The hardest part of homeschooling high school.

I love reading about homeschoolers in high school and all of the wonderful things they do and accomplish. It is true that a responsible homeschool student could structure his/her time in such a way as to pack a lot of interests in around studying the academics. Frankly, if I could have had the two hours a day that I spent riding around in a school bus for four years, I would have had more time to pursue writing, or piano, or to just read more!

That said. there is one huge problem that looms over the homeschool/highschool choice, and that is the monopoly the public school system has over sports and other activities.

This week, my son Sam will run his last track meet ever with CYO. Unless he attends a local public school, or a Catholic school, he won’t have the opportunity to run cross country in high school, and that just breaks my heart for him. He also won’t be able to play high school soccer or swimming or any other sport. It is my understanding that homeschooled children are also not allowed to participate in choir or band.

Of course I can always pay for him to have these options. I don’t know about cross country, but I could pay $400 a quarter for him to play soccer. For a family of limited means, that hurts. The real bite is, that if I wasn’t paying property taxes to support these options for other people’s children, I would be better able to pay for these activities for my own kids.

I really want to homeschool Sam. I think we both could have an awesome experience getting him ready for college and beyond. He enjoys sports and it keeps him fit. And frankly it seems unfair to me that my tax supported public schools prohibit his participation while they keep a tight grip on their sports monopoly. Butif he really wants to continue in sports, I will prayerfull have to consider it. How can I measure the benefits of a homeschooled education against these other extra curricular benefits? It will be a difficult decision.

Of course the whole thing could be moot in a few weeks as our school system goes for yet another tax levy. It will be interesting to see how that plays out if they are defeated again.