Before you start arranging your house and furniture to set up your ideal home school, think for a bit on what some of the constraints and sacrifices that need to be considered. First is the time commitment. Instruction goes well beyond the lecture talk. Most of the time is preparing lessons, lab experiments, and projects. Not to mention field trips, music lessons, going over grades, and discussing how to improve. A home school will take up a good deal of the day for you or your spouse, or both.
If you have time in the day to teach your children, think about what sacrifices you and they have to make. There are big sacrifices that affect you and your child's lifestyle. The major ones are that it can affect your income. If you have a two-income household, you may need to eliminate one of them to reserve the time to educate the children. The good news is that the investment in a home school is relatively cheap (comparing this to public school commuting, lunch tickets and buying school gear).
The other factor you will want to consider is lifestyle change. If you are pulling your children out of public school, they may have misgivings, resentment or simply be strongly against even going at all. It makes teaching hard at first, so there may be getting over that hump.
Some additional subjects to consider:
- Getting both parents to agree on homeschooling and the teaching methods
- Having time to do normal household chores (i.e. laundry, cleaning, cooking etc.)
- Making sure the children get out to socialize with other kids their age
- Finding your own time to accomplish your needs during the day
Getting Over the Obstacles
If the first parts sounded negative or daunting in any way, know that there is tons of support you can find from other homeschoolers and organizations. There are ways you can even eliminate a couple obstacles at once if you are clever with your teaching and planning and have a good network. Some parents find other parents who have their own home school. They can share ideas, tackle difficult subjects and socialize together.
The Internet provides a good conduit to network your home school for such reasons. There are free advertisement site, chat board rooms and homeschooling sites that have answer resources.
If the subject matter seems daunting (i.e. teaching high school calculus), look into taking some college courses before you start, or if you have the funds, hire a tutor from your local college or university.
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