For some reason and you’re not sure why, your son or your daughter did not do well in school this past year and it has become a great concern for you as a mom and as a parent.  You want to do any and everything you can to help them, but where do you start?  Your best friend suggest homeschooling as an alternative as she is teaching her teenage daughter at home.   I was of course a little sceptic, but  she reassured me that as long as there have been parents and children, “homeschooling” has been going on.  One example she explained to me is children who had illnesses that kept them from attending public schools were often taught at home as well as families who lived in remote areas of Alaska or other isolated regions.  Needless to say, this really sparked my attention!  So doing some research on my own, I learned a whole lot.

For example, in the 1970’s and ’80’s parents began to question whether the public school system or even the private ones were right for their children.  And now today an estimated 1.6-2.0 million children are being taught at home by their parents.  Now my interest was really peeked and I wanted to find out all that I could so that maybe I too could become one of those parents teaching their children at home.

Naturally, when I told my mom and dad that I was considering homeschooling the children, they were aghast.  They were certain that  we would be ruining our children’s lives and dooming them to an unproductive future of isolation and illiteracy.  So then this brought up the question in my mind “Can I Really Teach My Children At Home”?  Do I have the temperament or strength to take on such a task?  I don’t even have a teaching degree.  But again through research I found that dedication and hard work, not special training, is what produces outstanding educational results in a homeschool setting.  And believe me, I am a very dedicated and hard working mom and so I began to think “yes” I can do this.

So now that I had my mind made up that I  could do this, where would I find the curriculum and materials?  So my friend insured me that there’s an ever-increasing variety of curriculum – from traditional textbooks to homeschool-specific curriculum and correspondence courses and she would be more than happy to help me get everything that I needed.  And being true to her word, she helped me get everything I needed to get started, so now I had to follow through and by this time the children were very excited at he idea of being able to stay home from a public school and still be able to get their education.  And being taught by mom too!

Now, being the mother of 2 school age children and 1 toddler, how was I going to to do this?  This would mean rearranging my schedule of daily housework and grocery shopping and perhaps even going out to lunch with the girls.  Was I ready to do this?  Could I put myself on a stricter schedule?  Being determined as I was, I knew I could figure out a way, and I did.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn the subjects that can span grade levels and lend themselves to multilevel teaching.  Therefore I was able to design a program where the older child could work independently in the morning while I worked with the younger one and then while the toddler was taking his afternoon nap I was able to work one-on-one with my older child.

Higher education is one of my goals for our children and instilling that in them at an early age is important. Pushing them into a program or career that they may not like is not the way to go about doing this. Just letting them know that to ensure job security and to make a decent living that will support them and their family when they get older, they will likely need to pursue some kind of higher education. This can be in the form of colleges, universities or even technical schools. My husband attended a community college and then moved on to technical x ray technician schools before he finished with his 4 year degree. I personally would like to see my children attend a shorter program, maybe 2 years instead of 4.

So if I, a mother of 3 can do this, you can too!  It just takes a lot of planning and a world of determination on your part and there is nothing you can’t accompolish.  Do it for your kids sake!  They’ll love you for it