tips for college safety and fun for homeschool graduates

Seth is a elementary music education teacher in a local public school. Caroline first worked in the retirement industry but recently transferred to the University of Delaware as academic advisor and assistant to the UD Health Professions program. Both of them have had the adventure of spending part of their year teaching or advising remotely. (Check out Seth’s videos for his music students.) They believe in paying the things they have learned forward to current homeschoolers to help them prepare for college or employment situations.

Safety Tip #1: Walk in a group

As often as you can, especially at night. If you will be late at the library, call a friend and talk to a friend while walking and use “Find My Friend” app on your phone. (Predatory people tend to prey on lone individuals, so groups are best when possible.)

Safety Tip #2: Lock your dorm or apartment doors when you leave

You would think this is not something you really need to tell teens. But Caroline shared that she saw the poor outcome of roommates or friends not locking doors a number of times. (Keep a key on a hair tie if you find keychains are too cumbersome.)

Safety Tip #3: Ride-share advice

Ask the driver what YOUR name is. Make sure they and their car look like the descriptions you were told when ordering the ride. Also look for the lit sign in the windshield of the car (Uber or Lyft have signs). If you can, ride with a friend on the ordered ride.

Safety Tip #4: If you are walking around while listening to music or podcasts, leave one earbud out

This makes you more aware of your environment, especially for crossing roads but also for unusual things that might need your attention.

Safety Tip #5: Use the share your location app on your phone

But only share that with close, safe friends. It is not a social media app!

Safety Tip #6: Have a friend who leaves their phone on sound at night for you (and you for them)

If you have car trouble, are locked out of your apartment, or are in an uncomfortable situation, phoning a friend can be a lifesaver.

Safety Tip #7: When going on college tours, what kind of campus safety measures are in place at the school?

For example, at the University of Delaware, there are safety blue lights regularly around the campus for calling for help. It is so important for schools to be considering the safety of their students!

Safety Tip #8: When going to an event, make sure that at least one or two of your group will stand up for you

Let there be an understanding that if things get uncomfortable, you can say to your friend, “I need to go” and they will actually leave with you.

Okay, now for some uncomfortable topics. Sometimes we homeschool parents try so hard to shelter our teens, that we find it extremely difficult to discuss “adult” topics with our young adults as they leave for college. (As Seth says, your kids are not kids anymore when they leave for college, they are adults…young adults but adults, so need to be prepared for an “adult” world.) Naivety will not work for new adults.

Safety Tip #9: When encountering alcohol, if you see someone heavily intoxicated, please do not leave that person alone

Be aware of your surroundings. If you see someone who is not okay, call the university police or 911. If it is someone you know and you feel safe, help them get back to their dorm. When calling 911, remember it’s better to have folks mad at you about it than have someone die from alcohol poisoning. Also, there is usually a medical amnesty policy that protects you from getting in trouble when you call 911.

Safety Tip #10: Know what alcohol poisoning looks like

From Mayo Clinic’s website: confusion, vomiting, seizures, slow breathing, irregular breathing, blue-tinged or pale skin, low body temperature, passing out and cannot be wakened.

Seth and Caroline graduated from a state college. Seth points out that alcohol is common in state colleges, so they were not surprised to see these kinds of things. He also has lots of friends who went to small private or Christian colleges. In the smaller schools, these things happen, too (but mostly in secret).

Safety Tip #11: Monitor what you are drinking

This is difficult to talk about but important. No matter where you are whether restaurants, parties or get togethers. Vicki jumped in on this to add that, as a counselor who works with college students, she has worked with a number young women who have been “roofied” (a date rape drug slipped into their drink) while at a public gathering. So:

Keep a lid on what you are drinking when possible
If you go to the bathroom, have a trustworthy friend watch your drink
If you start to feel bad and feel like you are “blacking out” and you do not have a trustworthy friend with you but are at a public place, ask staff for help
If you feel frightened, call 911

Safety Tip #12: If you are choosing to drink (or have friends that choose to drink) alcohol, understand that not all alcohols are alike

Some are stronger than others. Learn about it ahead of time.

Safety Tip #13: Offer rides if you have a car

Of course, keep boundaries (some people might think you are an endless free ride) and remember that you can offer but not everyone feels comfortable accepting rides.

Safety Tip #14: Offer your dorm to a safe friend if they are stuck on campus late in the evening

Of course, only if you know they are safe friends

Safety Tip #15: Know what harassment and consent look like

If you see someone who appears uncomfortable, (and you are safe) walk up to the person who looks uncomfortable and talk right to that person. If you do not feel comfortable, feel free to call 911. Don’t just walk away, err on the side of keeping people safe.

