Helping a child pick a career best suited to their personality can be a daunting task. Having a few guidelines on how to go about the process can help immensely. Here are some tips for homeschooling parents to consider before setting career paths for their homeschooled children.
Interests and Values
A career should typically refelct the interests of a child. As a homeschool teacher, you know that a homeschool student who hated art and craft, will typically not be aligned to a career as a graphic designer. Each child has a different set of interests and your job as a homeschool parent is to identify these interests and keep them in mind when they are thinking of specific careers.
Your family values will also play an important part in selecting the right career. A child who has been brought up with the family value of treasuring relationships more than making money, may not be the right fit for a finanial investor whose only target is to meet his investment deadlines to the detriment of his family life.
Goals and Skills
Your homeschool student can have the goal of being an olympic swimmer, but if he is scared of learning to swim, the skill to achieve that goal is non-existent. Similarly, as different skill sets are required to work in different careers, it’s a good idea to help your homeschool student figure out his career goals by keeping his skills in focus.
This is not to say that a particular skill set can not be acquired by the child at a later date. However the innate skills will show a certain direction for the homeschool student and the homeschool teacher should help the child build these up to be an expert.
Education and Experience
Once the goal of a specific career has been construed, it is time to research the educational requirements that the child will need to meet. Many schools offer counseling and in-depth help with helping a child figure out what would be the optimal educational choices for them.
In addition, the sort of experience that the homeschool student can gain in the real world will also be helpful to them. Finding internship positions during the holidays is a good way to start working in the industry of their choice to build the ideal career.
