To help your student succeed and you survive Arizona high school online, keep in mind that the end goal is to equip your student to succeed in life. This is the flexibility that online high school offers. Let your student take advantage of this schedule if they believe it will help him/her. This schedule takes into account a teenager’s biological clock, average attention span, and the need for a break and exercise. A successful school day could easily consist of 10am – 12 noon, 2-6pm, and homework done in the evening from 9-11pm. For example, most teenagers biological clocks function better later than earlier. Determine hours, location, and schedule that allows them to achieve. Instead of forced compliance, engage your student in the process. Telling your student to sit at the computer from 8am – 3pm is most likely setting them up for failure. There are still required courses, tests, projects, and even required hours your student must spend in online education. This can happen by continuing to teach reasoning skills, time management, work ethic, responsibility, etc.įor example, have the conversation of what is still required of them when attending online high school instead of traditional high school. A good strategy for success is to move from command to consent by including your student in the process. You get the overall picture – your student is changing and they don’t want to be told what to do when it comes to school responsibilities. This can impact the parent/child relationship and changes the way parents need to interact with their child. This doesn’t mean you have a “bad” kid – it means changes are taking place in them to prepare them for adulthood. They also emotionally desire more freedom. Physically they have the capability to resist your directions and instructions and they become less compliant to commands. Biological changes, like brain function maturation, causes teenagers to become more independent and resistant to control. Success starts with understanding the biology and psychology of a teenager’s mindset. Allowing your student to attend online high school shifts responsibility of your student’s success to their shoulders, and to yours! So, the question becomes, “How are we going to succeed at this?”.
Not only do other parents whose students are enrolled in online high school have the same doubts as you, but parents of children enrolled in traditional high school have moments of doubt too. With your student enrolled, you may have your moments when you wonder what in the world made you choose this path.
Taking advantage of free online high school is a great choice for your student. Remember when you first realized that your student needed a change from traditional high schools? And you started looking at different options, including Arizona online high school? A lot goes into the decision to choose a different type of education for high school.