If you are in an uncomfortable situation and do not feel safe, it is okay to lie in order to stay safe, as in: “Sorry, I can’t go with you, I have to meet my roommate here.” Or give out a fake phone number. Remember that actually if you find you are making someone feel uncomfortable, stop and walk away.

Safety Tip #16: Take a self-defense class

It is a genuinely valuable investment of time

Safety Tip #17: Parents: teach your male sons to be respectful

Teach them to be gentlemen. Teach them no means no. Teach them the value of all God’s creation. Teach them good manners.

NOW, before you feel terrified for your young adults (and also we aren’t advocating for any unhealthy behaviors; we just don’t want young adults to be naive), here are some GOOD things that happen in college:

Going out to eat with classmates so you get to know them better and enjoy class together more.
Inviting classmates to study groups at the library (especially those in your major)
Joining a healthy fraternity and sorority (not all of those organizations are about partying and wild living; rather some are about service or building their major)
Joining the university choir
Joining an interest group or club
Getting an on-campus job (Caroline worked in the college creamery, Seth worked in events)
For more tips on making friends in college, check out this post

Join Vicki, Seth and Caroline Tillman for an empowering discussion. Also check out the college success tips interview with their friend, Kendall Smythe.

Watch one of Seth’s digital classes for his elementary music students (his school was online during COVID-19). And his fun project with friends, Newbit.

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College Safety and Fun for Homeschool Graduates

Helping Teens Handle Procrastination- Special Replay

April 7, 2026 by Vicki Tillman Leave a Comment

📚 Part of our guide: Homeschooling High School

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Helping Teens Handle Procrastination-Special Replay.

Helping Teens Handle Procrastination

Putting things off, especially things you don’t want to do, is a human thing. We all tend to do that. Sometimes for teens, because they have less experience in life, procrastination is one of the hardest things to conquer. Here are some tools for helping teens handle procrastination that you can share with them.

Understand Why Teens Procrastinate

The first thing teens need to know when they are procrastinating is that it really is part of the human condition. It is one of the parts of the human condition that we have to develop tools to conquer, though.

Honestly, wouldn’t you rather just do nothing if you could? Or just entertain yourself all the time without doing other obligations? Sure, we all would, but that doesn’t make us happy in the end. And neither does procrastination.

When you sit down and talk it through with your teen, usually when they are procrastinating, they actually feel worse at the end of the day than they did at the beginning of the day. That is because those things that need to get done just sit there in the back of their head trying to hide. As the neglected task is eating at their consciousness, their anxiety levels are going up.

Skills To Help Teens Handle Procrastination

When you see your teen procrastinating, sit down and talk with them about what they are procrastinating on. It could be math lessons or research papers or cleaning up their bedrooms – whatever…

Once you have them talking about it, see if it is really procrastination at play here or if there is something else going on. It is a common thing for teenagers is to experience bouts of anxiety or depressive episodes. This is difficult for teens because they have no experience with handling those kinds of things. In these cases, procrastination is not really procrastination but stuckness caused by the tough emotions.

When the problem is anxiety or depression

For a teen, anxiety or depression can look like:

Just sitting around like a lump
- their body may feel heavy, like their arms and legs are heavy and it is hard to move.
Not being able to concentrate on anything
Or feeling flat or miserable or hopeless
Feeling like they cannot do anything.

There are many different causes for anxiety or depression:

Sometimes the mood is depressed or anxious
Other times their hormones got off track
Or perhaps they are experiencing a long-term stressor like a pandemic or other tragedy
Sometimes getting in a big fight with their best friend can cause anxiety or depression

It does not have to look like they are crying all day. In fact, it often does not.

When teens feel depressed or anxious, they cannot focus on their work very successfully (unless it is really easy academics). But it is hard for them to handle more difficult things, those things that take a lot of concentration or they don’t really like too much.

If your teen is experiencing anxiety or depression, have a gentle discussion about it with them. Then talk to the family doctor regarding what to do about it. See if they can connect you with a counselor. When teens get a few tools for recognizing what’s going on and managing these kinds of issues, they feel so much better about it. They will regain their energy to be successful at their schoolwork as well as the harder things in life.

Tools for helping teens handle procrastination

On the other hand, it is not uncommon for teens to actually be procrastinating for procrastination’s sake. In this case, try these tips.

