How to Make Your Homeschool More Academically Rigorous

A more rigorous homeschool involves pushing further and deeper across the curriculum.

Jane Cleghan, who sent two homeschooled kids to the Ivy League, says that academic homeschool means pushing further and deeper across the curriculum.

Keep asking questions. Never stop with the first answer. “Ask What might that mean? and Why would that matter?, and keep asking,” Cleghan says. “If you stop with ‘the answer,’ you miss the opportunities for deeper understanding and cross-curricular connections.”

Emphasize your weaknesses as well as your strengths. A lot of homeschoolers tend to concentrate their academic efforts on the subjects and projects that come naturally — but it’s just as important to focus effort and attention on the areas where you don’t have natural abilities.

Look for output opportunities. An academic homeschool should give your students the chance to show their work. This doesn’t mean standardized tests — though those may fit into your post-homeschool plans — but papers, projects, presentations, and other products give your student an opportunity to research, analyze, and express information in a variety of ways.

Learn from other people. Cleghan says you can have a great academic homeschool with no outside instructors, but her students often benefited most from getting to know other teachers and other teach- ing styles—even if they didn’t particularly love the teachers or their styles. “Being able to learn in any environment you might find yourself in is essential for higher-level academics,” she explains.

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