Are you marking the trail for your soon to be or already is high schooler based on "what ifs?" As in, "If he goes to college, he’ll need higher math, or biology, or chemistry, and so on. When I was homeschooling my oldest daughter, who is now married and homeschooling her own children, I fretted about courses that she would never need. She never would go on to college - she didn't want to. Because I was fretting about these "college prep" courses "just in case she went to college" I ended up putting her in public school. Let me make this perfectly clear - this is not the direction we would go if we had it to do all over again. We would definitely homeschool through high school.

What would this oldest daughter be most interested in? Why, getting married and having babies. It was really all she ever wanted to do. I'm not talking here, "Don't ever send your daughters to college." I don't come from that position. My position is to pray very much over each child that God's will would be made perfectly clear, step-by-step. So here I was, taking her out of the home which was full of babies and meals to prepare, floors to be swept, bathrooms to be scrubbed … a perfect training ground for all she ever wanted to be. "But what if she ends up going to college ..."

I believe that children will show their true colors. I believe that a science major will show a great interest in the fields of science. Einstein was all about math and music. It was all he wanted to think about. The other subjects bored him to death. "The mindless and mechanical method of teaching caused me great difficulties," he said. "I would rather let all kinds of punishment descend upon me than learn to rattle something off by heart." One teacher told Albert Einstein that he would "never get anywhere in life." Yet his special interests helped to carry him where he needed to go. He applied to Zurich Polytechnic, a college in Switzerland. He failed the entrance test! He needed to work the next year earning his high school diploma, and entered Polytechnic the following year.

So what if your high school student does not graduate with everything they need to get right into college? There's still time, that's what. As God leads, so He will light the way as your student moves forward. There is something to be said for motivated learning. That is what Albert Einstein had after he applied to Polytechnic and didn't get in. Suddenly those courses that bored him had become a means to an end. He did what he needed to do once it took on a new meaning.  His true colors were science and music.  But he also needed extra courses to get where he needed to go.  Motivated learning finally helped him to get there.  There was time.

My married daughter wanted to be a home maker. That does not mean she was begging me to let her clean, or "Please, Mom, more time babysitting." I had to get after her to do her chores, and keeping her room clean was not her highest priority. How was I to know she would shine as a home maker? She does. She is much more motivated to do right by her own home than she was to keep mine. How was I to know she'd have a minimalist, simple living mindset, great wisdom in training her children and a Proverbs 31 heart? But she does. When our children are pre-teens and teens, it isn't always evident what all they will be. We can get discouraged while they are still being shaped. Continue to pray, continue to train - love, teach, be there to point the way. One day the fog will clear and they will walk into God's plan for their life.

Deb Turner (Pattycake) has been homeschooling for 20 years, with yet another 10 to go.  She and her husband, Craig, have 5 children and 3 grandchildren.  While it is her desire to encourage other homeschoolers in the practical aspects of homeschooling, her greatest passion is to encourage homeschoolers place God's Word right at the center of their lives and homeschools - their studies - knowing that as we do this first, God will make our paths straight in all other areas and guide our children in the plans He has for their lives.

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