Eliminate Distractions

Sometimes the procrastination is actually the teen feeling distracted. When distraction is happening:

Sometimes it is caused by addiction to notifications.
- This is a universal problem these days where there are always these notifications going on for our teens (or us moms).
- Honest to goodness, if you could get your teen sit down and turn off notifications during the school day, where the constant sounds disrupting their thought patterns, your teen will have more neural energy and more thinking power to do the things that are not so exciting.
Other times, the distraction is caused by having too many tabs open on the computer.
- Close unused tabs and see what happens.
Sometimes they are distracted by something they are powerfully interested in.
- They would rather do some gaming or go bake a batch of cookies.
- Those distractions of things they would really rather do are calling to them. In cases like these, that’s a discussion for self-discipline.
- Those other interests are great, wonderful things to do. But let them understand that they can do them after four o’clock in the afternoon or in the evening or whenever school is over.

Work on it together with your teen and come to an agreement. Try this: Help them list their next-day’s priorities each night before bedtime. (It is really hip these days for teens to literally write those priorities on a white board.)

Practice Delayed Gratification

One of the definitions of maturity is the ability to delay gratification. The ability to wait to do what they really want to do is a good life skill. Help teens reward themselves when they finish their daily priorities. (Have the write the reward on their white board, so they can really celebrate when they accomplish their priorities.)

Help With Feelings of Overwhelm

Many times, teens will feel overwhelmed. For They do not know where to even begin. You know they are feeling overwhelmed if you hear them complaining about their schoolwork or see them simply staring at a blank page.

When you see your teen doing this, tell your teen to just close their eyes and scribble (or type) the letter R over and over again. Once that page is not blank anymore, things start to happen. The words start to flow, and the terror of the blank page or the blank screen is not so scary anymore. And just the act of doing some kind of writing will help your teen get started.

Knowing What’s Next

Another thing that helps teens get over procrastination is knowing what to do next. According to research, it was discovered that when people know what they are going to do the next day before they go to bed, they will be less likely to procrastinate the next day.

For this, one thing that helps is to get a whiteboard and colored markers. Then have your teen write down what their tasks are for the next day every night at bedtime as well as the tasks they will be doing.

For some reason, research shows that they are more likely to actually do those things that are written down (versus waking up and then deciding what to do without a plan).

Having the paper or schedule in a colorful form or on a whiteboard they are going to do the next day really helps conquer some of the procrastination tendencies.

Scheduling Backwards To Create An Infrastructure

One thing that really helps teens overcome procrastination is to have an infrastructure for planning studying and projects. If you have teens who are using syllabi for some of their courses, you can help your teens use it to schedule backwards.

To schedule backwards, you look at the syllabus. Then you divide lessons and projects up according to time (or a schedule) and put them on a calendar. This will help your teen see what is coming up and also co-ordinate all the work.

Use a Calendar or Scheduler

Teens who have a scheduler that they can use to know what is coming along as well as knowing when to work on things tend to do so much better at not procrastinating. This is because this gives them a neural infrastructure for time management.

You can do this with different types of calendars, too, such as:

Google Calendars
Google Sheets
Homeschool Manual Manager
Trello
Todoist
Bullet journals
Digital planners
Plain paper calendars

Of course, they could also use the calendars and the reminders on their phone. Our friend, Dr. Melanie Wilson from the Homeschool Sanity podcast has some planners for teens.

It is very doable to give teens these infrastructure tools and then watch them do less shutdowns from not knowing where to start.

Adopt A Growth Mindset

Then the next thing that a lot of teens need to overcome procrastination is a growth mindset. This comes to play when teens don’t want to do something or something feels intimidating to them, but they get it done anyway because they know they will feel better once it’s done.

When things like this happen, teens can talk to themselves through not wanting to get something done. They can say something like:

I don’t like this, but I’m going to feel so much better when I hand this in completed.

Making a positive prediction on the other side of that helps the smart part of the brain turn on which is so important for teens to learn that skill.

Practice Pairing

Another thing that helps teens overcome procrastination, especially on subjects that they do not like, is practicing a skill called pairing.To do this, take the thing your teen does not really like to do and pair it with something that they do like.

For example, if they have favorite music they like to listen to, put that on in the background while they do their math. What this does is teaches the brain that this unlikable task is not not all bad.

Another example is rewarding snacks to eat while they do schoolwork or finish a paper.

Pairing can usually be used for helping teens handle procrastination by doing something they really don’t like doing, but not just teens – everyone can benefit from this!

