When I first started seriously considering homeschooling our daughter (then 10 years old), it’s safe to say I was looking at the endeavor through rose-colored glasses. My husband, though overwhelmingly in support of the idea, cautioned me to think the decision over carefully and be realistic about it, especially because I was going to be the one taking on the lion’s share of the work. But to be honest, I paid little heed to his warnings.
My daughter was at a point in her educational journey where I knew she couldn’t continue with the status quo—unless I was content to watch her flounder. The idea of reinvigorating her passion for learning (which had been all but trampled by her public school experience) filled me with excitement. Curricula were readily available—I could totally do this! Moreover, I had spent a lot of time reading, reading and reading some more about homeschooling, so I didn’t feel that I was uninformed. What I realize now is that curriculum reviews don’t address some of the major aspects of homeschooling, and the blogs that I was reading were either written by parents who had little problem adjusting to homeschool life or they were just delicately floating over some of the hard truths.
As the saying goes, experience is the best teacher. I learned a lot about the reality of homeschooling that first year. If you are considering homeschooling your child (or children) here are some things to consider that you may not have thought about:
Time—Homeschooling takes a tremendous amount of time. I’m not just talking about time at the table or desk for school, but planning and prep time. Ask any public school teacher how much time they devote to planning and prep outside of the classroom and they will tell you that it’s a large chunk of time. There’s very little difference in the amount of time it takes to prepare a lesson plan for one student compared to thirty students. Whether you’re teaching your individual child or a classroom full of children, you still need to map out what you will be teaching and how you plan to teach it. That doesn’t change because you cut down on the number of students in the audience.
If you have a job, be prepared to lose a vast amount of the little free time you had before to planning, prep and the actual schooling. Make sure you have strong time management skills and the rest of your household is committed to supporting you by picking up the slack that you will inevitably leave. The longer you homeschool, the more efficient you will become at planning and prep, but in the beginning it can eat up a lot of time.
Cost—The unfortunate reality is that if you reside within the U.S. and you homeschool, you’re going to be footing the bill. (There are some states that have tax credits and tuition deduction available, and I refer you to the HSDLA for information, which can be found
here) I can’t tell you how much homeschooling will cost you, as this varies per family based on their individual choices in curricula and supplies. What I can tell you is that you don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of money on curricula (especially in the younger grades). There are buyer co-ops that help you take advantage of some bulk purchasing power, and in the past three years, I’ve seen a growth in free, quality curricula online. Keep in mind that you trade dollars for time when you’re trying to shave down that bill. Part of what you’re paying for when you purchase a curriculum is the time that it took to assemble the materials into tidy lessons for you. Information on money-saving ideas is best left for other articles, but you should be aware that there is a cost involved with homeschooling and you need to consider that cost with regard to your budget. Remember that homeschooling is an investment in your child’s future, and you may want to look at areas of your budget that you can reappropriate toward homeschooling, if possible, in order to make it work.
Patience—Homeschooling takes patience, pure and simple. If patience isn’t your strong suit, but you’re committed to homeschooling, it’s a good idea to spend some time pre-planning strategies for when your patience is wearing thin. Even if you’re a generally patient person, still devote the time to developing those strategies. Everyone reaches the end of his or her rope at some point, and it’s good to be prepared before that happens. Every homeschooling parent I know agrees that losing patience leads to frustration for both parent and child. So put some thought into how you plan to handle common situations like lack of attention or fidgeting, hesitancy to do the work or even outright refusal to do the work. Most homeschooling parents have probably encountered at least one of these scenarios (if not all!) at one time or another.
Perseverance—Be prepared to feel the desire to give up at least once. Be prepared to feel like homeschooling is a disaster at least once. Be prepared to feel inadequate and question your ability to educate your child at least once. Every homeschooling parent doubts themselves and homeschooling at least once. Most likely, you’ll doubt yourself a lot in the beginning. It takes a while to build your self-confidence as a teacher—which is funny when you think about it, because you’ve been teaching your child to do things since birth! If you go into homeschooling knowing that these feelings are par for the course, coupled with an attitude of perseverance, it will make it easier to shake off a bad day and start afresh the next.
Education Model—Before you can begin homeschooling, you need to decide how you’re going to approach education in your household. Three broad models generally encompass most homeschooling families. Unschoolers approach education in a way that is usually unstructured and child-led. Areas of study are based on the child’s interest and readiness rather than a particular curriculum. School-at-Home families generally follow a grade and curriculum structure similar to traditional schools. A highly structured school-day schedule may also be followed. Eclectic homeschoolers fall somewhere in the wide gap left between unschoolers and those who school-at-home. They often enjoy a more structured approach than unschoolers, but child-led learning is as important to them as the structure. Eclectics often use a mixture of boxed curricula and learning experiences occurring in the world around their child to teach. Deciding which model is best for you and your child will help you guide much of your curriculum decision making.
Transition Period—If your child is young and has never been in public school a transition period isn’t going to be a factor for you. However, if your child is leaving the public school system there will be a transition period that will naturally occur for your child. In some respects, digging deep into homeschooling during this transition period may be incredibly difficult. Remember that not only are you adjusting to being a homeschooling parent, but your child is adjusting to an entirely new educational environment, as well. The education model you choose will most likely effect this transition period, too. School-at-home families may be able to transition with little difficulty if the school schedule and curricula are similar to those that were present in the previous school. Eclectic and unschooling homeschoolers may find that their child takes a while to adjust to the more relaxed atmosphere. The longer the child has been in public school, the more conditioned to the rigidity of a typical classroom atmosphere the child will be. You may find it takes a while for your child to get out of the habit of raising their hand when you ask a question or asking to go to the bathroom. Some parents find that a cooling off period is helpful, especially when the transition to homeschooling is made mid-school-year. If you’re planning on unschooling, use the cooling off period to get into the habit of working learning activities into your day without calling it school. If you’re going with an eclectic approach, work in a mixture of unstructured and more structured learning while they are on their “vacation.” Don’t worry about your child “keeping up” during this period. Homeschooled kids often progress faster than their traditionally schooled peers do once they get rolling.
If it seems that this list is meant to scare you away from the idea of homeschooling, it isn't and it wasn't my intention. I do, however, wholeheartedly believe in helping new homeschoolers to have realistic expectations. Homeschooling isn't always easy, but it's
incredibly rewarding. Every time your child masters a new skill or shows competence with new knowledge, it will give you a deep-down-good-in-your-soul feeling like no other.
