veteranhomeschooler

Making the decision to homeschool

Making the decision to homeschool may take families quite a bit of time as they search and think and try to figure out if they should take the plunge into homeschooling. And if often feels like a plunge into unknown deep waters and dangerous ocean depths. Families considering home education have typically been having doubts about the public school system and whether the education their child is receiving or could receive jibes with their own educational or worldview philosophy. Perhaps their children are already in a school setting and having difficulty with peers, teachers, or the work itself.This is often the case and parents have felt that the system has failed their child and in their frustration they take the plunge and then they’re left thinking..”Oh, what have I done!” They’re scared and afraid and just don’t know where to begin. They know other people homeschool. But they may have preconceived notions about how and where to look for help, how to begin and they panic, thinking they’ve done a really crazy thing and their child is going to suffer.

There are those few homeschooling families who knew they always wanted to home educate their children and they avoid public or private schooling altogether, planning ahead and smoothly entering into home education as the right and easy choice for their family. More commonly, it is families under some sort of educational stress and they are desperately looking for answers on how to begin and where to begin.

So if this label fits you, I hope you know first of all, that millions, literally millions of families are home educating their children right this moment. And it’s working great for them. They’re learning and they’re growing and slowly discovering what an awesome opportunity homeschooling is for their children and their families. Just knowing that they were as scared and unsure of where to begin as you are, goes a long way toward reassuring new homeschooling families that they too will make it and figure it all out.

Deschooling

Secondly, I always encourage new homeschooling families to just relax and spend some fun quality time getting reacquainted without the stress of trying to tackle calculus or higher division! In other words, our children, leaving public school are often over-stressed by the whole “school” thing. Give them some time to do what is traditionally called “deschooling”

This post is going to talk about just that. What is deschooling and how does it help most families beginning to home educate? First of all, as a family prepares to undertake home education there are some unqiue factors that they need to consider that public school teachers don’t consider or even think about. In public school teachers follow a detailed syllabus of classes and instruction. They have very little leeway to make any independent choices. But fortunately, one of the joys of home education is that you can.

So part of the initial deschooling phase is to allow your child and you some time to assess just what your goals are for homeschooling and your child’s education in particular. Giving yourself some time and the general rule of thumb is for every year a child has been in school, they need about a month or so of deschooling time. So, for instance, if your child is in the 3rd grade when you pull them from formal schooling, then take about 3 months to just figure out exactly what your plan is. I know some people who happily jump right into formal classes and detailed lesson plans and the latest expensive homeschool curriculum only to discover it just doesn’t work with their child and they run into some of the same problems that they had in public school.

Setting some initial goals

So in this initial deschooling phase, allow your child a chance to just read some good books. Go to the library and stock up on whatever your child is interested in. Don’t allow them to spend hours in front of the television but playing some educational video games is good. Cooking dinner and having to try and read the recipe card is good. Putting together a model and figuring out the diagrams is good. There are so many good educational activities that aren’t “school”. Your child will benefit from this time together. Ask them what their goals are, what they think they would like to learn about.

Initially, when we began homeschooling our daughter in the fourth grade, she and I sat down and she identified immediately that she wanted to read better and that she wanted to go to college some day and be a pharmacist. :)  I know, a pharmacist!? Of course, she’s in college now and there’s no plans for her to become a pharmacist. But you know, it’s what she thought was a good idea at the time.

Your child has good ideas about what they need also. Listen to them and encourage them to think about what it is they want to learn. It’s the rare child who will say. “I don’t want to read” They may say I don’t want to do math! LOL. But most children can be introduced to painless math problems that are fun and challenging. Eventually together you should be able to identify some specific goals. For instance..Learning to read and write well so I can go to college and be a pharmacist was Emily’s goal. And then she learned she had to do some math and science to become a pharmacist so we looked for a good math and science book she would enjoy using that first year. Something that wasn’t too challenging for her math impaired mother. There are great math books out there for homeschoolers that are easy to learn and use. She also wanted to learn about the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. She had just started reading a great series of historical fiction for elementary age girls and so using those, we decided to study American History that first year. And she loved music and she added a music theory class along with her violin lessons. So what was her curriculum that first year?

Sample First Year Elementary Syllabus

First class was American History using a textbook for a guide, but supplementing it with lots of historical fiction and researching topics of interest. This took care of reading, writing and history all in one plan! Of course, she could read, and just needed some grammar and spelling to continue her improvement in those areas. We chose an Easy Grammar book that she could work on each day for about 15 minutes. And we chose a spelling book that had a workbork format for her grade level. Easy for both of us to do and she enjoyed it’s simplicity. Add in that math program and finally we chose a basic science book that incorporated a lot of basic elementary science experiments and concepts.

It took us most of her 3 months to figure out exactly our plan. We timed the starting of our homeschool with the time right after Christmas vacation and we were off on our homeschooling journey. Each day she spent about 3 hours in the morning with her “school” stuff. And then she was done for the rest of the day, allowing lots of time for violin practice, music, playing video games, and visiting with friends and family as well as sports practices and dance practice. A very nice busy balanced homeschool life.

And thousands of families are doing the exact same thing. I recommend some “deschooling” time for your beginning homeschooling family. Look for what will work for your family, get on some homeschool forums, join a homeschool group in your local area-tremendous help offered there, although it can be a bit much at times-, and read some good homeschooling books.

Avoid too much school stuff until you have assessed and made some good initial plans for your first semester. Avoid buying huge expensive curriculums. They aren’t necessary and sometimes are more trouble than they are worth. Learning is what home education is about, not teaching. There’s a huge difference between the two concepts. And a subject for another blog post, another day!

If you have questions

If you have questions or concerns about your home education experience, post a comment here or you can email me at writestuff444@yahoo.com for personal advice or to ask a specific question. Helping each other is what homeschool families have always done. One of these days it might be you offering advice. However, I would encourage you to take everyone’s advice with a grain of salt. Just because someone says something works for them,won’t mean it will for you. Be cautious in accepting advice. Be more interested in someone who answers specific questions you might have on where to locate resources or perhaps give their opinion on a specific product or curriculum. But get second opinions before you make any decisions about how to homeschool or what to buy to homeschool.

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