Helping Teens Handle Procrastination

Practice these skills to help teens handle procrastination with all tools by sitting down and talking to them about it. They can develop learned skills to overcome procrastination that they can carry all the way into adulthood.

Join Vicki for tips on helping teens overcome procrastination.

Thank you to Richie Soares with Homeschool and Humor for creating this blog post!

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Filed Under: Homeschool Highschool Tagged With: High School, procastination, The Homeschool Highschool Podcast

Career Exploration for Teens Who Don’t Have a Clue- Special Replay

March 31, 2026 by Vicki Tillman Leave a Comment

📚 Part of our guide: Homeschooling High School

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Career Exploration for Teens Who Don’t Have a Clue- Special Replay.

Career Exploration for Teens Who Don’t Have a Clue

“SO, what are you going to do after graduation?”

That’s the dreaded question for many teens. They simply don’t have a clue what they want to do.

How do you help a teen find direction in life? How do you help them get to know themselves or get to know God’s leading?

For teens who know they do not want to go to college but do not have a clue what they want to do

Many teens do not have any idea what they want to do after graduation. That is okay. They do not need to know everything about the future during high school. However, it is wise to help them explore. Here are some ideas:

Give them rich experiences
- Many times teens do not know what they want to do because they have not experienced it yet. One kind of rich experience is field trips. Hey, the good thing about homeschooling is that we homeschool moms tend to value field trips (although sometimes at high school level, it is harder to squeeze them in to our teens’ busy schedules).
- However, if you create a Career Exploration elective credit for their transcript, you can log many field trips towards that credit. That is because, any trip gives a little more life experience. Any life experience helps build the ability to make decisions- especially career decisions.
- For instance: ranger-led nature walks at state parks, cooking demonstrations at special events, car shows or museum exhibits. Sometimes, a teen will get inspired by a watching the person in charge of whatever event they are experiencing. They think: “Hmmm, this might be a cool job!” Or, on the other hand, they might think, “Ugh, I would NEVER want to do that!” Either way is valuable career exploration.
Show them role models
- Movies based on careers
- Biographies of interesting jobs
- FB Watches or YouTubes about interesting jobs
Volunteer work
- Teens need to do volunteer work. It is good for transcript and the soul. Service work is SO important for personal knowledge and development, as well as making the world a better place.
- Some volunteer opportunities our teens have done:
  - Church (worship, set up, digital team, nursery, office)
  - Digital volunteer opportunities
  - Food bank
  - State park volunteer events
  - Library volunteers

For teens, whether they have a clue about career or not, try a career exploration course

A good career exploration course is very helpful. For non-college-bound teens, 7SistersHomeschool has a simple Career Exploration Textbook. Even if you choose something else, think about looking for curriculum that includes (like our workbook):

What is God’s will?
- Teens who are believers sometimes feel anxious about choosing a career that will please God. A good curriculum helps them trust God to direct their paths.
Past experiences
- What have teens already done that help them find strengths or interests
What other people see in them
- Get some feedback from people who know them
Can they identify interests?
- IF the power went out for the day, what would you do for fun? If you had a day to yourself with no chores or schoolwork, what would you do?
Define career values
- Career values help teens choose a career field by defining what is important to them: Work hours, desire for involvement in things after work, level of income desired, etc. (Rabbit trail, all teens will benefit from taking a Financial Literacy course that helps them understand and plan for financial responsibilities coming their way in adulthood.)

Explore careers

Check out career descriptions and information at CareerOneStop.org.

Join a club or interest group

Sometimes a group experience will help them explore an interest or strength, network or lead to the next interesting experience. Even if it does not turn out to be fun, no experience is wasted. All experiences are growth, one way or the other.

Try some apprenticeships

We cannot recommend this enough. See if you can help your teen find something that can count as apprenticeship.

Be sure to log everything!

Those Career Exploration electives are SO valuable and look great on the transcript!

For more on this topic

Check out this interview with our friend, Angela O’Shaughnessy about her non-college-bound sons’ career exploration experiences:
- Helping Non-college-bound Teens Find Success
- Why Trade School?
AND check out Susan Stewarts suggestions of Careers that Don’t Require College.
If you are just starting out, here is information on how to get teens interested in career exploration.

Join Vicki for a quick discussion to help non-college-bound teens get their career exploration underway!

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Sabrina, Vicki, and Kym have been mentoring, coaching, and teaching homeschool high schoolers about Career Exploration for decades.

Join them for an expert discussion on helping teens who don’t have a clue.

