Teenage Years

What does your classroom look like? Bright and bubbly, or boring and drab.

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The environment we live, or work in, usually determines the outcome of what we're trying to achieve.

I believe our children’s academic standards often depend on their surroundings. Moods, feelings, ideas, attitudes, love, respect and achievements stem from how we interact with these surroundings. Just like our work environment is important to us adults, children need their work, or study environment spruced up too.

Creating a happy place for younger kids is easy enough. Plenty of color and lots of displays of ABC charts and ofcourse their favorite artwork can adorn the walls... but how do we fill those blank walls when we have teenagers?

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Depending on your teenager you might find yourself inundated with posters of famous celebrities or weird objects while others draw strength from a religious background and include biblical posters, crosses, or Scripture. It's not easy homeschooling teenagers and keeping that happy balance of responsibility and respect between parent and teenager.

Expression of feelings and thoughts can be conveyed through art. An artist's licence means freedom to express their ideas, attitudes, and emotions through their artwork. By scrutinising your teenagers artwork you can often find solutions to problems or issues they face but are not willing to verbally express. However, they are expressing it through their artwork and it's your job as a homeschooling parent to decipher what's going on in their lives.

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Depending on where we live, our lives are different and not one person is the same. We are all individuals with a need to express ourselves and the need to be heard and respected for what we stand for. The task of home educating your teenagers can be a traumatic experience or a happy part of your life. It's fully dependent on your attitude and your judgement of how your children are expressing themselves during that phase of their development (or life).

Teenagers want to be independent and express their identity that defines them for who they are at that time. As they develop into adults and cultivate their sense of self you as a parent will need to guide them through some difficult choices of education. Encourage them to be individuals, to not be afraid of trying new things, to stand out in the crowd and to be who they want to be. Gently guiding them through this weird and wonderful time-frame of teenage years. Homeschooling families have an advantage in that your children are at home most of the time, they should have minimal outside influence and hopefully little to none peer pressures. Unless of course you allow them to extensively hang off social media... then you have another problem!

Problems you might encounter are choices about alcohol, drugs, sexuality and gender identity (which was unheard of not that long ago). The dramas that unfolded during the 2024 Olympic Games Ceremony Opening in Paris is testimony of the difficult choices homeschooling parents have to make. Was it offensive or did you enjoy what you saw? How did your children react? Did they even realise what they were watching? All of these 'modern' issues are yours now as I didn't have gender identity problems 30 years ago. We could shelter our children much better back then but with social media so accessible now it's a whole new game for you.

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Friendships are important and making the right friends needs to be encouraged as well as guiding them through insecurities and anxieties which are normal but keep an eye on their mental health. Take note of anything out of the ordinary!

Teenage years go fast enough so make sure you are there for them supporting their mental and physical growth. Eventhough they say... go away... they don't realise the importance of your input until most likely many years later... we've all been there, right?

Self-management freedom and expressing oneself is major these days. The enormous peer pressures at school or college often creates active and passive resistance and encourages the breakdown of traditional family rules and expectations. As homeschooling parents you do have the upper hand to some degree but remember to allow your teenagers to question your authority and work with them... not against them.

In conclusion, I must express the importance of accomplishing a creative, happy environment to live and achieve academic standards in is as important as breathing. What does your educational learning environment look like? Is it inspiring, is it bright and well lit, is it the same as last year or has it changed? Ensure to keep tabs on nutrition, stress, how much sleep they get, online presence, and friendships they are involved in. Make sure to provide the modern learning tools they need e.g. comfortable chair, desk, laptop, hard copy books, access to library, online information.... and don't forget the nutritious nibbles supply for those ever-hungry teenagers!

Keep your teenager's learning space safe, comfortable, unique and provide the support they require.