instructions even though they may ask why the first time or two. If I ran a retail establishment, this is the kind of student employee I’d want working at my store. How about you?
Chapter 2
Taking the Leap
IN THIS CHAPTER
So you’re thinking about leaping into homeschooling. The excitement of a new life decision always brings some jitters with it. Although the idea of homeschooling intrigues you, a few questions may still nag at the back of your mind. For one thing, what exactly does an adventure like this involve? When is the best time to begin?
All these concerns work themselves out as you live home education day by day, but it’s nice to receive some answers and reassurance before you begin. This chapter addresses the issues that may arise as you consider making the decision to homeschool — issues that range from why you want to homeschool in the first place to the pros and cons of homework. Look for information on more-involved issues, such as specific curriculums, in Part 3 and where to locate a copy of your state law in Chapter 3.
Realizing That Anger Is Not Enough
Why do you want to homeschool? What propels you in this decision to alter your lifestyle so drastically from that of your neighbors? People have as many reasons to homeschool their children as there are homeschoolers. Sometimes more than one main reason makes you decide to take the plunge into home education.
Homeschooling needs to be your main educational option for the right reasons. Getting mad over what the teacher said to Sonny won’t give you the inner strength that you need to continue teaching on those days when homeschooling lacks appeal. What will you do when you wake up and the anger is gone? Sending your child back to school proves that you removed him in anger. On the other hand, continuing with a program that you no longer believe in makes everybody miserable.
Ensuring educational excellence
Perhaps you aren’t entirely sure that your child is getting what she needs at the local school. Maybe you watch her bring home page after page of review material that you know she mastered some time last year. She may tell tales of how boring school is, how little she learns, or the last time she corrected the teacher.
Does this mean your school system is awful? Nope. It simply means that your child happens to be beyond whatever the classroom is currently covering — even if her class is at her “correct” grade level. Look at it this way: Even the best introduction to a biology course bores someone with a doctorate in biology. It may be a good course, but the successful doctoral candidate took that class long ago and now thinks far beyond its introductory limitations.
Many parents decide to homeschool for educational excellence. They see a difference between the best private schools in their community and the public schools their children attend, and they bring their children home in an effort to bridge that gap. You can homeschool for much less than the $3,000 per year (a conservative figure) that a good private school costs, and the result can be much the same if you follow the classical curriculums most prep schools cover. (Read more about expenses in Chapter 21; see more about classical education in Chapter 11.)
Meeting your child’s special needs
Sometimes the school system simply fails to meet your child’s needs. If your child slips through the cracks and misses too much information, he falls farther and farther behind. Before you know it, the school wants him to undertake remedial work in an effort to make up lost time.
This situation is so frustrating for parents! You send them to school in the hope that the establishment will teach them what they need to know. By the time you find out there’s a problem, though, it may be months after the issue reaches an almost critical stage.
Bringing a child like this home rescues him from the condemnation he feels at school. This alone often relieves enough stress so that your child can concentrate and make up the work with a patient parent sitting alongside. It’s not unusual for a parent and student to wing through one to two years’ worth of lessons in a school year and catch the student up to his current grade level.
You can read about more specific special needs in Chapter 19.
Retaining religious convictions
If your child’s new language and altered values horrify you, and you see them in direct opposition to what you carefully teach at home, you certainly aren’t alone. Parents of all faiths are pulling their children out of the public schools to teach them at home, precisely because they want those early foundations to stay solid. It’s hard to compete when your child stays away from you for six hours a day. Bringing them home to school allows you to gently reintroduce and reinforce those values and traditions that guide your life.
Homeschooling your child for religious reasons gives you several options. You can
Locate tradition-specific curriculum. You may even be able to find a complete curriculum from science to history tailored to your particular belief system. Chapter 22 points you toward religious curriculum options.
Incorporate religious instruction into your day as part of your class structure. Use religious or secular materials for all subjects as you choose. If you select secular books, this means tacking an additional subject — religion — onto your day along with your state’s requirements, but if you homeschool your children for religious reasons, this won’t be a big deal to you.
You may find that you need to alter adult materials or group curriculum, but as more people in your tradition begin to homeschool, your community will respond with materials written for you. (Or if you are adventurous and knowledgeable, perhaps you can write them yourself.)
Accommodating family lifestyle
Sometimes lifestyle itself dictates a need to homeschool. If you work at odd times of the year and find yourself free and sitting at home alone while your children sit through classes wishing they were with you, you may find homeschool a great timesaver in the long run. It allows you to pursue family activities, such as vacations and hobbies, when work