Resources:

Case Study: Teen Doesn’t Have a Clue

HSHSP Ep 23: Career Exploration for Homeschool Highschoolers

My Next Move Career Interest Survey

Career One Stop (US Dept of Labor)

Filed Under: Homeschool Highschool Tagged With: Career Exploration, highschool, The Homeschool Highschool Podcast

Homeschooler Becomes a Veterinarian with Dr. Sarah Varnell, Special Replay

March 17, 2026 by Vicki Tillman Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Homeschooler Becomes a Veterinarian, with Dr. Sarah Varnell, Special Replay.

Homeschooler Becomes a Veterinarian, with Dr. Sarah Varnell

Dr. Sarah Varnell is a veterinarian near Cincinnati, OH. Homeschooled through high school, Sarah studies zoology at the undergraduate level, went to veterinarian school, and now specializes in equine medicine: a homeschooler becomes a veterinarian!

How did Sarah handle her time in high school so that she was college-ready for a science like zoology?

Academics for Sarah were heavy in the maths and sciences, both textbook-wise but also hands-on!

Dr. Sarah Varnell. Photo used with permission.

Heavy Sciences on the transcript, completed at honors level:

Biology in 8th grade
Zoology
Chemistry
Advanced Chemistry
Physics

Volunteering, MANY hours:

Horse rescue
Brandywine Zoo (snake handler who walked around the zoo carrying a snake for visitors to meet)
Teaching at a Christian summer camp that specializes in horses (she was also a camper there when she was a child)

Shadowing, MANY hours:

Small animal veterinarian (this steered her away from small animals because Sarah likes being out and about, not stuck inside)

Noticing and developing interests and loves:

Being in the outdoors
Being around large animals

Through college, her networking and shadowing helped guide her in her studies but it took time to clarify that she wanted to be a field veterinarian.

She connected to an equine vet (through a homeschool family that she babysat for- nothing like networking!) and spend many hour shadowing

For college success, Sarah learned to:

Look forward to necessary courses and kept in touch with college advisor for advice on specialized and extra courses she needed to take. (Sarah needed some specialized courses that most zoology undergraduates did not need.)
Visit her professors often during office hours.

Sarah chose a small, Christian college (Malone College) for her undergraduate degree. When choosing her college, she made these a priority:

Small college, so she could know her professors and advisor well
Good college advisors that are interested in the success of their advisees
Opportunities for networking and exploration/volunteering/shadowing

Of all the vet schools in the nation, Sarah applied to the best vet school in the nation: University of California. She chose her graduate program by applying to the average number of programs, not choosing University of Delaware (her local college) since it had no vet program and few opportunities with their reciprocal programs at other schools. Rather, she chose to other nearby colleges and the vet school that her veterinarian of her childhood cats.

After applying, she flew to California for interviews and tours of campus. She liked the way their program was organized. AND it was December with NO snow! She rocked her interviews. How did she do that?

Beginning in 8th grade and all through high school, she was a member of the homeschool rhetoric team, so was comfortable speaking.

Speech 1: Public Speaking for Homeschool High School

This is the curriculum that Sarah’s rhetoric league used.

She was also involved in her college forensics team (public speaking), where she specialized in 5-minute impromptu speeches.

At UC, the interviews were MMI format (Multiple Mini Interviews), which are 5-minute impromptu speeches in a sort of speed dating format. She did so well that she was accepted into the program.

Sarah’s advice for homeschoolers thinking about college?

Make sure you avail yourself of advisors and professors. Network, network, network!
Keep a class listing of what you will need. Keep an eye on when courses are offered (some courses are only offered periodically).

At the University of California, Sarah learned:

At the end of every lead rope there is a human.

So soft skills and speaking skills are important. Sarah began her skills in her homeschooling high school years. Today, Dr. Varnell is treating horses out on the road and in the clinic where she works. Just like James Herriot of All Creatures Great and Small, she’s out in the field with people and horses.

Here’s a free resource for helping teens choose a college major. Join Vicki and Dr. Sarah Varnell to find out how a homeschooler becomes a veterinarian.

Keep Listening

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Homeschooler Becomes a Veterinarian, with Dr. Sarah Varnell

Filed Under: Homeschool Highschool Tagged With: Career Exploration, homeschool high school, homeschooling high school, The Homeschool Highschool Podcast, veterinarian

How to Homeschool High School When You Don’t Know Everything- Special Replay

February 24, 2026 by Vicki Tillman Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: How to Homeschool High School When You Don’t Know Everything.

How to Homeschool High School When You Don’t Know Everything

No homeschool mom wants to leave holes in their teens’ education.

