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Building a Custom High School: Our Magnet-Style Homeschool · Making Everyday Magic: The Podcast

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  If you could build a high school experience around your child's
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  interests, goals, and strengths, what would you build?
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  Welcome back to making Everyday Magic.
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  My name is Shanna.
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  If you are new here we are a homeschooling family of four.
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  We are in our 10th year of homeschooling and our first year of high school.
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  Today I am going to walk you through the high school experience
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  that we are custom tailoring to our learner.
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  Before we go any further, we scroll down and hit the big red subscribe button,
• 0:41
  turn on that bell for notifications and give this video a thumbs up.
• 0:44
  As always, you can find me down in the comments
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  or over on Instagram at Making Everyday Magic.
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  Okay, so first and foremost, let me start with something that I think is relevant
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  to the topic of this video, but also kind of like hilariously.
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  Ironic.
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  I don't know whatever the right word is.
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  Hilariously, something.
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  Lately in the interwebs, there has been a lot of discourse
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  about people discussing homeschool.
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  Not homeschoolers discussing homeschool, not homeschoolers discussing other
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  people's homeschool people who just have an opinion, discussing homeschool.
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  And it comes back to the stereotypes, the people you guys know.
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  We talk about this a lot.
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  Those kind of homeschoolers who are out in the world who are.
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  Well, correction, I stand corrected, who are not out in the world,
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  who are not homeschooling their children
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  for the same reasons that some of us, hopefully most of you,
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  hopefully everyone here who has found this video on this channel
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  for the reasons we are homeschooling our kids,
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  which is to provide the best possible educational experience
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  to enrich their lives as much as possible and to truly, truly, truly
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  devote everything we've got to providing them with an education
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  that will set them up for the world, for the future that they have to live in.
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  To go into rooms we'll never enter.
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  To go change the world in ways that we cannot possibly fathom.
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  We are homeschooling for the reasons that we want to make sure.
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  Ensure that our children get the best possible leg
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  up in the world that they can.
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  Which, as you know, it's not the reason that many people homeschool.
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  Well, like I said recently, there's been a lot of hubbub,
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  a lot of kerfuffle out in the world of people discussing homeschool
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  and homeschoolers, and they're painting everybody
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  with a broad brush, which I think is fair, I honestly do.
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  I think there's actually a lot
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  of criticism happening in the world right now that I do think is fair,
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  even myself.
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  You know, when I grew up in a small town and if you homeschooled, you were weird.
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  You were religiously weird.
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  And that's the only reason anybody homeschooled.
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  There was the high school.
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  There was the problem kids school.
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  There was the Catholic school.
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  And anybody who didn't go to those three was homeschooled.
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  And they did it for weird religious reasons and, and weird
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  religious reasons or weird hippie reasons. And.
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  Yeah, so, I mean, I totally get it, I do.
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  That was my my notion, my conception of this entire,
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  this entire world of homeschooling.
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  And only as I became a parent and recognized
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  our unique needs within our family,
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  did I recognize that there could be other reasons that U.M.
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  school, which I think is really short sighted because go with me
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  on this journey.
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  How often do you hear about an elite gymnast?
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  Right.
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  A light gymnast or elite figure skater who's going to the Olympics?
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  Those kids are doing that at, you know?
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  Ten 1112 1314 right.
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  Prepping for that Olympic experience.
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  They are not school still in full daytime school.
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  What if some of us
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  homeschool with the intent to make our children Elliott in the sense
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  of giving them the best possible resources to pursue whatever it is that they have?
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  And what if we kind of lay that foundation before we know what those strengths are,
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  before we know what those goals are, before we know what those interests are.
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  That is where I think I fall.
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  That is where I think a lot of us fall.
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  We go into this way of life.
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  We pursue this way of life with the intent of making sure that our kids are
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  just given the best that we can provide.
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  And that is what this video today is all about.
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  So I do I have to say, I do agree with some of the kerfuffle,
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  some of the noise that's out there right now about homeschoolers.
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  I think a lot of people are making videos
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  about homeschoolers because it's controversial,
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  and people come into the comments and they argue about it, and I just,
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  you know, you know, and I know we know we're not those kinds of homeschoolers.
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  We know we're doing a great job.
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  We know we're working really hard.
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  We know we have some accountability.
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  We know that we are preparing our children
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  for the world that they're going to enter.
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  So because of that, I don't particularly take a lot of offense
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  to those conversations surrounding homeschool
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  right now, because those those aren't about me.
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  I'm not that person.
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  I know that I do what is required to set my kid up for success,
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  and in doing so, we are tailor making our high school experience.
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  So let's talk about that.
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  Okay, so for not the first time, I'm
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  going to talk to you about our high school experience.
