“Extracurricular activities?” you might be wondering. “Hmm . . . doesn’t that just mean anything my kid does that isn’t ‘school’? What’s extra important about these activities now that we’re in high school?”
Perhaps you remember when your kids were younger, how learning could happen everywhere, all the time. Now that your teen is in high school, homeschool’s unique, integrated approach might be making extracurricular activities feel like a seamless part of both education and life.
But in high school, extracurricular activities take on greater significance—a distinct subcategory of “school.” That’s because the extracurricular activities that your teen participates in today will give colleges, military recruiters, scholarship committees, internship personnel, and future employers a picture of their interests, motivations, character, and initiative in the future.
Extracurricular activities fall into broad categories such as volunteering and community service, employment, competitive activities (sports, speech, robotics, music festivals, debate, chess, etc.), hobbies, interests, training, travel, and ministry. Even caretaking duties within the family counts!
In some cases, extracurricular activities allow teens to serve or work alongside a professional or expert in a particular field, which can build a network of future references. Students can also progress in employment and life skills.
Optimize Your Options
When choosing extracurricular activities with your teen, the best strategy is to start early and be intentional. By encouraging your student to get involved in these activities at the very beginning of high school, you can maximize his or her opportunities to demonstrate increasing levels of responsibility and attain leadership roles before high school graduation. But if you’re just beginning to homeschool in the middle of high school, don’t worry—just help your teen jump into extracurriculars where they are.
Your teen’s involvement in extracurricular activities should reflect their passions and interests. You can collaborate with your teen to choose activities that maintain a healthy balance of academics and outside interests. College admissions and scholarship organizations prefer that students invest wholeheartedly in a few or even one activity rather than spreading themselves thin across too many unrelated ones. (That’s great news for your transportation budget and chauffeuring duties, by the way!)
While your high schooler may have access to a plethora of extracurricular activities in your local community, another wonderful resource could be your local support group and state homeschooling organization. Nothing that interests your teen available? No problem! You can help them initiate a new activity for others to join!
The Extracurricular Sheet
Your high schooler’s extracurricular activities are best documented on an extracurricular sheet, separate from their transcript.
If you are an HSLDA member, you can learn more about extracurricular sheets and download a sample here!