EVERYONE has holes in their education. No matter where you were educated or how much you are educated you have holes somewhere in what you know.

Holes are everywhere! Even the most expert professionals in long careers still have holes somewhere in their knowledge base. But don’t worry, your teens are learning to explore interests and become independent learners. Many teens will let you know what holes are important to them and help you explore how to fill those holes.

Know that some holes don’t matter! These holes are information your teen will never need in their future careers. (For example, a teen who will become a hair stylist or a Communications major don’t really need Calculus in homeschool high school.)

Our homeschool highschoolers learn to be lifelong learners. Homeschool highschool is a foundation of their life-learning. It is just a start. You can’t handle everything in the world in 4 years.

Sciences often make moms nervous. Who remembers their last Science course? It was a LONG time ago! But there are LOTS of ways to solve the problem of teaching the required Sciences to homeschool highschoolers.

Remember: There’s not ONE right way to tackle topics you don’t know. Look into one or more of these:

Pray
Co-ops and group classes
Swap courses with a mom-friend
Community college
Video courses and online courses (Here’s an episode on digital learning.)

You might enjoy these episodes on labs and ideas for non-science learners.

Higher Maths often intimidate homeschool moms. Here are some tips:

The tips listed for Sciences also apply to higher Maths. Also, try:

Working with a tutor
Find a homeschool highschool study-buddy

Language Arts/Writing is intimidating to many homeschool moms (especially grading writing):

Make peace with the subjective parts of writing…really mom, you can handle subjectiveness
Use a rubric (that’s why 7Sisters’ writing curriculum includes rubrics)
Have a friend of friends grade papers
Send your homeschool highschooler to co-op, group classes or online classes (This often includes the important experience: peer review.)

Language Arts/Literature can be frustrated to some homeschool teens:

Try Book clubs in person
Try Instagram book clubs (supervise)
Use Literature Study Guides (7SistersHomeschool.com are no-busywork, level-able guides that help teens build inferential-thinking skills…not just comprehension skills.)
Use online books and literary analysis/guides
Co-ops and group classes are great for discussion
Try Readers Theatre to read some plays. Here’s an episode to explain.

World Languages are so intimidating for homeschool moms. Here are some workable ideas:

Co-ops and group classes are wonderful so that teens get the discussion portion of Languages
Form a language club
Use apps for supplementing texts.
Online courses are often good
Listen to this episode on handling World Languages.

History is so much fun to teach in homeschool highschool! You and your teen can learn together or they can usually easily handle independent learning.

Often, if a textbook is engaging, teens can do the text independently. (Independent learning is a goal for 7Sisters’ Psychology and Human Development courses.)
Group classes and co-ops are marvelous for discussions.
Online courses
Video courses

Phys Ed sometimes takes some creativity!

Remember to keep logs!
Listen to this episode on Phys Ed.

Fine Arts is intimidating to moms who aren’t artsy. Remember this:

Lot those hours
Think Arts Appreciation (Here’s a link to a good how-to do Arts Appreciation freebie.)

Join Sabrina and Kym for TONS of ideas on homeschooling highschool when you don’t know everything!

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How to Homeschool High School When You Don’t Know Everything

Filed Under: Homeschool Highschool Tagged With: High School, homeschooling high school, How to teach what you don't know, The Homeschool Highschool Podcast

Movies for Educational Purposes in Homeschool High School- Special Replay

February 3, 2026 by Vicki Tillman Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Movies for Educational Purposes in Homeschool High School- Special Replay.

Movies for Educational Purposes in Homeschool High School

Need some fun in your homeschool high school? Think: movies!

Can movies and reading books BOTH count as English/Language Arts assignments?

It’s complicated, but the answer is: Yes!

Movies alone cannot count as literature for teens’ ELA booklists, but they can be used to learn:

themes
plots
characters and
other tools of literary analysis

In fact, we 7Sisters have always allowed our teens to count some movies as books for their ELA booklist as long as they complete an accompanying study guide that emphasizes literature analysis skills. That’s why we have made sure they had good resources for studying movies as if they are books (like 7Sisters Cinema Studies for Literature Learning Study Guides).

Join Sabrina and Vicki for an enlightening discussion of movies for educational process.

Why learn literature analysis skills through watching movies?

There are lots of reasons to add some movies to homeschool high schoolers’ literature analysis lessons. Let’s start with another of Sabrina’s famous quotes:

Stories are stories.

So, a story in a movie is still a story.