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  But now I have a bit more of a handle on what that's going to be.
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  I have gone through the classes that we're going to need to take.
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  I have gone through the things that we are using.
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  I have gone through the ways that we're going to do it.
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  I have gone through when we intend to transition to something else.
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  But I think it is worth noting that I am building.
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  We are building because, as you know,
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  our homeschool is a collaborative experience, a program that is
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  tailored, designed and intended
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  to set my learner up for maximum success in the pursuit
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  of the field that she already knows she wants to go into.
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  So we're very lucky in that my child does
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  know what she wants to do pursue going forward.
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  So whether that is direct to some sort of
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  of performance based situation, skipping college entirely,
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  or whether that is through college, a path through college that does allow her
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  to increase her skills and work on her performance and things like that.
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  Then we are going to be prepared for that.
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  We are also very fortunate, as you guys know.
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  She considered briefly, very briefly attending a local magnet program.
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  If you don't know what a magnet program is, a magnet program is.
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  I don't know if they can be private, but I know that we have here in history
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  some public school magnet, so we have some for
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  you intend to pursue a career in medicine.
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  You intend to pursue a career in engineering or science and technology.
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  We have immersion programs, you know,
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  Arabic immersion, Spanish immersion, Mandarin immersion.
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  And we have these magnet programs, which is essentially
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  an accelerated path
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  in the pursuit of a specialized interest or goal,
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  which for us would be performing and visual arts.
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  And we have a school here that is exactly that.
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  Now, I don't know that we have ever realized
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  that this has been what we are doing, but now we are intentionally doing this.
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  So if my daughter had chosen to go to the magnet school, half of her day
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  would be academics and half of her day would be in pursuit of the performance.
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  So things that in many schools are considered
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  extras or electives are treated more weighted
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  and more heavily, like core classes when you are in a magnet focused school.
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  So things like dance, things like theater are actually given
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  a greater significance through a magnet program.
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  But they are also given a lot more time, energy and effort in a magnet program.
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  So had she gone to a magnet school,
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  her day would be half academics and then half of this magnet program.
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  Now, just in the exact same way that she would have to audition
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  and qualify and rank in on that performance ability.
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  The academics associated with the magnet program, at least here
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  in our experience, my understanding of the one
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  that we would have chosen to pursue had we chosen to pursue it or at it.
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  And so we are in a very unique position as homeschool parents,
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  working very hard to tailor make this high school experience for her.
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  We are doing the same thing.
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  So we have this amazing blueprint that we are able to follow,
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  this amazing framework that we are able to replicate at home.
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  So we do spend half of our day in academics, and those academics
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  are advanced because the expectation of these magnet programs,
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  the expectation is that you excel in all avenues of what you are doing.
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  And some of that may be theater
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  and some of it may be dance, but some of it may be math.
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  And so we are uniquely set up.
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  I feel like, to mirror some of that framework because
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  as you guys know, my ninth grader is taking algebra two, so she is ahead.
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  She is advanced.
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  So we are pursuing apps and advanced
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  classes in an earlier dual credit path.
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  Those things that would mirror
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  the same kind of situation that she would be in,
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  in that magnet school, at home, in this tailor made education,
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  and then also pursuing advanced performance opportunities.
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  So by setting up our school in this way,
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  by building our high school around something that we can look to, it's
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  a little
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  bit of a guiding star in the sense of it gives us an idea of how to do this.
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  It gives us a framework.
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  And don't get me wrong, my next kid is nowhere near on the same path.
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  But now I have an idea of how to pour in.
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  I have an idea of how to source the things that will serve her.
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  I have an idea of how this will work, even though her pursuits are different,
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  even though her interests are different, even though her goals are different
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  because we will be in the same way if she was an elite swimmer in the same way
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  as if she was on an Olympic path for gymnastics,
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  we will be giving her all of the tools along the way
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  to stay ahead to ensure
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  maximum success, to make sure that she is excelling
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  both in her strength and natural talent, performance
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  based direction, but also in her academic pursuits.
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  Because both are important and both are valuable.
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  So we will be holding her to a very high academic standard
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  while ensuring that we can prove it,
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  while ensuring that we can transcript it, and while ensuring
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  that we are setting her up for the maximum path of success.
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  So we will be making sure that we're checking those boxes,
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  and we will be making sure that she is in the optimum place
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  for whatever direction she chooses to go when it comes to college or not.
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  College, that is fine, but it will not be because we didn't make sure
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  that every single path, every single door was open for her.
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  And I think there's a lot that can be said for this.
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  It almost,
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  almost is
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  reminiscent or aligned with, I think, a lot of the principles
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  of unschooling in that it is interest driven,
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  it is deep dives into, you know, chosen pursuits.
