 It's
already January and the pinnacle of your child's school year is
at hand. After the holidays is the time when teachers get into full
gear for end-of-year testing and begin to accelerate their teaching in
order to cover everything the state requires. This is also the time
of year when parents learn that their children are either doing very
well and are advancing beautifully or are doing poorly and face the
daunting prospect of summer school or even being left behind a
grade.Most
parents understand that during the month of January critical
decisions must be made for their child's current school year's
achievement. If your child is not doing as well as you had hoped or
as well as they may have professed during the first part of the
year, there are several different options you can take; homeschooling being one of them.
If you decide to
forego working with your child's teacher and school to ensure he
matriculates and learns on pace with his peers, then homeschooling
is certainly an option for you. Homeschooling can help you harness
parenting and educational tools to aid in providing a quality education for your
child. In fact, some children respond better to one-on-one,
individualized attention that only a parent invested in their
own child's education can provide. If your child is faring poorly in a
traditional school atmosphere, then homeschooling may be the remedy
to your child's poor academic achievement.
It is first important to understand that homeschooling is not a
option that should be utilized in a pinch or as a fly-by-night
alternative. Readying yourself for the
homeschool journey is something that takes time, thought and
preparation. Not only does homeschooling require parents to assume the sole responsibility for their child's education, it also
requires a rethinking and retooling of sorts of one's parenting role
and purpose.
When parents become
homeschoolers, they are immediately thrust into the position of
teacher, caregiver, disciplinarian, guidance counselor, coach and
parent. That may sound like an overwhelming amount of responsibility
for some, but hundreds of thousands of parents gladly take on this
role every single day.
If you are new to the
entire homeschool alternative, but feel it is the right option for
your family, here are five crucial questions you should ask
yourself.
1. Am I able to homeschool adequately? Will I have the patience to do it right?
2. Am I willing to
buy curricula and supplementary materials in order for my child to
be a well-supplied homeschooler even if these materials seem rather
pricey to me?
3. Do I understand
all of my state's homeschool laws? Have I gone through the entire
process to be in complete compliance with my state's law?
4. Would homeschooling my child really be a rash decision? Will I homeschool for
one year and then send my child back to the same school again next
year?
5. Do I have the
energy, stamina, creativity, enthusiasm and will to homeschool my
child?
If after honestly
answering these questions you still see homeschooling in your
future, we welcome you into this brand new world of family education.
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