This week I had the opportunity to discuss the pro's and con's (yes, there are one or two) of homeschooling with a friend that wants to homeschool her son.

Her son is currently in Kindergarten at a public school.   There are only 4 months left in the school year and I encouraged her to leave him in until the end of the year.  Now before you start thinking that I'm a horrible homeschooler for suggesting this,  try to see my point of view.   The child is in no danger, is not being bullied or teased and is in a very decent school.  Thus, eliminating the need for a knee jerk reaction.

If she pulls him out right now,  the officials at her school are going to give her every reason under the sun not to homeschool. New homeschoolers second guess themselves enough without being talked out of it by school officials.

I told her that leaving him in for the remainder of the year would give her time to research and decide which legal option she wanted to fall under.  In our state we have 3 options for accountability- 1. School District,  2. an Independent Homeschool Association (basically a school district for home schoolers) and 3. what is known as Third Option.   Either way you go it takes a couple of weeks to line everything up and she has to have that paperwork to show when she pulls him out of school.  This way she can get everything lined up and when they have registration for next year she can just show that she is going to homeschool him.

It would also allow time for her to read and explore all the different homeschooling methods rather than just jump right into duplicating "school" at home.  This way she has all summer for her son to relax and come out of "School" mode.  

She has no plan in place yet.   She doesn't know if she wants to use curriculum, do unit studies, unschool or any other ideas.  I feel like if she gives herself the remainder of his school year to decide these things she won't flounder around, end up feeling like a failure and stick him back in school as a result.

Also, she has 3 little ones under the age of 3 and will be adding a newborn to that because she will be babysitting a friends baby after its born. I would hate to see her overwhelmed by it all, so I suggested she come to some of our homeschool group get togethers to meet moms that are successfully homeschooling while still attending to lots of little ones.  I have to admit a little envy of these moms..I've always wanted a large family.

I truly feel like this is the best advice I could have offered this friend.  If it were a different friend or different circumstances I am sure the advice would have been different.

What about you, what advice would you offer a new homeschooler?

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Posted by flapjacks

Well, I'm only a few months down the line myself but one thing that stands out so far is 'don't kill yourself trying to keep ahead all the time - be preared to be vulnerable, to learn with your child.'
Alice

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Posted by appleleaf

Hi, I think I'd agree with your wise advice. I've been down the road you described. That is, I took my eldest out of school and plunged straight into a "school at home" style program which none of us really liked but I felt guilty whenever I let a day go without seeing some sort of written "proof" that he'd actually done something. Meanwhile, my daughter was still at pre-school, I'd just found out I was pregnant with my 3rd and started feeling too lousy to keep it up and then more guilty. These days I'm far more relaxed in my approach and am going toward a more "unschooling" approach this year. I found it hard last year to try to keep the amount of structure I first started out with when we had a busy toddler wanting to join in all the time. I can't say much more about unschooling or natural learning yet because I feel we're still just getting into it ourselves.
I hope your friend finds a method to suit herself and her little boy when the time comes soon. Reading about it in the meantime will be a lot of fun. I really enjoy reading about the different approaches to homeschooling by different families.
On a different subject, I could've done with someone of your expertise around my place yesterday. It was my son's birthday, I was sick with a cold and needed to make him a decent birthday cake.! We scraped through but it was a looooong day.
Have you been to any good yard sales lately?
Regards,
Paula

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Posted by eyecorn

You gave her wonderful advice. She is fortunate to have the luxury of time to plan. Since the situation isn't an emergency, you're right, she should take this time to investigate. Are there any book fairs or conferences she can attend this spring so she can browse through curricula. One other thing, and you may have already told her this, I always warn new hs'ers that they will buy curricula they won't use or start down a path with a certain style and find out it doesn't work. That's ok..don't get discouraged. It happens to those who have been homeschooling for years. I'm always afraid new hs'ers will get discouraged and think these things "only happen to me". I know I've felt that way myself...especially the first 2-3 years. Your friend is VERY lucky to have you. Support is such a big part of hs'ing. Oh, she might want to visit HSBlogger to see how diverse people's days are ...and see the different curricula people use. I
I'm glad to see you back blogging...BTW, I took DD to pick out her cake pan for her birthday...after seeing your Scooby Doo cake pan....she picked Scooby Doo! I just hope I can get mine to look as fantastic as yours!!!
Michelle

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Posted by Deblily

I think that's wonderful advice. It's only a few months. And it's much better to get a little prepared before diving in, I think. If the child is in no danger, then he'll be fine til the end of the year. I doubt he'll remember even going to public school when he's older if he remains homeschooled.

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Posted by JesusIsMyRock

I think you did great with the advice. This is our first year of homeschool. I have just 2 children Austen 10 and Blake is 2 1/2. I can honestly say it was a real struggle at first with finding things for my 2 year old to do while we schooled. The curriculum that I have is Landmark Baptist. It's very good and easy for them to work through mostly on their own, with some one on one.

I know she will have a 1st grader so she probably will need time to teach most of the time. The nice thing is most curriculum doesn't take but a few hours to do if you work with them. For me personally I need to stay on track so this curriculum is set up very organized, so you know what the child needs to do every day.

Prayed for this mommy, I know what she is going through :)

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