When you think of English teachers and all they demand of their students, what comes to mind may be lengthy composition papers, boring book reports, and figuring out how to differentiate between words like “lay” and “lie.” While these may represent a portion of what comprises a typical English class, there is one James Madison High School (JMHS) teacher who is not your typical English instructor as she strives to make the subject exciting and relevant to her online students.

Whether you’ve chosen to supplement your high school homeschooling with individual online courses or enrolled your teen into online high school as a full-time endeavor, you have a unique opportunity to teach your teen how to learn and even adapt those techniques to the specific needs of your young learner.

Sometimes, extra preparation is the secret to getting ahead in life.

While many of us may consider summer school to be a punishment, others need to take full advantage of the time off from the traditional academic calendar. For high school students, that could mean going to summer school for credit recovery courses to replace failing grades or pursuing something extra that can deliver life-long results in their careers. In the case of the latter, summer school is an excellent opportunity to get a head start on difficult subject matter or free up class periods for courses that have limited availability during the regular school year.

A lack of confidence in your abilities as a teacher can easily sideline the desire to homeschool your high school-aged teen but there’s no need to panic. When you become a homeschooling parent, you’re not standing in as the replacement for an entire school system; you’re just adding a new element to your role as provider, protector, and guide to the young person you already know so well. And since you went to school once before yourself, this new role will likely be more doable than you think.

Doesn’t it seem like everyone is homeschooling? And if they’re not, they’re thinking about it or their kids are begging them to think about it?

There’s a reason it seems that way. The most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education estimates 1.8 million 5- to 17-year-old students were homeschooled for the 2011-2012 school year. (It’s worth nothing, the highest percentage were high schoolers.) Obviously, that’s not everyone. But it’s not an insignificant number, especially considering the number of homeschoolers in the U.S. increased by nearly 1 million between 1999 and 2011.