Are You Switching to Homeschooling

During the Christmas Break?

By Mary McCarthy

Like many of us, Parent at the Helm guest contributor Mary McCarthy can’t stop thinking about mom Sandra whose young autistic son was placed in a duffel bag by his school’s personnel. As per Sandra’s statement during a CNN interview, she plans to switch to homeschooling during this Christmas break. Will your family be one of the many others who do so?

Welcome to Parent at the Helm! I’m very happy you found your way here. You
must be researching homeschooling for you family. Excellent choice!

This is the time of year when many parents make the decision to homeschool. We send our
children back to school in September hoping this year will be better,
but by the time the holidays roll around, we know it’s not better; it’s the same old
difficulties.

Where did that hope and promise go? Where did that curiosity about
everything go? What happened to that inquisitive little boy who could
turn an empty box into a castle? Now it’s tummy aches, fear, bullying
and whining.

Don’t Let Homeschooling Scare You

It’s absolutely terrifying to realize you are responsible for the
education your child receives, the education that will determine much of what s/he
makes of life. But it’s also terrifying to think this responsibility will be left
to strangers who are charged with the care of many, many other children, too, and
your child is being left to navigate a sea of chaos on his own.

What about homeschooling? Can we really do that? We don’t have any
training or experience with educating children. Will our child even
listen to us enough to learn? I mean, it’s not like he cleans his room when he’s
told to. What about the law? What about the neighbors? What about our
families?

Welcome Your Whole Family into Homeschooling

You can educate your own child. Period. You taught her to walk and
talk, feed herself, and know the difference between right and wrong.
You are your child’s primary instructor of all things.

Yes, your child will listen to you again. Schooling teaches children
that their parents are idiots so others can be the voice of authority and
the sole source of information. Two voices would just confuse the
child. (Explains a lot, doesn’t it?)

Grandma and Grandpa should be included in this project so they can see
their grandchild learning and impart their wisdom to him or her.

Who cares what the neighbors think? It’s not their kid.

You’ll need to look up the laws for your state, which are available
online, at the library or from a local home school support group. Then
research your options.

See also “2011 Top 11 Posts from Parent at the Helm“

There are schools on the Internet (“cyber schools”). Schools that send
you a curriculum-in-a-box (“correspondence”) and independent
homeschooling where the parent creates the curriculum and does all the
mentoring. (Important Note: homeschooling isn’t about teaching; it’s about
learning.) School districts also operate what they call ‘homeschooling’
programs in which they enroll your children and collect the funding. And
among those options are public schools and private corporations,
taxpayer funded and ones parents pay for, ones that issue diplomas and
ones that don’t. Ones that provide teaching and grading services and
ones that don’t. You have to know what is right for your family before
you shop.

I tell parents who are unsure about homeschooling that they have nothing to
lose by trying it, and everything to gain. If it doesn’t work, they can
always sent their child back to school, no harm done. But if it does work,
homeschooling very often becomes the most rewarding experience of their lives.

Welcome!

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