How To Provide Flexibility For Your High School Student While Home Schooling
Choosing Education At Home, And Online, Opens Doors To The Main Benefits Of Flexibility
*Originally published on Stride Insights.*
Flexibility is a supremely valuable life skill. All of us know that life, and its various aspects, usually never goes according to plan. For parents who are providing education for their high school students at home, teaching flexibility, and opting for an overall flexible learning environment, has numerous benefits.
Cognitive flexibility is one of the most important qualities that students, teachers, and parents can cultivate. It helps everyone deal with the general uncertainties in personal and professional settings. And, learning is typically easier (with better retention for students) when everyone involved in the process is open to new ideas, experiences, creative problem-solving methods, and the unexpected.
So, while home schooling, how do you incorporate more flexibility and, ultimately, more life benefits from it? Let’s look at a few ideas that can be implemented quickly and seamlessly for students, parents, and teachers alike…
#1: Try to be reasonably flexible about learning session start and stop times, to enhance flexibility, as a part of home schooling.
When choosing education at home, start and stop times for the day, and for each subject area being studied, can become more fluid. This shows students that days of the week do not have to be exact replicas of each other. The circadian rhythms of the student can also be factored in, as well as natural attention spans. And, all of this can then result in a flexible mindset, in addition to unbroken frames of concentration while learning.
#2: Be sure to prioritize self-advocacy skills, as an important aspect of the home schooling experience.
Parents and teachers should show students that it is safe, and also encouraged, for them to advocate for their own needs and preferences. Not only is this vital for a good quality education, but self-advocacy is also critical for navigating a healthy life with strong boundaries. Questions that are both gentle and prompting are the best way to open a dialogue around teaching methods and learner needs. As an example, a parent might say, “I’ve noticed that you seem to have trouble concentrating on math after lunch. Are you feeling tired after eating? Or, would you rather do math earlier in the day, and choose another subject for after lunch?”
#3: Make high school electives and career prep options areas of collaboration and discovery, in the home school environment.
It’s critical for students to become active partners with their parents and teachers, while schooling at home… especially when it comes to elective classes and career prep efforts. Parents and teachers should make sure they are actively listening to what students have to say. Support should be provided for electives that students find fascinating, and career exploration should also begin during the high school years. Online programs, like Stride Career Prep, offer unique curriculum sets and career path options, so high school students are better prepared for life after graduation.
To read more about attending an online school, be sure to check out What I Learned From Doing Online School For 10 Years.
Stride also has an article to help students new to online high school, so make sure you read 5 Tips For New Online High School Students, too!
A Stride Student Advisor shares her take on why Switching To An Online School Is The Best Decision!
And, be sure to check out the 2022 Graduates Speak About Their Online Education podcast.
