For many people, homeschool is a difficult decision to make for the children’s education. Even I thought that homeschool is only for the special needs and gifted learners. I thought it is for those who really need more attention in learning.

In fact, our sons are not in either of those categories and yet, we homeschool them with one big reason which is to explore their talents and interest.

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Homeschooling is the Best to Explore Talents and Interests

Homeschool is not only for the special needs and gifted children only. It is also for the the average children like ours. Homeschool will give more time for children to explore their talents and interests than the public school will do.

The first time we homeschool them, we didn’t know their talents and interests at all. Along with the time going, we finally recognize their talents, interests, and passions. We can say that it is a really great blessing for us because having passions in a life can make people happy and it will be useful for the person and others as well.

Why We Need to Explore Talents and Interests

Since the beginning, we are aware that the academic achievements are not everything, It is important to cover academic achievements because they will be required when children work in companies in the future.

1. Although not all companies require academic certification, there are still companies that give more priorities to the skills and talents in the real life. The trend might also change as well because of the growing human population and competition.
2. Interest is not the same with talents, but it is very important for people to enjoy and love what they are doing. By recognizing children’s interests, we can help them to explore their talents better.

Therefore, it is crucial to explore children’s talents and interests for the sake of their future life.

10 Tips to Explore Talents and Interests

There isn’t certain theory in our experience of exploring talents and interest with our homeschooled children. Thus, I would like to share so you can start earlier to get the most out of homeschooling children.

1. Talk to children anytime you meet some occupations around. Occupations are various and it can be obvious or behind the stage.
2. Join some extra activities. This is like being involved in several courses or lessons which are outside the academic requirements. Kids might join a lot when they are young and it should be filtered based on their growing progress and interest.
3. Some children might show their talents and interest clearly, but more of them are still in the blurry area. That is something normal. Therefore, don’t give up easily when you find children don’t show progress in a certain area. Every child is different.
4. When you find that it is really impossible to explore further in a certain area, just leave it to focus more in another area. Parents usually knows better and we have a feeling for this.
5. Once you captures their passion, you can get focus on that area. There might be more possibilities of skill areas children want to explore more. Try to keep focus on one without ignoring the other.
6. Practice make habits. Help children to practice in correct way to create good habits. Therefore, it is important for parents to accompany children in the extra activities so parents can help children in the daily practice as well. Even, they can motivate children better.
7. Have more discussions with children about their progress and the activities they are involved outside the academic areas. Get a chance to dig further.
8. You can help them by finding the best teacher, coach or tutor you can afford to support children the best.
9. Attend some shows or competitions for the extra activities children are involved in. It will give more motivations for children to work harder.
10. I found a lot of cases where parents are the ones who are too enthusiastic compared to the children. Try to give tolerance to children by standing behind them. You can push them, but please avoid “standing in front of them” or leading them too much. Get children to lead themselves as soon as possible.

Adeline Tan is a mother of three awesome boys and a wife of a great husband. They are a Catholic home education family who live in Surabaya, Indonesia, where home education is still very rare. English is not her first language, but she uses it in blogging. You can find her on her blog Blessed Learners and on Facebook.