Schools are closed throughout the country. Some are closed until April 6th. Others have extended their closures into May. Some have suspended schooling for the rest of the school year and will not resume until fall. There’s a lot of confusion about what will happen with public schools. Will the students have to make up the time? Will online schooling count? Are parents who have children at home now homeschoolers? Are they crisis schoolers? One thing is for sure there are tons of articles all over the internet about what parents should do to educate their children while public school is suspended.
Not everyone educating their children at home right now is a homeschooler. Homeschoolers are parents who have voluntarily chosen to educate their children at home. They’ve studied the options, selected curriculum, and made a plan of what they want to accomplish. They have varied reasons for homeschooling, but most are plugged into homeschool communities where they can get advice and help with their curriculum, field trips, resources, and legal compliance. Some homeschooling parents are former educators. Some are not. But all of them believe that it is the parent’s job to educate their children, and they take that responsibility very seriously.
Some parents thrust into educating their children at home are using resources provided by their school districts. Districts equipped for distance learning are utilizing online resources, web classes, etc. in order to continue their normal curriculum in a home environment. In Utah’s Davis School District, for example, teachers are compiling weekly check lists of curriculum to be covered, providing access to websites to facilitate learning, engaging students via email and online check-ins, and offering limited on site school office hours for tutoring for those students who need it. The district passed out tablets to students who needed them in order to accomplish digital learning.
In Michigan, schools that are not registered with the state for online learning are not able to continue with their curriculum. Some teachers are still giving out assignments, but they can’t grade the assignments and the days done online will not ultimately count toward the state requirements for school attendance. Some schools and teachers aren’t even doing that. In other states, teachers have put together resource packets which parent can pick up and turn in at regular intervals. This is what I would define as “crisis schooling.”
Even so, there are some parents looking at the current state of education, the current crisis, and the current availability or lack of options and considering whether homeschooling might just be a better option altogether. As a homeschooler, I’d like to offer some tips and resources for parents in any of these situations to try to give you a bit of encouragement in a time of uncertainty and stress.
You don’t have to be a teacher to teach. Public education as we know it in the US is a fairly modern invention. While variations in public education and schools date back to colonial times, a structured public school format from elementary to high school didn’t emerge until the 1930’s. One room schoolhouses that taught students who were at different grade levels at the same time serve as an example that schooling your children in different grades can be done. Also, before standardized curriculum came into existence, there was a lot of flexibility in how learning occurred. We can utilize these ideas to keep learning interesting and exciting for students who didn’t like school and aren’t enthusiastic about “doing school at home.”
One of the biggest factors in school success is parental involvement. Parents who value education, who partner with their child’s teachers, and who show an interest in what’s going on produce children who do better in school over all. You can’t get more involved in your child’s education than acting as your child’s educator. As such, your values and priorities are on display for your child. Your child is now going to be receiving one-on-one instruction and attention. That’s a huge advantage over most public school classrooms where teachers can have 25+ students to work with!
Probably the biggest fear of parents who are currently tasked with educating their child at home is their fear that they are unqualified. The truth is that you are eminently qualified to teach your child. After all, you taught them how to walk. You taught them how to talk. You taught them how to care for themselves through learning to dress themselves, wash themselves, feed themselves and use the bathroom on their own. You have done a huge amount of educating your child already! You know your child best. You know what they respond to, what motivates them, what they struggle with. You know what they like and don’t like. These are huge advantages when it comes to education, and it’s one of the reasons most teachers ask you to fill out some kind of student survey with questions like this about your child at the start of the year.
In fact, before the high school years most teaching degrees focus on things like classroom management, educational theory, and the politics of the school board system rather than actual subject matter. It isn’t until you get to the high school level that teachers are required to have an educational degree that includes a majority of credit hours in the specific subject they plan to teach. Even substitute teachers are only required to have a bachelor’s degree. It can be in any subject. Even if you didn’t go to college, a desire to see your child succeed in school will go a long way to making up for any deficiencies you may have.
Home school curriculum options are often scripted. As long as you follow the script, your child will learn what they need to learn. There are lots of resources and helps to cover different ways of teaching a subject or troubleshooting problem areas that can help learners with differing strengths understand the concepts being taught. You don’t have to know everything to be a success. You just have to be willing to try. Many parents find themselves learning right along with their child, which can help instill a lifelong love of learning in children.
If you want to begin homeschooling officially and continue after COVID-19 has passed, you need to start by learning your state’s laws about homeschooling. Different states require different things. Some require attendance records. Some require standardized testing at various intervals. Some require a curriculum review. Others require only that you teach the same subjects as your local public school district would teach. The best resource for making sure you are in complete compliance with local homeschooling laws is the Homeschool Legal Defense Association. HSLDA is active in helping homeschoolers with legal compliance, defending homeschoolers in legal battles related to homeschooling, and keeping homeschoolers informed on any proposed changes to the laws and requirements in their state. They provide resources and templates, including those for things like student IDs and transcripts.
There are a wide range of homeschooling curricula options on the market. There are religious options as well as secular options. There are options that are heavy on worksheets and structure, and options that are more literature based. There are even options for classical education that includes subjects like logic and Latin. Your best bet is to find a curricula that’s easy to use, covers the necessary subjects you want to cover, and also fits your child’s learning style. If you have a child who loves to read and listen to stories, you want to lean toward a literature-based curricula like Sonlight or Bookshark. If you have a child that does better with worksheets you may want to try Abeka. For classical education, you might try Veritas. Want to search out a curriculum tailored to your needs? Use Cathy Duffy’s review website’s advanced search option.
What if you just want to take advantage of some unique learning opportunities as they come? With everything closed or restricted due to social distancing, there are tons of resources for online learning opportunities as well as online field trips and virtual tours. This website provides resources for online learning experiences for various grade levels as well as information on school closures due to COVID-19. This website provides a list of resources organized by subject as well as by grade level. Want a virtual field trip? Try these website options: weareteachers.com , discovery education, weare themighty.com, and scholastic. Want to take a virtual tour? Try these articles from Good Housekeeping and Town and Country Magazine. Virtualfreesites.com lists over 300 options for museums, exhibits, points of interest, and guided tours online. Online libraries like Audible and Epic have offered free resources to children out of school. Technology allows you more educational opportunities than you can imagine.
Bottom line: Learning doesn’t have to look any particular way. Learning can happen anywhere at any time. You can be very structured or very relaxed in your approach. It’s up to you and what works best for your family situation. Learning happens as we engage with each other. It can look like family game night, cooking together, reading together, or gardening together. Math skills, science skills, and reading skills can be practiced in a variety of hands-on, real-life practical ways that can reinforce what your child learned in school without feeling like school at home. If you’re in quarantine together, take some time to learn together. Find a family hobby. Learn a new craft. Take advantage of the opportunity to slow down, reconnect, and rest. Life may never go back to the way it was, but it can go back to something better!
A Beautiful Mess 