Homeschooling does not mean living as a shut-in. It doesn’t mean all learning happens at home, either. “Homeschooling” is more accurately “parent-led education.” Instead of needing to
sign an NDA just to see your child’s homework, parents decide what is taught to their children, who will teach them, when they will study which subjects, what performance expectations are used, and what teaching methods are used.
Homeschoolers use an ever-growing variety of resources to educate their children. They can buy a complete curriculum for any given subject, including textbooks, workbooks, tests, test answers, and even a daily assignment schedule for the entire year. Many come with video options, some even have live online classes with either a teacher or an expert in a particular area teaching the class and answering student questions, even grading assignments. They can buy one subject or all of the subjects. They can buy a complete full year curriculum from one publisher or piece it together from different publishers for different subjects. They can enroll their children in parent-taught co-op classes or even public-school-district-sponsored parent-partnership programs (PPPs).
PPPs are a way for school districts to retain some of the federal funding they would have otherwise lost when a student homeschools instead of attending public school. Parents can choose from different levels of support ranging from supplying curriculum at no-cost to the family, to programs involving limited on-campus attendance, with curriculum and assignments given by a public school teacher.
In many states homeschoolers have the right to access to any service or class offered to full time student, so a student can take just science on campus and then take all other classes at home. Homeschoolers can play on the high school football game or receive any offered therapy services. They are even eligible for free school lunches if they would otherwise qualify.
What does all of this mean? It means your homeschooler will have all kinds of opportunities to meet and develop friendships with their peers. Moreover, they learn not only how to socialize with people of their same age like public school students, but rather homeschoolers are generally comfortable with kids much younger than themselves as well as adults of any age. Homeschoolers look out for the little kid who can’t reach the swings by himself as well as comfortably enjoy a visit with grandparents or elders at church. They aren’t oblivious to the needs of others; they are going to shake an adult’s hand and look him in the eye, speak clearly and listen to what is said.
Parent-led education pulls in experiences and resources from friends, family, and all kinds of public resources. Over the course of their childhood they likely will interact with adults in a range of professions, attend hands-on learning events and camps, they will learn from older children, adults, and sometimes even younger children. They will reinforce their learning by teaching it to their sibling or a younger friend. They will learn that education doesn’t end at 3:00pm, doesn’t happen only on a weekday nor only in a particular building. They grow up with much wider perspectives and richer experiences rather than just what can be provided by worksheets & textbooks while sitting at a desk for eight hours a day.
Just some of the experiences my kids have participated in so far during our homeschooling journey: soccer; dance; gymnastics; violin; guitar; drums; bass; farming; goat raising & milking, as well cheese-making; vegetable farming; science camp; Camp Invention; worship band; choir; speech; team policy debate; parliamentary debate; Lincoln-Douglas debate; theater; apologetics; financial basics and essentials; Shakespeare; Latin; Spanish; Korean; theater lighting; theater sound; theater set-building; video filming; video production; photography; video visual effects; photographic visual effects; nature camp; poetry & literature camp; debate camp; speech camp; Bible camp; tours of everything from a US Navy air craft carrier to Krispy Kreme; many different children’s museums; science museums; and so much more!
Some of the co-op classes they have taken are: Art Journaling; Hands-on Science; Nutrition; Mexican Cuisine; High School Writing; Writing & Rhetoric studies on Fables, Narratives, Proverbs, Cheria, Refutation & Confirmation, Encomium & Vituperation, Description, Impersonation, and Thesis; State History; What’s in the Bible; Digital Art; Terrific Triangles; Let’s Learn About Sports; Good Knight Stories; Historical Conquest; Musicals; Yearbook; Newsletter; Shakespeare; Roman Life; Latin; Spanish; Chess; Math Fun; Multiplication; Sewing; Fun with Chocolate; Financial Foundations; Bible Writing; US History; Lewis & Clark; World Geography; Bible Art Journaling; Art; Crochet; Quilting; American History with American Girl Dolls; Basic Cooking; and many, many more!
