This perspective is coming from someone who previously chose to homeschool. Although I am not currently homeschooling either of my children, I did for awhile and really miss being such a positive force in my child’s learning. Our life situation changed drastically a little over a year ago and I made the difficult decision to send my kids to public school. It is a decision that I am not happy with but, in trying to do what is best for my kids, it is one that I don’t have the confidence to change right now. Hopefully I will be able to give someone some insight into what it takes to educate at home, the easy parts, the hard parts and the most rewarding moments I have ever experienced. I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but maybe I can offer the tiniest bit of insight into what may be a difficult decision.
My decision to homeschool came rather suddenly. My oldest son had always done well in school, academically and socially. Ever since he could really interact with people he has been a social butterfly, and probably always will be. He always got along well with other kids and could always manage to charm adults as well. He performed well academically and was frequently regarded as being unusually intelligent for his age. Not a genius or anything, but he developed a real love of learning and it showed.
When we made the transition from Hawaii back to the mainland it was halfway through his first grade year. Give our finances, we ended up living in an area in San Diego County that was not very safe and had an extremely poor elementary school. I first learned about homeschooling at this time. I did not have the confidence to carry it out all the way and considered homeschooling as a temporary option to finish out the year and start fresh when we were to receive our housing assignment on base during the summer.
I contacted the school district and was told that my only option, aside from him attending public school, was to educate him at home (Independent Study) using the curriculum they provided and to report weekly to our elementary school. Now that I am more knowledgeable I can’t help but think, “How dare you?!?”
It was nothing short of a nightmare. The curriculum was poor and outdated, there was an imposed ‘daily schedule’ that we had to follow and a certain amount of work that had to be completed each day. There was also no room to improve on the work as supplements were not counted towards his learning requirements. The schedule had to stay as it was because the amount of work was so large that to get behind would be disastrous, not to mention that everything had to be documented the EXACT day of. I am inclined to think that this structure and the requirements are so stringent because they do not want parents to homeschool due to not receiving the government funds for the child, which are obviously being wasted. But I digress…
First grade ended and we moved into base housing, with him attending the elementary school on base. This was a very good school and I am happy that he was able to spend several years there. He was able to interact with teachers who also had a love of learning and were also welcoming of my desire to volunteer. These teachers went out of their way to make sure that the kids actually understood what was being taught and allowed the kids to develop their own personal learning style and actually teach to that style. That is not an easy feat and I am grateful for those early experiences that also allowed me to experience elementary education and to grow.
Eventually, we transferred to a new duty station. The housing we were offered was horrible so we decided to rent a house from a friend farther north. It was during our time at this elementary school that I noticed some problems with my older son. The child who would throw himself down a flight of stairs while whistling the National Anthem just to make people laugh was now withdrawn, quiet, never wanted to leave the house and was doing poorly in school. He was having difficulty making friends and was not adjusting the slightest by the middle of the school year. We had a lot of problems with the administration and the teacher just was not tuned into the kids at all. The curriculum went at a steady pace whether the kids got it or not. Poor performance seemed to be acceptable and, although I was in contact with the teacher on a daily basis, I was always told my son was ‘fine’ day after day. Schoolwork was not graded and sent home in a timely manner so that I could narrow down any problems and he was constantly sent home because the admin could could not tell the difference between allergies and pinkeye. After several meetings, during which I openly shared his medical history and provided educational materials regarding the difference between allergies and pinkeye, I was told that he could not return without a doctor’s THOROUGH checkup and full report on his condition.
It was at this time I received a postcard in the mail advertising a fairly new charter school that was expanding into that particular area, which was one county north. The school was based in San Diego County, which we had already decided to move back to in the summer. A charter school? I hadn’t been clear on what a charter school was, I just read some stuff in the newspaper once or twice about how bad they were. But the information on the postcard didn’t sound too bad at all and I was ready to do something new because, obviously, the traditional way was no longer working. So I decided to do some research.
After visiting their website, Dehesa Charter School I definitely wanted to know more about why these schools were ‘bad.’ Honestly, I never did find a reasonable answer to that question. I will go further into my understanding of the choices later but for now I saw that I had three choices. One, continue in public school and hope all is well. Two, completely take matters into my own hand and homeschool traditionally, filing paperwork as a private school. Or three, enroll with a charter as the middle ground. I wasn’t sure I could take on the whole responsibility of a ‘private school’ so quickly with my current understanding so I decided on the charter.
This turned out to be the best option for us. I would never in a million years trade our experience, not for anything. We were able to educate at home, following state standards but our own resources and methods, have resources available for help and guidance, be able to monitor issues as they develop and, lo and behold, correct them immediately! There were many different programs and classes he could take should he choose to and our schedule was flexible enough to allow for spontaneous learning opportunities. We scheduled, we educated, we rewarded and we followed through.
He immediately began to return to his old self, regained his love of learning and is maintaining the friendships he made with other homeschooled kids to this day. I also dare to offer that those kids are some of the most thoughtful, hysterical, creative, fun-loving and loyal we have ever encountered. The kids out here in the backwoods are, for the most part, absolutely nothing in comparison. You grow differently when you are homeschooled and there is definitely a unique personality that evolves.
We are currently working our way back to San Diego and I will have to make the choice again. Only this time he is in 10th grade. That brings a whole new set of questions!