Home Education Hope

This is not a "how-to" post. It is a "you can do it" post. I am not an educational expert. I am a mom who managed to home-educate my three children.  And no one died!

I'm not done yet. Two are in college and one is in high school (at home).  This home education thing is still a work in progress. Tailored to each child. 

Disclaimer: Home education is not for everyone. There are plenty of families who shouldn't homeschool, and plenty who simply can't or don't want to. I am thankful for public education, and two of my children are planning on working in some capacity in the public education arena.

I will say the beginning was daunting. My husband would say "if they fail, it's on you." I would think if they succeed it's on me too. :) He did support me, and they didn't fail. I did though. Quite a bit. There were times the kids succeeded in spite of me. I was an all in mom/teacher. The kids didn't need that though. I relaxed and they still learned. We just had more fun. 

It is hard to find the balance. I am fairly organized and have a schedule. There is some cushion built in though. Life happens. If you don't plan for emergencies, it is easy to get behind. Suddenly, homeschool gets really stressful as you feel the weight of the self- constrictive calender. Stress is a terrible state for learning or teaching. 

High school isn't too hard to plan for. Your state will have requirements for graduation. This is what I used to make sure my kids had all they needed to move on to college.  We started thinking about ACT/SAT around 8th grade. 

Each child was different. Each needed something different from me. They all challenged me in different ways. 

One child was a timid perfectionist who was easily discouraged if her work wasn't exactly like the book. One child was a voracious learner with an unorthodox style. She would stand on her head and learn her sisters times tables from the other room. One child has some health issues that make traditionally structured school difficult but still stays at or above grade level. 

For our family, a co-op type program was helpful for lab sciences and higher maths. It also gave the children an opportunity to try out a classroom setting one day a week and be accountable to someone besides mom. 

I have friends who choose to send their kids to public high school. Some only do it for the senior year. There are lots of reasons to do this. Including just to give the kids who want it the experience. 

We chose to do college concurrently in high school. This is very easy if you homeschool in our state. My two oldest had 23 and 27 college credit hours by the time they graduated high school! This saved us lots money and them time. Where we live the junior college allows for 6 free credit hours per semester to concurrent students! We chose to pay for additional classes on top of the free ones. My middle child, at 17, moved to college as a sophomore. She was highly motivated and started taking classes at 15, her older sister at 16. I can take very little credit other than providing the opportunities. This isn't for everyone, but it was amazingly easy to transition to college and they earned high school and college credit at the same time! 

Another opportunity available in our state is the VoTec education. Most classes are free to high school juniors and seniors. If you have a student interested in engineering, computers, nursing, mechanics, cosmetology and much more they can get training and certification by the time they graduate. One family we know took advantage of this program. Their son got his mechanics license and went to work after high school going to college part time. He paid for his own college from his wages and had no student debt! 

Here is another scenario I am seeing more and more. Students are being brought home from public education in high school.  Most of the families I know have done this out of issues with school. It can be done! There are online services, private tutors, and so many possibilities today. 

Did you know that there are homeschool proms, science fairs, sports teams, robotics teams, and many programs that are open to all students? We have a private school who allows home-educated students to try out for their sports teams. Another allows homeschoolers to sign up for the standardized tests through their school. We did this for our children when they were younger. It was a great service to our family. 

My children were not perfect students, happy every day, singing my praises, and eating perfectly balanced meals hand prepared by me three times a day. They were good kids, they grew and learned and eventually, they didn't need teacher mom anymore (for the older two). It was quite a transition for me, they had no issues though. 

All of this information is to encourage. If you are considering home education, if you are in it up to your neck and feeling overwhelmed, if you have a loved one who is making this decision and you think they are crazy, it can be done and done well. 

It can be done with joy and adventure. Be flexible and supportive. Be ready to re-evaluate and start over if you need to. 

If you choose to go from homeschool to public or private education you didn't fail! You chose what is best for your family. You chose education.