As more families choose homeschooling through high school, new sports opportunities are emerging. Here are just a few of the opportunities available each year:

• National and regional homeschool sports associations—Your teen could compete in a regional or national tournament offered by one of the growing number of organizations providing support for homeschool teams.
• Homeschool teams—New teams for homeschoolers are being organized throughout the country by homeschool groups and parents. You could connect with local groups, check on Facebook, or do a Google search to locate teams near you. You could also check our group search feature and use the “Sports” filter to quickly see if there are any sports groups in your area.
• Sports associations—Local sports associations offer both recreational and competitive leagues for a variety of sports. Competitive teams provide the opportunity to play at the local, regional, national, and even international level.
• Public school teams—You can check to see if your state has equal access laws, which allow homeschooled students to try out for spots on local public school teams.
• Private school teams—Many local private schools let homeschooled students try out for their teams.

That’s OK! Not every schoolteacher teaches every subject. For the elementary grades, textbooks with teacher’s guides will give you the structure and the teaching tools that you need to teach subjects you’re unfamiliar with.

When your child reaches high school, you can call on subject specialists to help you out! Think about reaching out to your friends, family, faith community, homeschool groups, local networks, and online communities to for help with tutoring your teen, grading essays, or answering questions. You can also have your high schooler take outside courses at a co-op, community college, or online.

For an added boost to your confidence, keep in mind that homeschooling melds two of the strongest predictors of academic achievement: parental involvement and one-on-one learning.

If you’re a member of an HSLDA Discount Group, you’re eligible for $15 off the yearly membership price. Contact your group leader to get your six-digit group code.

If you're not yet an HSLDA member, you can start an HSLDA membership application and easily add your group code by clicking on “Group Affiliation” in the payment summary. Click to watch a video tutorial of this process.

If you're already an HSLDA member and want to apply this discount to your current yearly membership, contact us at memberaccounts@hslda.org or call our office.

Not sure if your homeschool group is an HSLDA Discount Group? You can search for your group on our website and look for the green price tag icon.

Homeschooling is a growing education movement with several unique characteristics:

• Parents or guardians are the primary directors of their child’s education and can tailor it to meet their child’s unique educational needs.
• Education encompasses more than just “academics.” Homeschooling allows parents to incorporate real-life skills and disciplines into their child’s education as they weave studies into daily life.
• Most learning takes place within the home. While homeschool families can certainly supplement education with learning outside of the home through homeschool groups, tutors, or online courses, primary education occurs in the context of the home.

Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states and parents have a lot of liberty to make educational choices. However, they still must comply with their state’s homeschool laws.  

Interested in learning more about homeschooling? Read more.