September 4, 2024 – How Important Are the Electives?

Christine Weller

Electives: The Tools to Help Shape Your Student’s Identity

When homeschooling, the core subjects like math, science, and language arts often take center stage. However, electives play a crucial role in a well-rounded education, offering benefits that extend beyond academics. 

Electives are important because they provide children with the opportunity to explore their interests and passions. Unlike the core subjects, which are typically required, electives allow students to dive into topics that excite them. Whether it’s music, art, coding, or home economics, these subjects can spark creativity and foster a love of learning that goes beyond the basics.

Electives help in developing practical life skills. Courses like personal finance, cooking, or even entrepreneurship prepare students for real-world challenges. By learning these skills early on, students gain confidence and a sense of independence, which are invaluable as they grow into adulthood.

Critical thinking and problem-solving skills are developed as students explore elective subjects like debate or creative writing. These subjects challenge students to think differently, analyze situations, and articulate their ideas. These are skills that are highly valued in both higher education and the workplace.

Specifically for homeschooling families, electives offer flexibility and personalization. You can tailor these subjects to fit your child’s learning style and pace, making education a more enjoyable and effective experience. Additionally, electives can be a great way to bond as a family, whether it’s through shared interests like gardening or community projects.

While the core subjects lay the foundation, electives are the tools that will help shape a student’s unique identity and prepare them for the future. Don’t think of them as just extra classes. They are essential components of a strong foundation in education that nurtures well-rounded, capable, and confident individuals.

About the author

Christine Weller has been homeschooling her two boys, 10 and 6, since birth in the lovely province of Ontario, Canada. She is also a mom blogger and children’s book author. She is currently working to support homeschoolers everywhere through various roles at The Old Schoolhouse®.

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Stephanie Morrison

Electives Are Essential!

The custom education that parents provide lends itself well to include elective subjects starting in the elementary years. Elective courses are not considered to be compulsory education. However, these are often the courses where a student discovers more about their natural talents, skills, and interests, which lead them to deeply explore career options and personal endeavors. Electives are essential to a quality customized education—the type of education that sufficiently prepares children for adulthood. 

The best aspect of electives is that there are so many! You can find a variety of ready-made courses in the homeschool market or the learning industry overall. However, as parents, we can develop a course of study on any topic that we deem appropriate for our children, many of which fall into this “elective” category. While I’ve been providing my boys’ education for over a decade now, it’s just been this past year that I have designed a course of study just for them. 

I wanted my oldest to have a deeper understanding of welding. My husband knows how to weld and he has the appropriate equipment and materials in his shop, so I found a book that went over welding techniques and concepts and a video series on welding and created a lesson plan and full course of study on welding basics.

For my other son, I wanted him to explore electrical currents and didn’t find a ready-made course that covered the concepts I was mostly wanting him to learn. I combined a PDF of electric circuit types, a couple of unit studies and some lessons from a science course on SchoolhouseTeachers.com, and found a suitable video series on electrical energy on YouTube to create a custom elective course. 

I’m still quite happy to use the many homeschool courses already created for those common subjects to make my teaching job easier. But when it comes to the elective subjects, creating a custom homeschool lesson plan is becoming my favorite way to instill the essential skills and knowledge that I have determined ideal for my children.

Pursuing her calling to help parents enjoy the responsibility of educating their children, Steph works with select clients in the home education industry and helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses from home. She and her family are perfectly placed in the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada. She loves being a homebody and building up her permaculture property. Learn more about Steph at: www.CreatingWorkandPlay.com.

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Alexandria Letkeman

Enrich with Electives

Electives are the vibrant threads that add color and texture to a homeschool education tapestry. Understanding and incorporating electives into your daily homeschool routine can greatly enrich your student’s learning experience, help them explore their areas of passion and cultivate their skills, as well as catch the eye of future colleges and universities. 

Electives offer a wonderful opportunity for specialization, especially for homeschoolers. While core subjects are essential for base knowledge, electives allow students to discover and develop personal interests. Whether it’s coding, culinary arts, creative writing, or environmental science, electives help tailor the education experience to your child’s strengths and curiosities. Following your student’s areas of interest can help them develop a lifelong passion for learning and point them to potential careers. 

Colleges love seeing students with well-rounded educations, including a variety of electives. Students who have pursued their interests and demonstrated commitment to diverse fields show initiative and the ability to balance and manage a multifaceted curriculum. Electives can also show off skills that standardized tests don’t capture. For instance, a student who excels in music or digital design through elective courses might stand out in the college application process.

Besides academic and future career considerations, electives are just plain fun! They give a refreshing change that can renew the student’s love for learning and break the monotony of the regular curriculum. Activities like theater, art, or sports can enhance creativity, improve physical health, and develop social skills. These experiences can be particularly valuable in a homeschooling environment, offering interactive and collaborative opportunities that might otherwise be limited.

Including electives into your homeschooling curriculum enriches your child’s education, makes learning more enjoyable, and helps prepare them for future academic and career success. For more guidance on how to incorporate electives and capture them on your homeschool transcript, take a look at our blog: Essential Electives for Homeschooling High School. While I can’t say that every elective is just as important as math, I can say that they are usually way more fun! Include delight into your daily schooling by incorporating electives. 

About the author

Alexandria Letkeman began homeschooling with her family in middle school and has recently graduated with honors in 2020. Together with her husband, she has developed a passion for financial literacy, classical writing, and the freedom that homeschooling provides. In pursuit of those passions, she and her husband aim to continue the legacy of The HomeScholar and continue helping homeschool parents homeschool with confidence. One day, Alex plans to start a homesteading farm in Texas featuring mini cows.

Pillar of Faith

Heidi Mosher

School Is Important, but Ballet Is Importanter

What do you think of my title? As a ballet mom, that t-shirt saying always makes me grin. It might even hold a little instructional value. How? Replace “ballet” with your child’s passion (mountain biking, songwriting, photography, etc.) for a glimpse at your child’s future. What activity would your child rather engage in than school? That answer is a clue to what he or she may one day pursue as a career.  

Of course, as parents, we want kids to cover traditional school subjects to become well-rounded, functioning adults. Tackle the basics and conquer them well, but also dedicate time for developing your child’s unique interests. 

Schedule space for those interests through electives and extra-curriculars. They are of utmost importance! The extras are education too. What excites your child? Provide opportunities for the pursuit of passions. Consider it job training. You will be amazed at your child’s drive and accomplishments when they are pursuing what they love. Having an “extra” to look forward to may even motivate a child to work through school more efficiently. 

While we’re on the topic of electives, allow me to encourage you to undertake one. Yes, you! Of course, as the parent, you know that the homeschool you’re running is of utmost importance. Carry on! It is worthy work you are doing. 

Remember, though, that you, too, are a unique child of God with unique interests and gifts. You make an outstanding homeschool mom, but “homeschool mom” is not your entire definition. An extracurricular for you is also of utmost importance. Allow and schedule time for pursuit of your passions. It just may prepare you for whatever follows your homeschooling years. You will amaze yourself and inspire your family with your drive and accomplishments. Having something extra to look forward to may propel you to move through your home and homeschool work even more efficiently. Train for a 5K, learn a foreign language, join a Bible study, sing in a choir, take a college course.  

Homeschool is important, but so are the extras—for your child, and for you. 

About the author

Heidi Mosher is honored to write for The Homeschool Minute, as it was a lifeline of her early homeschooling years. She is thankful to be the mother of four—two recent homeschool graduates and two who are currently homeschooled.

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