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  So in that way I think it's very similar.
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  But also we are making sure that even the things yes,
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  dance, sing, act elevated math.
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  Okay.
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  So we're going to make sure that these two things are going hand in hand.
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  And this is not something that we have forced her into.
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  This is not a path that she is.
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  You know, we're kicking and screaming and dragging her unwillingly.
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  We have just started early, before we knew
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  this would be the direction we were going.
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  So when we started homeschooling, we knew if we weren't ahead
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  or at where we needed to be.
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  Honestly, if she didn't stay ahead of where
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  her kind of public school counterparts were, we knew we were losing ground.
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  And that was a red flag situation.
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  We have never found ourselves in that situation and so thankfully she is ahead.
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  She is advanced and so we will be able to bank some of those dual credit credits
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  while she's in her high school years and while she is in our home,
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  we will be able to make sure that we are feeding both of the beasts.
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  We are feeding academics well and advanced and expecting
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  honestly a much higher output than you know.
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  It would be equivalent grade level and we are making sure
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  that we are pursuing at a high level those performance opportunities.
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  So for her, this is what makes sense.
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  This is what she wants to do.
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  This is the path that we're going to take.
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  But again, it is not less than it is not keeping her out of the world.
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  It is not holding her back.
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  What we are doing is tailor making an education that will best serve
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  her both now, as she's doing the things she wants to do
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  and later to achieve those goals, to get her where she wants to be.
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  So I just want to
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  share with you, maybe
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  encourage you to think outside of the learning box.
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  So like for us again, we've got this wonderful magnet
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  program situation that we can mimic, that we can mirror,
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  that we do know kids who go to, we know kids who have graduated from.
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  We have a unique opportunity to fine tune our high school experience,
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  to be that of something that is honestly more advanced.
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  Now, the magnet program
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  you have to audition to get in the magnet program is based
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  on very advanced academics, even in the performing arts school.
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  Okay, so you have to be all around a well-rounded kid to get into any of this,
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  which honestly is going to mimic a lot of the things she wants to pursue.
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  So you've got to be all around well-rounded performer.
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  If you're going to make it anywhere on a stage, you've got to be an all around
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  well-rounded student if you're going to make it into college.
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  So what we are doing is mimicking
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  some of the stuff that we see near us,
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  remodeling our lives on that, but then also recognizing
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  that similarities in her future pursuits and her future college paths.
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  So we are going to do our best to continue fine tuning this system.
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  Right now, I feel like we're set up great.
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  We've got to half day of very advanced
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  academics, a big block in the middle of the day, in the afternoon
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  where we are just doing real life stuff, and then she has a lot of performance
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  opportunities that do happen in the evening,
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  because that's when, you know, everybody's out of school.
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  So we are going to keep this up right now.
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  It is.
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  It is so refreshing to one to know that we set ourselves up
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  to be here, uniquely prepared in this moment, to pursue things
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  this way, even if we didn't know that that's what was going to happen.
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  So there was never a performing arts on the table.
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  And, you know, for the first eight years of school, that wasn't a thing.
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  But as we got here, we did a good enough job
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  laying those foundations early and making sure that academic academics
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  were rigorous and making sure that we held ourselves to a standard of consistency.
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  And we knew what kind of litmus point was so that we could be uniquely prepared.
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  For now, I have absolute faith.
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  Had she chosen to pursue an audition for that magnet program, she'd have made it.
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  She'd have been great, but she didn't.
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  She wanted to continue in this way of life.
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  And for that, we will continue doing our part to make sure that she is
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  wildly prepared for whatever comes next,
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  even if that choice changes next year, and even if that choice never changes.
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  And this is what we have to go show up and present to colleges across the nation
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  to to prove what we've done and to explain how we've done it.
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  Like I said, it is so refreshing to know that we do have that guiding light,
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  a little bit of insight into that program so that we can
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  tailor foster this educational path to make it make sense,
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  but also to enforce that we're on the right track,
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  that we're doing it well, that we're doing all right.
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  So in that respect, think about that.
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  Think about that.
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  As your kids are even in for a second grade,
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  what do you want to be able to give them later down the road?
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  And you may, like many of our friends along the way, who's whose kids
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  have chosen to go into brick and mortar schools.
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  I know people personally,
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  tons of people personally whose kids, you know, it was a pursuit of sports.
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  And so it made sense to them to be in a public school setting.
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  And those kids not only are performing very well in their sport,
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  their top ten, they're ranked really well
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  because they were prepared, they were set up.
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  We are not the homeschoolers who are sitting back
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  and letting the world happen to us behind closed doors.
