Very often people tell me they really wish they could homeschool but they feel like they cannot for various reasons.
Usually people tell me: “I would love to homeschool Timmy but I just do not have enough money to do it, that’s why I send him to public school,” or “I truly wish we were able to take him out of state programming, but I just don’t think I am teacher material,” and sometimes “but what about socialization?”
These sound like very legitimate reasons and at some point my wife and I believed we were unable to embark in the homeschooling train due to some variation of these.
We enrolled our daughter in a private school in Dallas that belonged to the Hare Krsna community. She started there at age 4 and she really enjoyed the kids, the learning, and the teachers. Everyone in that community was (and is) quite lovely. As she started her third year in that school, a lot of teachers left and new ones arrived as well as students. A lot of these students were behind since they were coming form public school and our lovely daughter would get bored rehashing the concepts she had already learned the previous year and we decided to take her out and start homeschooling her.
The decision was not really easy. Wife and I did a lot of research and she read Sandra Dodd’s Unschooling book and she shared with me about this new ideology and persuaded me to give it a whirl. I was honestly quite hesitant but we decided that she would slow down quite a bit on her work… In short, we made a decision to be more frugal and spend more time with our kids facilitating the learning. This is where the rubber meets the road.
We chose to make less money but to spend more time with our kids. We came to the conclusion that she was our child and we would rather raise her and grow a healthy bond with us instead of having a 3rd party teaching her about life and more. It is my suspicion that some parents enjoy the school system because it gives them a break from their kids and we are on the total opposite end of that. We wanted to be near them and offer them what we thought was best in life instead of expecting some random people to raise them.
We found several tools at our disposal. Some free, some very cheap and some relatively inexpensive along the way. We really like Khan Academy. If you haven’t seen this project, you totally must. It is an individual that created a website where he posts short lectures on a lot of subjects and you have the ability to keep track of your progress. It is free for users and receives grants from private enterprises and individuals.
The Ron Paul Curriculum is something we really considered but we could not use since they didn’t have 1st – 3rd grades when we started. It is truly a wonderful resource and from a legitimate team.
Wikipedia is a free resource that answers all the questions the wee ones happen to ask that we do not know about. I remember I used to buy Encarta back in the 90’s and prior to that, growing up, we had whole shelves of thick books that you really couldn’t carry around whereas nowadays, everything is accessible from our iPhones.
Lately, our little guy decided at 8 years old he wanted to start coding and he has made a couple of his own games. Tynker is an excellent and inexpensive resource that allows you as a parent to keep track of your kid’s progress.
Meetup.com is a great way to find homeschoolers in your area. If you don’t find a group that fits you, you can start one for just a few dollars a month. You’ll see how people will start joining and going to your events.
Lastly, remember that it is okay not to be always busy. Often times, when we create a learning environment with books and other supplies around the house, the kids will gravitate towards them and find creative ways to fill their time and imagination and we learn so much through play and make believe.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out! We are happy to hear from you
