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The Value of Homeschool
A Series of Encouraging Entries for Homeschooling Families
Do you love spending time with your children?
When my mother returned to college in the 1970’s, one evening she voiced to me, “When I was younger, they gave us an education.” Even then she could see the value system of America’s classroom changing.
Those words remained with me over the years and I came to realize the difference between attending school and receiving an education.
My Elementary School experience was complex, having grown up in Chicago in the early seventies. I enjoyed parent-teacher day once a month, music class once a week, and after school play with neighborhood children each day.
That is, until gangs terrorized our school grounds and neighborhood violence became a national crises. I saw traumas that I hoped my children never would.
Homeschool is not for everyone but if you have an interest and the following list relates to you, it may prove to be one of the best decisions you ever made:
- I love spending time with my children or I honestly do not but am willing to learn how.
- I would like to be more involved in my children’s learning process.
- I feel my child is safer in an environment where I can more closely observe him.
- I am concerned that my child’s behavior is different when he returns home in the afternoon (withdrawn, unhappy), than when he left out earlier (high-spirited, happy).
- I like to teach.
- I am or can be patient when necessary.
- I can explain complex concepts simply and clearly.
If you share the above views, homeschool may be well-suited for your family. If so, feel free to learn more on the homeschool page.
Do not imagine yourself as a Robocop teacher,
but the best teacher your children will ever have.
Many families are considering Homeschool as an educational alternative today. If that includes you, below are a few tips that I would like to offer from my twenty-six years of experience which I hope will help.
1. Receive Wisdom and Direction. Pray first and meditate on the decision. Do not quit your day job just yet.
2. Develop a School Plan and Financial Strategy. When you are convinced that you want to give Homeschool a try, get ready!
3. Collect Resources. Inexpensive books, teaching materials, and learning supplies will help in your first year’s establishing. You can adjust throughout the year as necessary.
Plan a Financial Exit from Work. Meanwhile, save money and create ideas for a stream of income like selling a few goods or services on eBay or Facebook Marketplace; something lucrative but that does consume more than a few hours a week.
3. Ask Your Spouse for Agreement of Your Plan. Give him time to mentally and financially prepare for this adjustment.
4. Ask Your Children for Their Agreement. Also give them time to emotionally prepare for this adjustment as well.
5. Make it Fun. Schedule your school calendar for the year. Review the calendar before school begins so your family can know what they will have to look forward to, like the zoo and park on free days.
6. Be Courageous. Some family members or friends may not be as supportive as you would expect. Do not try to convince them. Just let your fruit be your proof.
7. Remember, There is Life Beyond Homeschool. Keep up with positive and supportive relationships, your independent income stream, and things you enjoy doing in your own time. Although it takes a lot of time to prepare and teach homeschool, demand time to care for yourself and enjoy life.
Remember privacy and self-care.
While spending so much time at home, a family can get lost and consumed with the practice of chores and schoolwork. You may even start to feel guilty for spending personal time away from home and family. At times, parents and children need time away.
A good thing to do is to practice privacy from the onset. Space to invigorate yourselves is important so that everyone can understand that mom and teacher is also an individual, and that each family member’s need for privacy and personal time is necessary and respected.
Also, creative, personal spaces and study areas in the home is important when there is so much activity surrounded by it. This is beneficial in keeping a home-life environment pleasant, versatile, and peaceful.
Select the Homeschool that best suits your preference.
There are numerous types of homeschool programs and services today but essentially there are three that I am familiar with of which are listed below.
A few schools may provide all the services you prefer at the same location, while some may offer 1 or 2 good options.
Most likely, you will compile a number of programs and resources together to develop your school’s curriculum.
1. Homeschool Full-Time
You, the homeschool teacher, will take responsibility for the entire school curriculum in this program.
You can give your homeschool a name and even a crest if you want. You will provide an annual plan for subjects; books and resource materials; a weekly schedule; daily and weekly grade report; Winter/Spring report cards; medical records and etc., throughout the duration of your teaching.
According to the 3 districts; national, state and city regulations will be instituted in your program. Gather necessary information about Homeschool regulations from each.
You may have to report annual grades and shot records to your city’s Board of Education. You may be required to join a Cover School that will keep copies of your student’s records all in one place and submits them to your state. This will be particularly necessary if your child plans to attend a college which requires official records or accredited test scores.
2. Homeschool Part-Time/Campus School
Some homeschool facilitators (private schools) offer classes of which you may want to enroll your children in as an integral part of your itinerary. They are required by state to place your student under a certain school category, so inquire of their specific programs.
Parents can enroll their children into classes and drop them off at this school for a shorter period of time, which offers a parent more time to teach other children if he has multiple students.
Inquire of this school also about its state classification status. There may be a monthly charge of about $130 monthly for this service.
3. Extension School:
This program provides resources for teachers such as weekly books, testing, in-house tutors, and grade keeping.
Nearing graduation, they may also facilitate ACT Prep tests and scores. They may charge a monthly fee of about $75 monthly for Jr. high school students.
Inquire about student classification requirements because they may not want you to call your school a homeschool when they offer so much of their services, but it can be a vital tool to you as the primary teacher, if you have much more to offer in your children’s learning experience.
Tutoring Session
This service appears to be more frequent these days since the wake of the 2019 Pandemic.
Online classes and tutoring sessions are more useful than ever because they offer families safe, economical, and convenient alternatives for learning.
Some private tutors charge agreeable fees per single session or per weekly class.
Cover School
Many U.S. states require homeschools to select a Cover School which represents the homeschools of their state.
You may choose to select a Cover School for a fee of about $80 a month. Additional students in the family may be pro-rated.
The teacher registers each student into their database and provides required student information, i.e., the projected year’s curriculum, last semester’s grades and shot records.
Some of these programs provide necessary information in their database such as updated state regulations and other helpful resources.
You can also create pintables from their database of each student’s record for your own reports.
This may seem like a lot of information to begin with but with planning and in time your school will be running smoothly and efficiently.
I wish you good success!
Mrs. Melita Freeman