I am a mother to a two year old son. I have been very seriously considering homeschooling him. I have been doing a lot of research and have gotten great advice and tips from parents at church. However I still have so many questions. We are a Christian family and I truly take what the bible says to heart about instructing and raising our children in the Godly path. Please help lol!
So, as someone who was homeschooled and has family homeschooling their children now, I’ll give a few pieces of advice:
Homeschooling is not right for every child and not right for every parent. There are some who thrive in it and some parents that absolutely love it, but this isn’t always the case. Even in the same family, you can have one kid who needs homeschooling and one who doesn’t, that’s fine. You also really need to do some soul searching and self evaluation to make sure you’re ready for it, as this will be a big demand on you and this may not be a thing you’re good at. But this is all fine! People are different with different skills and needs, and it isn’t a “one-size fits all” issue!
Make sure that your kid has a social outlet. Maybe church, may be community sports, whatever. But your child needs to spend time with kids their own age.
Consider a transition plan. Just because you start them off in homeschool doesn’t mean you should go all the way through. Teaching a 10 year old math is much different than teaching a 17 year old calculus. You may want to consider a transition from homeschool to public/private school, and I would recommend doing this around at ages 12-13 or so. It’s an awkward age for all kids, which will smooth over any strangeness that your kid has picked up.
Keep an eye on the curriculum pace. It’s easy to say “oh, we’ll just do this work tomorrow, let’s have a fun day today” or for your child to learn very quickly because of the individualized attention they’re getting. Either choice can really alienate them from other children, so make sure you keep the pace correct.
Another product of homeschooling here and I wanted to echo the importance of point one in particular. I would add that time and circumstance can also change whether homeschooling is right for the child or parent. You need to be evaluating this constantly through your homeschooling life – are you a parent who can homeschool and is your child suited to it and do they want it.
It might also be good to hear that if you start down this path it’s okay to stop. It is not failing as a parent to try homeschooling and to then stop homeschooling. I have seen far too many families persist in homeschooling in pursuit of noble ideals in a manner that was far from noble.
Finally, homeschooling is not the answer to how you start a child off on the way they should go. It is an option.
Anothe former homeschooler here and I would definitely second this. My parents asked us every year how we thought homeschooling was going and if we were happy, and they were always willing to reevaluate if the answer was no. I was happy so I was homeschooled 2nd-12th grade, but my older sister had different learning needs than me and went through public, private, and homeschooling during her high school years. I always appreciated my parents for valuing my input in that way
I don’t have a dog in the fight on whether you home school, send your kids to Christian school, send your kids to secular private school, or send your kids to public school. Honestly, I think each of those options can be the best option depending on the specifics.
One thing I’d strongly encourage you to do, though, is actually learn about the schools and the curriculum in your area. In the United States, education is largely decentralized and can vary wildly from state to state, county to county, district to district. If you read some crazy horror story on social media about something that was taught in the curriculum a school, stop for a moment and think “Is this school anywhere close to me? Is it in any way representative of the schools in my area? Are these things taught in my public schools?”
Maybe it is relevant to you. But, then again, maybe it’s not. That’s how public schooling is in this country. If you’re living in Sioux City, Iowa, then some scary story about what progressives are doing in Seattle city schools is probably not terribly helpful. Your local public schools are going to be taught by people in your community. Chances are, ivory tower marxists aren’t infiltrating the local grade schools in Burleson, Texas.
If I see a news report about the increased murder rate in Chicago, I can mourn for the tragedy there, but I’m a gazillion miles away and I’m not going be worried about my safety going to Walmart in my boring suburb. If I see a news story about traffic woes in LA, I’m not going to adjust my morning commute.
It’s great that you’re thinking about these things while your kid is young. If you have questions, by all means talk to other parents, talk to other home schoolers, talk to people like that, but if you want to know about your local schools and what they might be teaching, just ask. Figure out how things are done at your state and county and district levels. Don’t just fret about public schools in the abstract. Figure out which school your kid might go to and look at that school.
Maybe home schooling is best. Cool.
But maybe it’s not. Maybe a Christian school is best. Maybe a private secular school is best. And maybe that public school down the street is actually fine, with decent teachers who do a good job teaching good fundamentals.
As a homeschool graduate and a parent of 4 kids that the wife and I are planning on homeschooling, let me first encourage you to take a step back and breathe. Your son is two, while it’s amazing and super encouraging to hear you’re already thinking about these things, don’t get too stressed out or overthink things quite yet. 🙂 A few thoughts:
Realistically until your son is four or five, the best thing you can do for their education is simply read with him, encourage his imagination, and work on basic character training. You can intentionally incorporate teaching things like letters, numbers, patterns, gross/fine motor skills fairly naturally into your day to day life. It doesn’t have to be all rigid and structured at the beginning, you want to keep fanning that spark for learning new things. Eventually you can bring in formal curriculum and there are plenty of options out there for that.
Homeschooling changes with each kid, each year, each season of life. Be willing to re-evaluate and adapt to what works well for your family. As someone already replied, homeschooling will not fix your kids or guarantee they’ll turn out right, and it’s not a sin if you don’t homeschool them. It may not fit your life situation at a given moment. I will say though, that while it takes a lot more time and effort compared to sending your kids to an outside school, that investment and sacrifice is usually worth it as long as you’re approaching it from a perspective of stewarding the children God has given you well. In my homeschool experience, when my parents emphasized character and building up our family, over the academic side of things, that’s when things really had lasting impact. And you can do that, whether your kids are homeschooled or in private/public school.
Surround yourself with good resources and encouraging support. Make sure you and your spouse are on the same page and praying together. If you’ll be doing the majority of the teaching, your spouse needs to back you up and provide the support needed. You’re a team in this and it works much better if the whole team is working together. Reach out to parents you know and whose kids you can see the evidence of good fruit in. There are a lot of online resources out there, someone mentioned HSLDA if you’re in the US. See if there are any local homeschool groups, or something like a state-wide convention with speakers that you can attend and get a feel for what all of this is about.
Happy to answer any questions. 🙂