Studying a movie can add some sparkle to a year that is getting bogged down in heavy literature books

Of course, teens need to read lots of good books during their homeschooling high school years. Some teens like to choose literature topics for a year, such as:

Other high schoolers prefer a mix of genres and authors (which is why 7Sisters offers the popular “One-Year” ELA series).

Either way, reading books, books, books can be cumbersome, so liven things up by learning literature analysis skills through movies!

Teens with learning difficulties will find analysis skills more accessible when they watch and discuss movies

Learning story analysis skills by watching movies is good for all teens, of course. However, learning some of these literature analysis skills while watching a movie simplifies the educational process and adds a layer of multi-sensory learning.

Studying movies for educational purposes is an inspiring activity for co-op

Teens love watching movies together and the literature analysis skills are great discussion material.

It’s fun!

Face it, it’s fun to watch movies! So why not have some educational fun!

A story is a story.That's why movies can be tools for literature analysis.

So where do you start?

First off: We recommend that you do not overdo it! Just choose one or two aspects of the story to discuss and analyze, even if the movie has lots of outstanding features that could be explored. In other words, don’t kill the movie (or a book, for that matter) trying to analyze everything that could be analyzed! Instead, allow teens to concentrate on just a couple of outstanding facets to analyze! Then they can actually learn and hold onto their learning- and still have positive feelings and inspiration from the movie. We suggest 7Sisters Cinema Studies for Literature Learning Study Guides for this.

When teens learn some concepts from a film story, they can then find those concepts when they read books. Making these connections is a necessary facet of education (and an important life skill).

Watching movies as an educational tool, helps teens begin to think that any time they watch a movie

They can use their brains and think about what they are consuming. In other words, when given tools for analysis in a gentle way, most teens will have more critical thinking skills for watching movies any time.

All 7Sisters curriculum is level-able (adaptable for Average- through Honors-level studies.) Homeschool high schoolers who are college-bound Honors level cinema studies will find interesting and meaningful leveling-up activities in 7Sisters Cinema Studies for Literature Learning Study Guides.

The way the Cinema Studies guides work:

Students watch the movie.
They take notes as they watch the movie on anything that is interesting to them.
They watch the movie again several days later.
Then they complete the study guide (questions and a writing assignment).

As an aside, Vicki and Sabrina rabbit trailed onto the topic of audiobooks for books and poetry. They noted that Benedict Cumberbach is one of their favorite readers. Vicki has several pins on her Pinterest Poetry board with him reading a poem.

Join Sabrina and Vicki for a “moving” talk about movies!

For more creative Language Arts ideas, check out this episode!

Keep Listening

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO HSHSP VIA COMPUTER

Follow this link to our iTunes page.
IMPORTANT STEP: Under our Homeschool Highschool Podcast logo, click on View in iTunes
This will take you to iTunes and our own podcast page.
Click SUBSCRIBE.
Click RATINGS AND REVIEW. (Please take a minute and do this. It helps others find us. Thanks!)
Thanks!

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE VIA iPHONE

Tap the purple Podcast icon on your phone
Tap the search icon on the bottom-right of your screen
In the search bar type: Homeschool Highschool Podcast
Tap the Homeschool Highschool Podcast icon
Tap *Subscribe*
Please tap *Ratings and Review* and give us some stars and a comment to help others find us more easily.
Thanks!

Movies for Educational Purposes in Homeschool High School

Filed Under: Homeschool Highschool Tagged With: cinema studies, High School, homeschooling high school, movies, The Homeschool Highschool Podcast

Homeschooling Middle School Your Way- Special Replay

November 4, 2025 by Vicki Tillman Leave a Comment

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Homeschooling Middle School Your Way- Special Replay.

Homeschooling Middle School Your Way

We don’t often talk about middle school because we are so busy talking about high school. However, there are many, many homeschooling families that not only have high schoolers but middle schoolers as well. Not only that, but there are more and more families with middle schoolers who will be homeschooling all the way through graduation.

SO we get questions about the RIGHT way to homeschool middle school! (Can you guess what we are going to say? You are correct! There’s not ONE right way to homeschool middle school!)

However, parents of middle schoolers often feel a LOT of pressure to homeschool middle school correctly. They are told:

If your kids do not start working on high school material in middle school, they will not get into college when they graduate!
If you do not do serious academic work with your middle schoolers, they will not be ready for high school…and that means failure!
You must keep up with the educational Joneses!

Thus, middle school turns into a pressure-filled situation. Is that what your tweens need? Must middle school be filled with pressure?

