Is Homeschooling Something YOU Could Do?
Perhaps you are not happy with your other options, and you are starting to toy with this idea. But you can't imagine yourself doing it. After all, doesn't it take a superwoman to juggle lessons and all the other things moms have to do?
As a homeschooling veteran, I can tell you this: you CAN do it IF you love your kids. That's what it takes: dedication to your kids. You will develop the skills you need as you need them. It's like juggling. When you first learn to juggle, you juggle just one thing. Then you ad another. Then you add another.
Homeschooling may even be easier than not homeschooling. Instead of driving your several children to several same-age activities after school, you'll be able to concentrate on activities you can all do together.
Instead of spending evenings helping with homework, you will spend mornings going over academic subjects, using curriculums that are tailored for self-study. Your evenings will open up.
Here's one option for larger families: study topics, such as ancient Egypt, that their kids can share, working with the fact that their ages are different. For example, you could all read the book Mara, Daughter of the Nile together. Then each child could write about it. You could study some math related to pyramids. You can do art projects that look Egyptian. This unit might last a month or so, and then you would move on to another. This structure is called a unit study. You don't have to invent them, either--plenty of moms who have invented one have published it.
Other options include using workbooks and curriculum so that each child has something to work on that is appropriate for his age. These all come with an answer key--you don't need to be a college graduate to make sure your kid is getting the right answer. In fact, many homeschoolers do almost no direct teaching--their kids learn from the book or workbook. (This is a great study skill for college!)
Correspondence schools will teach your child, too. These can take the form of videos, workbooks, or online.
You probably wonder what homeschoolers typically do during the course of a day. Many do the studying in the morning, and spend the afternoon playing or doing projects. Sometimes they sign up for daytime classes for homeschoolers, which are becoming more popular these days. You can even send your kids to organized sports with the local school teams in the late afternoon. But be careful about signing up for too much. It could lead to burnout.
But you do want your children to be "socialized." Here's a question homeschoolers get all the time: "Aren't you worried about socialization for your child?" Here's the answer: you have the ability to choose whom your child socializes with, unlike parents of schooled children. You do have to go out of your way to set it up. And you can count socialization with adults--that's the best kind, after all. Adults are generally well-mannered and kind. Unsupervised schoolkids often are not. Homeschooled kids are usually quite comfortable talking to adults! Don't you want your kids to be like that?
A homeschool co-op is one of the best solutions to the need for socialization. If you meet once a week with other homeschoolers for class or field trips, your child gets well-supervised social interaction, and can learn and grow socially in a way that a schooled child cannot. Bullying is simply not a problem for homeschoolers! So how do you find a co-op? You have to ask other homeschoolers. If your area has a homeschooling convention, by all means go to it, and go to workshops if they have any. You need to network with other homeschoolers until you find or can create a co-op.
Something else you will need is support. You need someone to talk to who is going through the same challenges. The Internet has been quite a blessing to homeschool moms, who can support each other online. There are many discussion forums attached to homeschooling Web sites, for instance, www.welltrainedmind.com. There are email groups for homechoolers too--look through the groups at groups.yahoo.com.
Here's the answer to the homeschooling question: You can do it!
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