Statistics prove year after year that an increasing number of American families are setting-up their own accredited home school. While raising my daughter, I never had the luxury of doing so, because I was a single parent, and had to leave the house to earn our keep. At one point, I did send her to a private school, but after about a semester, I took her out. We were living in southern Florida at the time, and although we lived in a very good area, I was wary about the Florida school system. So, I opted to try private school, but that too wasn’t the ideal situation for her or my pocket book. Perhaps, if I had known about the option of setting-up our own accredited home school, I may have tried to find other ways to support us and make it work.
I am only learning now that there are scholarships and grants available for parents who home school their children. It’s unlikely, however, that when she was of school age that any kind of financial aid was available. If you are in need of funding, you may want to begin by contacting the HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association), an organization dedicated to promoting homeschooling.
I think that if you are lucky to find other like-minded parents, it is a good idea to pool your resources with regards to finances, talent, and time. Ideally, if several families got together to home school their children under one umbrella accredited home school, the quality of education would greatly improve. Having the support of another adult is also better for the parent-child relationship, because realistically, you and your child may not always be on best of terms. When a child experiences firsthand how your ideas are similar to their schoolmate’s parent, s/he is more likely to be more cooperative with you.
On the other hand, if you are not an expert in every subject that your child must learn, it’s good to have a partner parent who can fill that void. For example, part of your child’s education should include the basics of home-economics, but in my case, my child would not get the best lessons if she was exclusively under my tutelage. However, another parent may excel in that area – or at least that would be the case with me. I have musical and artistic abilities, but I am certainly no Suzy Homemaker. I have the education and skills to give music and art lessons, but not baking or sewing lessons. I think that a child can come to resent the home school if s/he is not given the opportunity to work with skilled teachers, particularly when their own parent is lacking in knowledge, skill, or ability. Therefore, I am a proponent of farming out children to experts in their field when a parent is ill-equipped in certain areas. If, however, this is not possible, there is certain to be a DVD that you could borrow from the library or purchase where you and your child can learn together. As a matter of fact, learning together with your child may prove to be a very good educational experience for both of you. In this situation, you may take the role of student, and allow your child to assist you. This could prove to be a very rewarding experience, especially if your youngster needs a boost in self-esteem.
One of the downsides to having a single parent accredited home school is that your youngster is not given the opportunity to measure his or her abilities against another child’s and neither are you. A parent operating without the input of other parents and watching the development of other children has nothing in which to measure their own teaching skills, or their child’s abilities. This is not to say that I believe that all children must equally measure up to his or her cohorts’ abilities, but children do a tremendous amount of learning from each other. Without that social interaction, children have nothing in which to measure their own self-worth. Therefore, whenever possible, try to pool your resources with other parents who also home school their children.