A is for All the Way {Homeschooling High School ABCs)

A million years ago (or maybe it was only a dozen) one of the most common questions I got when I said that we were homeschooling was some variation of, "Are you going to homeschool them all the way through high school?"  That was always said with wide eyes and in an incredulous tone of voice.

Always.

As I stared at my adorable 5-, 3- and 1-year-old sons, I certainly didn't have a real answer.  Had The Incredibles been out at that point, I'd probably have said (in my best Mr. Incredible voice), "We'll get there when we get there!"  Instead, my answer was more of a mumbled, "We'll take it one year at a time."

So they're a bit more like 6, 4 and 2 in this photo...

 High school seemed terribly intimidating then.  And it was hard to picture my wee little cherubs as teens who would need to shave, would be taller than me, and <gasp> would have completely different opinions than their mama.

Well, fast forward to 2014, and yes, I have two teens who need to shave, three teens who are taller than me, and five kiddos (the three teens, and two future teens) with minds of their own.

My friend, Marcy, has been blogging through the alphabet a few times now.  I've participated before, but not recently.  She just started over, and is graciously linking me up even though I'm late!  I decided that I need to participate this time, only my ABCs are going to follow a theme... homeschooling high school.

I'm not an expert.  Which means the thought of writing this series terrifies me.  But I do have a couple years of being a home high school teacher under my belt, so I can share a bit of the view from inside this particular home high school trench.

My hope is just that I can spend twenty-six blog posts talking a bit about our experiences with high school, our plans and dreams, and that it can help a few different groups of people:

1. My family.  Because I am quite sure I'll manage to remind myself of what we're doing right, and I'll learn from others in the areas where we struggle.  
2. My peers.  That means other homeschooling mamas of high schoolers.  Sometimes it seems like we're alone in this journey, but we aren't.  
3. "Younger" homeschooling moms, which usually does mean younger than me, but definitely means moms with kids who aren't yet in high school.  I think you need to see that, yes, it is quite possible to homeschool "all the way."

The truth is that nobody is an expert in homeschooling high school.  There are some amazing folks out there who are incredibly helpful and wonderful.  I'll probably name a few of them before we get through the 26 weeks.  

I'd love to know what high school topics you'd love to hear about.  I've been plotting out some thoughts -- blogging about transcripts, plans, specific subjects, college, dyslexia, honors courses, and so on.  But I can always use other suggestions.

My "next week" post will actually post later tonight, I hope.  The working title for that one is B is for "but..." where I'll talk about at least some of the fears I had have about this high school gig.

Marcy is posting a word study, and her first week is A is for Attentive.  There are a few dozen other amazing A posts linked up too.  Go check some out!