As children go on their educational journey, it’s common for them to dream about what they want to do when they get older. When they’re very little, you’ll probably get the more fantastical Career ideas, but as they get older, it’s important that they find out about a range of different career options. 

Not only exposing children to different professions good for broadening their career horizons, but it serves a very practical purpose too. It teaches them that everything in society is produced or worked on by someone.

Here are some ways you can incorporate careers into your homeschool schedule. 

Photo by Saulo Mohana on Unsplash

Talk about careers from an early age

It’s a good idea to talk about careers and jobs early in a child’s education. Not from a perspective of pressuring them to think about a future career, but to expose them to a range of different career options. 

Complete online career assessments

There are many great online career quizzes that your child can take. These take into account interests, aptitude and personality before producing a range of possible career options and necessary experience and qualifications needed. 

While you shouldn’t take everything these tests say as gospel, it is a worthwhile exercise as it might bring up a number of career paths that you may not have thought about before. The process of filling out the quiz can also make your child start to really think about their own strengths and weaknesses. 

Have specialist speakers 

A great way to get children enthused about careers is to give them direct access to the people who do those jobs. Look to your friends, family, and local community and ask people to come and speak to your children as part of a career day. It might be easier if you teamed up with other homeschooled families so that professionals can talk to a larger group of children at once. Include a range of different career paths, from people who do AC repair to mechanics, chefs, accountants, and doctors. 

Encourage volunteering 

If your child shows an interest in a particular subject or field, then you can encourage this by encouraging them to volunteer in the field. Not only will it confirm their interest (or change their mind), but volunteering looks great on a resume and can help them find a job, internship, or round out a college application. 

Arrange job shadowing

Observing someone doing the job firsthand can be very inspiring. Again, your friends, family, and wider network are great places to start. 

If you’re unable to find someone in the right field. Then perhaps you can reach out remotely and arrange for them to have a Q&A. Have your child draft a list of questions that they would like to ask. 

Final thoughts

Building careers into your homeschool curriculum can be challenging, but there are a number of ways that you can make it interesting and informative. There are many resources you can use online to help you such as career quizzes and career guides.