This morning my eyes were drawn to an ominous headline: Home-school students need to be monitored. Gritting my teeth I clicked on the link only to find it was written by a person who used to be homeschooled. Weigellia G. Trook wrote: “For me, home schooling was no schooling.”

For teens with Weigellia’s problem, I offer ten ideas for teens who think they’re not getting enough education during homeschool hours.

1. Take charge of your own education. Make your own goals, decide on what curriculum will help you reach those goals, and while you’re at it, take responsibility for everything that happens to you. Don’t expect your parents to do for you what you can but won’t do for yourself. If you think you need to learn algebra, find resources on the internet that will help you learn. You might need to ask your parents for the money to buy books, or videos. If they don’t have funds, then think up some fund raising ideas – selling crafts, for example. A homeschooled young lady in our town made beaded hair accessories and sold them for ten dollars each. I’ll let you in on a secret from the parents’ point of view. When a teenager is unmotivated and finds fault with you and all your homeschool efforts, it is discouraging for the parent and they eventually get tired of trying. But when a teen takes delight in learning new things and is able to make decisions about what he or she wants to learn, education happens.

2. There’s no doubt that during the teen years life can get depressing, especially if you think that your parents are doing the wrong things for you. Make a list of one hundred things you could do that would make you happier. Then set your mind on doing those things, one way or another. You might start with things that are easily accomplished and not illegal.

3. Have you considered taking a literature-based approach to homeschooling? One of the writers in my critique group is a young formerly-homeschooled man who had his first book published at the age of twenty-four. He started writing novels for children as a teenager. Want to see his first book? Have a look: Lost in the Fog. He wrote down a memoir for one of his much-older neighbors. What a great project for a homeschooling teenager!

4. Great books are fun to read. Why not start a TBR list? A TBR list is a list of books “to be read”. When you think of something you want to learn about, look it up on the Amazon site, and write down interesting titles on your list. If money is tight you can check your local library for the titles you want. You can make a corresponding list of books already read, like I did: My Reading List.

5. Start an online business, or any kind of business for that matter. I mention online business first because that’s where I make my money. No matter what your primary hobby is you can bet there are others wanting to find information about it on the internet. You can write an e-book and sell it, or write a blog about it and place advertising on your blog for extra cash. If writing isn’t your thing, maybe sketching or photography are. Blogs with artwork are popular. If you start your blog at blogger.com you can put AdSense on it. You might need your parents’ help with the AdSense but it does provide a good revenue. There are lots of high school students bringing in fifty to several hundred dollars monthly just by blogging on a topic of interest to others. One sample is my Bigfoot blog… not by an actual teenager – but I do make a bit of money from the AdSense! Hey, if I can do that, so can you! On the other hand, your hobby might lend itself to some other type of income opportunity. My son is a BMX bike enthusiast and has helped many people needing bike parts and repairs.

6. Suppose writing or reading isn’t your thing. That’s okay. My son isn’t much of a reader either, due to dyslexia. You could start a sketch journal instead. Sketch whatever you see. Collect your sketches and you will see the progress you make. Yes, this is educational. Who said education has to be limited to things you can read in a textbook?

7. Start a nature study of the area you live in. Identify plants and learn more about animals. When you go out the door, do you know the names of all the weeds you see? How about the trees nearby? What kind are they? I don’t know about you, but it bugs me terribly not to know the names of plants I see. You might be able to get a plant identification guide from the library. I have one that helps me identify any tree I see. What kinds of animals live in your vicinity? Once when I lived in urban North Oakland, California, I found an oppossum in my backyard. Now that I live in the forest in Northern California, I get more exciting animal visitations. I’ve seen a mountain lion on my front porch and a  bear through my kitchen window! Do you know how to protect yourself from local wildlife? That would be a great research project and perhaps you could write something about it to help others needing the information.

8. Do you need to learn more about math? You might be able to convince your parents to buy you some math software. Most homeschool parents would be thrilled if their teenager took an interest in learning math. There are also plenty of websites that offer mathematics information. You don’t need your parents to push and prod you on this endeavor. Education happens more readily when you take a delight-motivated approach to your own learning, no matter what the topic is.

9. Imagine yourself as the person you would like to be. Get to know this vision of the ideal you. What steps would you need to take to become that person? Write a list of things you need to do, then do them.

10. Meditate. I know, some may say this sounds boring, but there’s nothing like inner space to give you new ideas about what direction your life should take. You are the one that needs the enlightenment and motivation to find areas of study that appeal to you. Nobody else can do this for you. Don’t look to your parents to dish out assignments when the true assignment is to make your own discoveries and direct your own life.

If you want your homeschooling children to know about many cultures, to explore the way diverse people live, and to have an appreciation of how historical influences affect people, one of the best things you can do to achieve these learning goals is to read out loud to them. And if you believe being well-read is important, reading out loud will teach your children that books are an exciting way to learn about the world.

Looking back at my years of homeschooling, reading out loud is remembered as one of the best experiences we had together. I started reading to my children when they were very young. We went through dozens of picture books, but we had our favorites. Someone gave us a Mother Goose book by Richard Scarry that I read to all five of my children. By the time the first three children outgrew it, the book was worn out. I bought a new copy of the same book for the two younger children.

My oldest child learned to read by being read to. Every day I’d sit him in my lap and read several books to him. We read the same books over and over because he loved them. One day when he was four, he told me to be quiet and let him read for a change. I shushed, and he read. At first I thought he had it memorized, so I switched to an old encyclopedia I had in another room. He was able to read that too, so I realized he’d picked up deciphering skills from watching what I was reading in his favorite children’s picture books.

Picture books from the library were always a big help since we couldn’t afford to buy a lot of books. Two of the titles I remember enjoying with the children were If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and Good Dog, Carl, about a lovable rottweiler. And when they were very young, the children had a collection of books about Spot and Clifford, the Big Red Dog. But soon enough, they realized there were other books in the library, and my son, at the age of about five, found a mystery novel and wanted desperately for me to read it to him.

Reading that first novel was a challenge! After that, we read a few Goosebumps books that were much shorter while still having multiple chapters. I got used to the idea that part of homeschooling was reading novels out loud to my children. Though they were very young, they loved listening and usually I ran out of energy for reading before they got restless.

About that time I got the idea of reading novels from the Newbery list. In my enthusiasm I thought I might be able to read them all, but that wasn’t possible even though we homeschooled for nine years. However we read a lot of them, and I always had two raptly attentive children listening.

As the years progressed my daughter, the older of the two, learned to read well. She eventually started reading novels on her own but I read out loud to her until she was about twelve years old. My youngest child, a son, is dyslexic and never learned to read well, so I continued to read out loud to him through the teen years. We progressed to books for more mature people; he always wanted to participate by listening and retains information well.

I’m so glad I took the time to read out loud to my children during our homeschooling years. Of course we read a lot of non-fiction books, history and science articles, and magazines. But the novels gave us a great opportunity to study world cultures and different times in history, and we’ll always remember the warmth and closeness we shared during our novel reading time.