How About Homeschooling?
Perhaps you are not happy with your other options, and you are starting to toy with this idea. But you can't imagine yourself doing it. After all, doesn't it take a superwoman to juggle lessons and all the other things moms have to do?
Take it from a homeschooling veteran, you can do it IF you love your kids. That's the only qualification. As you move through the homeschooling journey, you will develop the skills you need, as you need them. That's how jugglers start--juggling just one thing. Then they add another, and after a while another.
You'll be happy to hear this. Homeschooling may actually be easier than not homeschooling. Soccer moms are constantly driving, getting their kids to lots of different same-age activities. If you were homeschooling, you'd be able to find and do activities that work for all of you together.
The evening homework tussle will go away too. Instead, you'll spend mornings working on academic subjects. Your evenings will be available!
Large families often enjoy doing unit studies. These are large topics, for instance ancient Egypt, which can be treated differently for various ages.Your read-aloud could be a book called Mara, Daughter of the Nile. A young child might write sentences about it; an older child might create a paper. They all might work on an art project, such as a scroll with hieroglyphics. Math can be worked in too--figuring the height of a pyramid using similar triangles. The unit could be capped with a visit to the art museum. Such unit studies might last a month, and are commonly available for purchase.
Other options include using workbooks and curriculum so that each child has something to work on that is appropriate for his age. These all come with an answer key--you don't need to be a college graduate to make sure your kid is getting the right answer. In fact, many homeschoolers do almost no direct teaching--their kids learn from the book or workbook. (This is a great study skill for college!)
There are also correspondence schools that do all the teaching for you, if your child needs that.
How do you structure your day? Many families do the tougher studying in the morning, leaving the afternoon for projects or play. There are plenty of organizations these days with daytime classes for homeschoolers, if you want to sign up for something outside the home. You could even send your kids to organized sports with schooled kids in the late afternoon, if you are willing to do some driving! Watch out how much of that you sign up for though! You have to be careful to avoid burnout.
People who don't homeschool always ask about socializing. Are the kids getting enough socializing? One of the best things about homeschooling is that you get to choose whom your children socialize with. You can make sure the socializing is well supervised. Bullies are not a problem. In fact, you can even choose adults. I have observed that most homeschooled kids are very comfortable talking to adults, much more so than schooled kids.
A homeschool co-op is one of the best solutions to the need for socialization. If you meet once a week with other homeschoolers for class or field trips, your child gets well-supervised social interaction, and can learn and grow socially in a way that a schooled child cannot. Bullying is simply not a problem for homeschoolers! So how do you find a co-op? You have to ask other homeschoolers. If your area has a homeschooling convention, by all means go to it, and go to workshops if they have any. You need to network with other homeschoolers until you find or can create a co-op.
You will need support as well. Homeschooling provides unique challenges, and it helps so much to have others to talk to who are doing it too. You can find plenty of homeschool moms online, in discussion forums and email groups. You should try several!
Can you homeschool? The answer is, "Absolutely!
Phyllis Wheeler writes fun computer science curriculums for homeschoolers. Check out her free short e-book on World Wide Web information searching, the World Wide Web Scavenger Hunt! And see a sampling of articles on homeschooling she has for you.