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  We are the homeschoolers who are making sure that we are attacking
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  every opportunity and getting the maximum benefit out of everything that we can.
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  And I know, I know our learners.
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  I know our society is going to be better served for it because we are out here
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  doing the work, we are out here
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  putting in the effort, and we are making sure that our kids are
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  better prepared, more successful, ready to tackle anything that comes their way.
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  And things like magnet programs are in a wonderful situation
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  and not telling you you should homeschool.
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  I'm not telling you you shouldn't have school. Please don't. Don't do that.
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  I just want you to know that it is possible
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  to get ten years into this and then be like,
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  oh wait, this is what I was working for, this is what I was preparing for.
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  And we will be outsourcing as needed.
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  We will be tapping in experts as needed.
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  Absolutely.
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  But what we're going to do
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  is we're going to continue down this path and we're going to keep doing our best,
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  and we're going to keep making sure that we are on track and aligned.
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  And I just wanted to share with you that Taylor
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  making this educational experience is
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  wonderful is such an amount of freedom, because even
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  just when it comes to daytime performances, she's available and can
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  being able to know.
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  And it's so interesting to me that, you know,
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  there's all these arguments about how many hours
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  and focus on reading and all the things, but when I'm
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  looking at these magnet programs, these magnet programs are freedom.
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  These magnet programs are interest based and interest driven and encouraged arts
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  and all of the wonderful things that they tend to take out of every,
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  every, you know, Joe Schmo neighborhood public school.
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  We are able to provide them a path
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  that is truly elite simply
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  by narrowing down on their talents,
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  their goals, their interests, and feeding into them.
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  That you can, you can, you can jump, you can kick, you can dance, you can sing.
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  That's great.
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  But we're also going to set you up with
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  math and science and history.
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  You're going to be well-rounded.
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  You're going to be ready to tackle anything that the world throws at you
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  because you just you never know where they're going.
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  They're going to be sent into a world that we can't even imagine.
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  They're going to be in rooms that we will never enter,
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  and we're going to make sure that they're prepared.
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  We're going to make sure that they are set up, that they are ready,
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  and they are willing to tackle whatever comes next.
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  And one of the ways that we're going to do
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  that is with amazing educational options.
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  And again, I don't care where you get them
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  homeschool, public school, magnet school, I don't care.
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  We're going to be the people who invest in our kids because they deserve it.
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  They are worth it.
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  And we're going to keep working to make sure that
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  whatever they want to do with their lives, we're here to back them up.
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  We're here to make sure they're ready.
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  We're here to make sure that they're prepared.
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  One way that I can do that is through Taylor making this high school experience,
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  and my job is to make sure that we are checking the boxes.
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  My job is to make sure that we're diving deep where we can.
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  My job is to make sure that they have the resources
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  that they need, whether that's dual credit or a tutor or whatever.
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  My job is just to get them there.
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  Their job is to break down the door.
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  Guys, I hope that you find any of this helpful, entertaining, or informative.
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  If you did,
• 20:57
  please scroll down, hit that big red subscribe button, turn
• 20:59
  on that bell for notifications and give this video a thumbs up.
• 21:02
  As always, right on down in the comments or over an Instagram.
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  You can find me.
• 21:05
  We can chat.
• 21:06
  Feel free to shoot me a DM if you have any questions at all, let me know.
• 21:09
  Let me know! Did you find this helpful?
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  Do you have things like magnet programs in your area?
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  Because I didn't recognize how rare that was,
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  and how much I was going to have to explain what a magnet program is.
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  Do you have things like language immersion schools?
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  What do you have?
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  We are in HisD, which is one of the biggest school
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  districts in the nation, and I know that because of that and because of money
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  and because Houston is actually the most diverse city in the nation,
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  which I know is probably very shocking to most of you, but it really is.
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  I know because of that, we have so many resources
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  and things available to us based on proximity and location,
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  which I really wish more of you had wonderful museums
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  and performing arts and all of the wonderful things.
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  So I I'm sorry.
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  It's amazing to be here.
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  It really is, you know, blue dot in a red world.
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  But it is truly an amazing city.
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  But let me know, what have you got? Have you heard of it?
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  Have you not heard of it?
• 21:57
  Give me one unique learning situation to you.
• 22:00
  Or if you're looking for something, just be like boom!
• 22:03
  Broken bow, Oklahoma.
• 22:05
  Looking for performing arts, looking for whatever.
• 22:08
  Or boom, Miami, Florida.
• 22:11
  Turns out we have the best magnet program for engineering in the entire country.
• 22:14
  Let us know those things. Those things are really important.
• 22:16
  And yeah, let's stay together and let's help each other out
• 22:21
  and let's keep making everyday magic.