Why Your Preteen or Teen Needs Mentors Beyond the Family

Homeschooling offers something wonderful: time together, personalized learning, and the chance to tailor education to your child’s needs and values. But as preteens turn into teens, they start to seek something else, too; they crave the perspective and guidance of trusted adults outside their own families.

Why? Because adolescence is a bridge. Young people still need the safety net of their parents, but they’re also testing ideas, discovering a degree of independence, and imagining futures that go beyond what they know at home. When they receive feedback, encouragement, or constructive critique from teachers, coaches, or mentors who aren’t mom or dad, it can land differently (sometimes more powerfully) because it comes without the weight of everyday family dynamics.

External mentors can:

• Affirm strengths parents might overlook because they see the child in a different setting.

• Model other styles of problem-solving, leadership, and resilience beyond what’s common in one household.

• Offer accountability that feels more like “real-world” expectations than family routines.

• Open doors to opportunities, networks, and new areas of interest.

For teens, these outside voices aren’t replacing parental influence, they’re reinforcing and expanding it. The combination of family guidance and supportive outside relationships helps young people build confidence, adapt to different contexts, and prepare for life beyond the homeschool environment.

You remain the foundation, but extra mentors are the scaffolding that helps them reach higher than they could otherwise.