Effective Homeschooling

Maybe you are thinking about home-schooling. Home-schooling advocates often say anyone can home-school. However, there are valid reasons that home-schooling might not be a positive experience for you or your children.

Only you can decide if you are able to effectively home-school. There are situations where home-schooling is the only viable option, and in those circumstances, the family lifestyle has to be restructured. It could be that the child only does well in a small group setting, and the parents cannot afford a private school with small classes — so the family decides home-schooling is best.

Another situation could be that the child is twice exceptional (gifted with special needs/challenges) and the child’s public school cannot provide adequate paraprofessional support in a general/gifted classroom. The parents can continue looking for the right setting for the child and home-school during the interim. If home-schooling works well, the family might decide to continue.

There are also situations in which a parent should seriously consider whether home-schooling is the right choice:

Abject poverty

Poor people do home-school. You can use the Internet and library books for free and write your own curriculum. However, if your financial situation keeps you from accessing materials and programs that will give your child a good, solid education and social experiences, then home-schooling might have to wait until basic needs are met. Certainly, if you are homeless, finding a job would take precedence over home-schooling.

There are families that have home-schooled through homelessness. They found work, became housed, and continued home-schooling. The scenario could be the father finds work and the mother home-schools the children or vice versa. Another scenario could be where the mother works part time from home, home-schools the children, and the father works outside the home. A family in which both parents work outside the home with different time shifts is yet another arrangement that makes working and home-schooling possible.

Single/divorced parents

If you are the sole support for your family and have no other income, home-schooling might not work. There are single parents who home-school, but usually, they have family support, significant child support, work flexible schedules, work from home or have a home-based business. If this sounds like you, home-schooling could work.

If you are working a traditional 9-to-5 job and want to home-school, you will need your family or outside sources to help you home-school your children. Alternatives to conventional work hours are weekend work, night shifts (with adequate child care), three 12-hour shifts per week (childcare needed) or other workable schedules.

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Source: All Voices | Phyllis L. Smith Asinyanbi