We plan on homeschooling all the way through high school. I think that qualifies us as being fairly committed to this whole homeschooling thing. However, I also recognize that that means we will be home schooling for the next 23 years. A lot can happen in 23 years and it is, at least conceivable that homeschooling at some point for one of our children will not work out. Have you ever been in this position? Let me give you some food for thought regarding this difficult decision.
Circumstances Change
It is possible in the next 23 years that any number of things can happen that would in fact diminish my ability to home school. If for some reason I had to go back to work, for example, I would have no choice but to put my kids in school. Other situations, such as caring for a sick relative or even one of the children becoming seriously ill would warrant us thinking about putting the kids in school.
Failure to Thrive
Yes, while I believe whole heartedly in home schooling, there are some children that fail to thrive in the situation. I want to be careful here to say that I don’t believe we can always tell who is not thriving by looking at them. You cannot look at a child and decide that yours learned to read first or that their poor behavior is lack of socialization. However, as a home schooling parent, it is important to openly and honestly evaluate your child. If you are too biased, ask a peer review panel of others who are supportive of home schooling.
How do you know your child is failing to thrive? There could be a variety of indications including, but not limited too very poor social skills, testing poorly, or failure to pick up new skills. Let me just say that just because your child is having a rough time, doesn’t mean you need to ditch home schooling. It does mean you need to readjust. However, when you’ve readjusted continually and can’t find your footing, it’s time to consider that perhaps homeschooling isn’t working out.
There is no doubt that if you have had your mind set on home schooling, changing it is not easy. Of course as parents, we always have our children’s best interests at heart and sometimes their best interests may be to send them to school.