SO, let’s talk about how seriously to take academics in homeschool middle school

Remember what we said: There’s not ONE right way to homeschool middle school.

With that in mind, let’s think about statistics: Most middle school students are average academians. That is because “average” is the statistic describing the middle of the population (usually the “bell” in the bell-shaped curve, if you like statistical graphs).

This means that some middle schoolers can start doing the higher-level maths (such as algebra or geometry) and enjoy them. This is especially true for the more academically bright tweens.

However, for many middle schoolers, these higher-level courses are not necessary. They will get to them in high school just fine and will not experience life failure as a result. They are not trying to compete for the most competitive colleges, such as Harvard. Rather, many homeschoolers will start out:

at local community colleges to save money
going to trade school
joining the military
or are aiming for less competitive colleges that have the best-fit for them

These middle schoolers are free to work on their academics at a more relaxed pace… in the right timing for them!

Homeschooling middle school your way

Really, really, really: You do not need to impress anybody…and neither does your middle schooler!

If your middle schooler thrives on doing seventh-grade math at seventh grade, followed by eighth-grade math at eighth grade, it is OKAY! If that is what is best for your family, put your shoulders back and chin up and do NOT be pressured to do otherwise!

Instead of heavy academics, why not fill middle school with rich experiences?

After all, middle school years are the last years where students can be free to truly experience learning adventures without being overly tied down to textbooks. High school can wait until high school for many middle schoolers.

Homeschooling high school (even for many unschoolers) will have a fair number of textbooks in order to earn the credits for graduation.

However, middle schoolers do not need to worry about earning credits. Instead, they can concentrate of building their love of learning. Just be sure to record all their cool experiences in their portfolios so you have a good record.

Here are some of the things we concentrated on during middle school

There are endless rich experiences that your tweens can build during middle school. They will extend many of these experiences into electives during high school but this is a good time to start. Think about:

Life skills

Cooking
Home maintenance
Home economics

Social skills and networking skills

Build their confidence for those teen years. (7Sisters has a tiny Social Skills training book that we have used with our tweens.)
Also check out this episode on civility skills and welcoming skills.
Build interests and talents (help them discover their star)

If you can allow your tweens to explore and interest or gifting without pressure, they often will run with it. Some middle schoolers will ask about competitions in their interest areas. If so, go for it. However, if they just want to explore an interest for interest’s sake, why not?

On the other hand, there are middle schoolers who need the powerful academics

By the time these kids are in sixth or seventh grade, you know these kids. You understand that they are competitive academically (and often otherwise). You can see that they will be driven and WANT to go to a powerful college.

In that case, have them blast through their maths and other courses at their paces and interests. If they are:

Ready and want to do Algebra, Geometry and high school Sciences or Social Sciences
Or they are highly gifted in writing or other communication forms

let them run with it.

Give them resources: textbooks, mentors, courses…whatever is best fit for their learning styles. To hold them back to grade-level texts would stifle them with boredom. For these tweens, their interest and talent IS their academics.

Of course, with these tweens you often have to help them develop the life skills of work/life/social/self-care balances. Help them disrupt academics regularly with other activities.

It is good for young people to be the people they are! All kids are gifted in the way God made them to be gifted (check out this discussion on all kids being gifted).

For us moms: How to handle homeschooling middle school your way

Homeschooling middle school in the best way for our unique kids is wonderful at home. However, sometimes it can be a challenge for us moms. Especially when we are at co-op or with a group of other homeschool moms and someone is talking about their tweens’ WONDERFUL accomplishments!!

Sally won this amazing competition
Bob is just finishing Geometry with his tutor
George was just chosen for the Mensa program

And you are sitting there thinking, “My tween is plugging through seventh grade Math but he LOVES hiking and sketching what he sees. He doesn’t want to do a competition with the things he loves, he just wants to enjoy them.”

When your buddies ask you, “SO, what’s your kid doing?”

So you answer:

My kid is being the best HIM that God made him to be.

Because that is what he is called to do. AND we are called to help them be their best selves…not someone else’s best self.

That’s because there’s not ONE right way to homeschool middle school, so homeschool middle school your way.

One great way to handle homeschooling middle school is to ease tweens into literature analysis skills with no busywork middle school-level literature study guides!

7Sisters offers middle school literature study guides that promote a love of learning and reading while introducing literature analysis and comprehension skills.

Treasured by horse-lovers everywhere, the tale of the ponies of Chincoteague and Assateague Islands becomes a rich learning experience for your student. This ten-page ebook guide was created to complement Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry. It is our gift to you and your family!