“What Does Being Ready for the Real World Actually Look Like?,” asks HomeschoolOT founder Sarah Collins

A Note from the InkandescentKids editors: If it’s Friday, it’s time for our weekly spotlight on HomeschoolOT founder Sarah Collins, who will be sharing her insights with us. Be sure to follow Sarah at homeschoolot.com.

Adults talk a lot about preparing kids for the “real world.” Usually that conversation includes grades, graduation, college, or getting a job.

Those things matter, but being ready for adulthood involves a lot more than what appears on your transcript.

For the 100th episode of The OT is IN podcast, I interviewed my daughter, who recently graduated from our homeschool. As she prepares for college, we talked about what homeschooling taught her. Some of the most important things weren’t academic.

They were skills she had been practicing for years without necessarily realizing she was preparing for adulthood.

Managing your time. When you’re younger, adults manage much of your schedule. As you get older, you have to decide when to start an assignment, how to balance school with activities, and what to do when you realize something is taking longer than expected.

Knowing when you need help. Independence does not mean doing everything alone. It means recognizing when something isn’t working and knowing how to ask a parent, teacher, coach, or friend for help.

Doing things that are hard. My daughter remembered struggling to learn to type when she was younger. She eventually learned, but not on the timeline she expected. Being ready for adulthood doesn’t mean everything becomes easy. It means becoming better at figuring out what to do when something is difficult.

Building relationships. Friends, siblings, teammates, coworkers, and other people in your community give you opportunities to practice communicating, cooperating, disagreeing, apologizing, and solving problems.

Taking ownership. Maybe you can start keeping track of your own schedule, emailing a teacher with a question, making your lunch, setting your alarm, or planning when you’ll finish your schoolwork. Small responsibilities are practice for bigger ones later.

You don’t need to have adulthood figured out before you graduate. In fact, no one does.

Being ready for the real world means knowing yourself a little better, taking increasing responsibility for your life, asking for help when you need it, and learning from the times things don’t go according to plan.

That preparation is already happening, one small responsibility at a time.

Sarah Collins, founder of HomeschoolOT

About Sarah Collins, MSOT, OTR/L, occupational therapist, homeschool mom, author, and founder of HomeschoolOT. With more than 17 years of experience supporting children and families, she helps parents understand how learning, movement, sensory processing, executive functioning, and daily life skills work together.

Since beginning her own homeschool journey in 2017, Sarah has combined her professional expertise with real-life experience, helping families create learning environments that honor each child’s unique strengths and challenges. Through HomeschoolOT and The OT is IN podcast, she shares practical strategies that help parents move beyond curriculum choices and better understand how their children learn best.

Sarah believes that homeschooling is not about recreating school at home. It is about helping children grow into capable, confident learners while building strong family relationships along the way.

Learn more: homeschoolot.com