I started my home schooling journey about a full year prior to the rest of America. Those early months were filled to the brim with research, questions, and constant evaluation. I spent hundreds of hours looking for and at home school curriculum; reading other parent’s testimonials and reviews of what they liked and didn’t like about certain curriculum and materials, etc…. At times I was overwhelmed with the amount of information out there and the weight of teaching my own children at home everything they would learn at school.
I questioned myself: my own ability, my patience, my attitudes, my motives. Most of all I had to take a good look at my own preconceived notions about homeschooling. I prepared myself for the questions and concerns of others, as well as, the backlash that I would receive from others who appeared to firmly believe that I was going to screw up my kids for life by not putting them in a public or private school.
Truth be told, until last year I had never considered home schooling my children. Even though I wanted to be home schooled as a child, especially in high school, because sitting in school all day was “so boring” and “pointless” (said every teenager). I loved it when I got to college and was able to select what I wanted to learn about and to know that the classes I was taking were actually going to mean something to my future career on a very practical level.
Anyway, when I decided to home school it was a decision that I personally made. It was not suddenly thrust upon me. I chose what materials I was going to use and I chose when and how I was going to teach my son, and most importantly I had time to mentally prepare and to rearrange my daily schedule to accomplish this new adventure. It was all the preparation before hand to enabled me to succeed in my first year of home schooling.
Home schooling your children is not something that you just wake up one day and say “I’m going to home school my children and take them out of school starting today!” This is why America failed this home schooling experience. Modern American culture/society is not set up for home schooling on a wide scale. When the majority of two parent households have both spouses work full time, as well as, the majority of single parent households who work full time to provide for their families it is no wonder that home schooling under those conditions fail. I’m not saying that it can not be done but it does make things difficult and it can make homeschooling extremely stressful.
My eldest is only 5 years old. We started preschool last year. I’m not going to lie, it was stressful at times! He is a very bright kid, which can be challenge all on it’s own. I have known other families with multiple kids being home schooled at the same time (K-12) but this also was a personal choice for them. I can not imagine having schooling my child at home dumped in my lap one day like the majority of parents with school aged children. My heart goes out to those parents who not only had found themselves working 40 hours a week at home, had no child care for their young ones, and were expected to teach and/or motivate their older ones to do their school work! What a recipe for disaster.
Homeschooling has to be a personal choice by the parent who is doing the educating at home. It can not simply be pushed on them. Schedules and priorities have to be aligned. A plan has to be made that can then be executed on a practical level. A plan that is not practical to one’s personal situation is useless. Also, a parent has to be mentally prepared to home school. For some families, homeschooling is impractical and extremely difficult to do. I would never expect a family in debt to home school, nor would I ever expect single parent’s to home school as well. I, also, would never expect a family to home school against their wishes! As with anything you do, you have to count the costs (I’m talking more than just financial costs here). Is it worth it to you?
My husband and I counted our cost. We weighed our options, decided what was important to us, what we wanted to teach and pass on to our children, how we wanted our kids to interact with the world around them, and discovered that many of those things you learn in the real world, not the classroom. We decided that educating our children was our responsibility, not anyone else’s. This year, it has worked out for our benefit and even if I wouldn’t have willing chosen to home school this year, it would have been put in my lap anyway.
I don’t know if homeschooling will be the best option for my family for the rest of my children’s childhood but for now I believe it is. The other day my mom asked me if I would home school my boys through high school. My reply was that if my boys make it to high school and we are still homeschooling that will be up to them. My hope is that by then they would be self sufficient learners leading themselves through their education, that is if we are still homeschooling. I don’t know what the future holds but I am confident that we will all get through this, one day at a time.
The Ruby Blossom 