How to Homeschool on a Temporary Basis

Is your child having problems at school? Maybe, it is an academic problem. Maybe, it is behavior problems. Sometimes children have problems with a particular teacher that become very stressful for the child and parent. If we are honest, sometimes it is a combination of those last two issues, and your child may not be totally without fault. However, that doesn't make the situation any less worrisome for a parent.

If you have tried your best to remedy the situation at the school with no success, you may be considering homeschooling as a temporary solution to the problem. I was in this situation, and I will share with you some tips I learned when homeschooling my son. He was in a problematic situation in fifth grade.

When someone homeschools their child on a planned, long-term basis, it is a different situation that requires different steps. When you are in an almost "emergency" situation, you don't have the luxury of perusing all the various homeschool curriculums, etc... Your child is quickly falling into emotional distress and falling behind in school. The situation at school could worsen tremendously very quickly. There could be much more serious problems develop that could be prevented if you act quickly.

Your first concern when you decide to home school on a temporary basis, is to develop a plan for the future without burning your bridges with the child's school. Keeping your child at home a few days without officially pulling them out is the best thing to do at this point. Don't just go barging into the school' s office and withdraw your child.

You will need to immediately check on your State's legal requirements concerning homeschooling. This will be a very important factor in how you proceed.

Take a little time to think things through personally and be sure that you have the resolve to do this. It is not always an easy situation, although there are some aspects that are easier for you. Consider the time you have available. Also, consider your other children and how the decision will affect them. When I was faced with the immediate need to homeschool my son, I was teaching preschool and had my daughter attending the four-year old program there. I had to remove her from preschool and home school her because I could no longer afford the expensive tuition. So, I had to take that into consideration.It turned out to be a great decision for both of my kids, and we look back on that year together fondly.

The Religious Exemption is great American tradition, but be careful of how you utilize this. This is the premise in most states where you can tell the school board that sending your child to public school violates your religious beliefs.

I am always for personal liberty, particularly religious liberty. I am a BAPTIST, and that is how American Baptist tradition developed. However, if you are only homeschooling on a temporary basis, this is kind of hypocritical. This sends a bad message to your child, and it sends a message to your local school system that you may have to go back and face later. Unless you truly have a religious objection, don't use this in your attempt to deal with behavior problems or teacher relationships.

Don't get a reputation as a trouble-maker at your child's school. As much as I hate to say it, I am speaking from experience here. This will come back to haunt you with this child and any other children you have coming up. And, you don't ever know what the future brings and what educational choices you will need to make.

Don't attempt to get back at a teacher that you feel has not adequately handled your child's situation. Sometimes accountability is needed, and of course, there are actions that cannot be ignored. But, as a rule, don't act in a way that brands you as a trouble-making mother.

Curriculum is always a decision when you homeschool. Your situation is going to be a little different than people who are homeschooling on a permanent basis. You need to get something quickly. There are many types of curriculum. You will be best suited in most of these temporary situations to go with a program that is affiliated with an institution. These decisions will be dictated initially by your state's homeschool laws. It may be that you have to go through an institution in a "correspondence" school kind of relationship to fulfil your state's requirements. Also, if you are facing this decision during the school year, you won't have much time. You really need to do the program that will meet the least resistance and take the least time in approval and delivery.

I used a curriculum called ACE that was administered through an institution in Saltville, VA. I will include the link. This was a good experience. ACE curriculum is a self-paced curriculum. It worked very well for us. My son actually liked the accomplishment factor as each step or booklet was completed.

We mailed achievement tests, book reports and chapter tests into them to be recorded. Other than that, they had very little oversight of what we did. This worked for us. This was in 1993, so it may have changed. I noticed on their website that they have different resources available.

There are other reasons that working through an established institution is that you will have transcripts for integrating your child back into the school system at a later date, possibly next year. This was my motivation, and when I did place my child back in school, his permanent record at the school did show the good marks from the home schooling institution. I saw it later when I was looking at his records for another issue.

While you home school, keep your child involved with their peers from school in some fashion. While they will definitely feel left out of things occasionally, it is important to keep them tapped in through Scouts or something similar. There are many homeschool children everywhere and they will not be so strange to their friends, anymore. When we homeschooled, it was not near as accepted.

It is important to give them opportunities to be with other homeschool children if possible, too. We went to a homeschool church group once a week, and they had little classes for the children. I also got to be with other ladies in a Bible study/crafts/refreshment type of meeting. This was great, and if you can find something similar, be sure and go.

Don't talk despairingly about the school or teacher, which is tempting to do. You do not have to justify your choices to anyone, especially well-meaning relatives.

One thing that I learned through this experience is that you should always keep your child in a healthy balance between respect for authority and self-respect. I am a substitute teacher now, and I have seen teachers treat children badly. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. I also know that most teachers work very hard and care about each child. It is a balancing act... You don't want to have your child feel that anytime the misbehave or act inappropriately, they are right and the teacher is wrong. This creates a monster, so be careful.

You can homeschool temporarily and deal with whatever is disrupting your child's education. The important thing you need to do is to act in a thougtful, calm manner. Begin by finding out your state's laws on homeschooling.