Written by Jamie Martin, editor of Simple Homeschool and Steady Mom
I remember soon after my daughter, Trishna, joined our family from India. I took her to the eye doctor, and he asked where she would be attending school.
“We’re going to homeschool,” I answered a bit nervously.
“Well, you’re not going to homeschool her forever, so where do you think she’ll go later on?” he replied.
Inside I thought, “Why wouldn’t we homeschool “forever?”
It’s been almost five years since that day, and I’ve learned and changed and grown throughout our homeschooling experience. I’ve also read a variety of opinions, in both blogs and books, about how to decide how long to homeschool.
Some suggest you take it year-by-year, analyzing what is right for each child and for the family as a whole. They express that this is less overwhelming, and that there’s no point making an all-or-nothing decision when you don’t really know what the future holds.
But others suggest that if you make a long-term commitment to homeschooling, it actually lessens the stress of having to go through the decision-making process each and every year. It allows you to weather the storms of life without constantly questioning your schooling choice.
I initially found the year-by-year idea freeing and helpful, especially when I had just started homeschooling. Five years later, however, I lean more toward seeing our choice to homeschool as a lifestyle that we’ve committed to. Knowing this is what I believe I’m meant to be doing helps me get through both the good and the difficult seasons of our life. (You should know, though, that I reserve to change my mind at any time!)
What about you? Do you decide about homeschooling each year as you go along? Or have you decided you will stick with it for the long-haul? How did you go about making your decision, and what led you to the choice you’ve made?
Thank you for saying that so well! I plan to home-school my daughter (12) all the way through high school. We took it year by year until this point, and as scary as this sounds to me, as we have only completed one year so far, I know in my heart it is what we should do. My next is only 2, and I am not certain what we will do. Take it year by year with him at first too I am sure. 🙂
Debbye’s latest post: 5 Ways to Help Your Baby or Toddler Nap While Traveling
My oldest is 41/2. We’re planning to homeschool. We want to reevaluate each year just to make sure, but at the same time we’re planning to HS for the duration. I was homeschooled, k-12 and my husband was homeschooled 5th-12th.
Johanna @ My Home Tableau’s latest post: The Best Parenting Advice I Have Ever Received
We’re into year 3 here and plan on doing it for the long haul. If it stops working, we’ll look at other things. Until it does, we’re in it to win it – together!
We’re planning to homeschool for the long haul, but like many others, I reserve the right to change my mind! Whatever is right for each child/the family as a whole, is what we will do. That said, we are in the early stages of looking for land to build our dream farmstead on, and we are not even taking school districts into consideration when we look. So where ever we end up, the state of the likely very rural school district may influence things down the road, as well, if homeschooling starts to not be a good fit.
Originally, we homeschooled our oldest until he entered 9th grade. He then went to the local public school. While he transitioned well, and he was miles ahead of his counterparts academically (YEAH Switched on Schoolhouse!) even he admits, he would do things differently looking back. In his words, he came home feeling like he needed a spiritual shower from all of the filth he encountered on a daily basis. By his senior year, he was seriously reconsidering his decision to go to public school. He graduated, but he urged us not to follow that path with his younger siblings.
Therefore, we have a 10th grader, and a 9th grader this year, happily homeschooling.
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We’re very much year-at-a-time people, but I think that speaks to one of the main reasons we homeschool (when we do)—we value its flexibility. We travel a lot, we work from home and sometimes need a flexible year, and we help run a ministry alongside the business. So because we’re year-at-a-time people with most things in life, it really only makes sense that it’s how we approach homeschool, too.
I’ve found myself sometimes stuck in a corner when I’ve said “forever” to something. I don’t know what forever holds. I can’t promise what my kids’ needs will be, where we’ll live, what our circumstances are… For us, we trust God annually to guide us where we need to be, and will bend our wills to His if He presents something to us rather unexpected.
Tsh,
I’ve read your blog for about a year now. We lived in India for three years and worked for an organization that suggested we take some time away from our very stressful service in a difficult place, and have some R&R in Chiang Mai, Thailand. While there, we visited Cornerstone Counseling because I struggle with depression. I happened to be looking at your website last year and somehow saw a picture of you standing in front of the Chiang Mai Zoo and it just made my heart happy. I grabbed my husband and said, “Look! We were just there!” It was fun. Love your site. Just wanted you to know 🙂
Hannah’s latest post: Happiness Is A Vacuum
Our oldest is almost 6 so we are pretty new to homeschool, but we are committed for the duration. I feel that if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. So while it’s going well, we will keep at it but if it gets rocky (or at least rockier than everyday life is) we will evaluate and decide if it is still the right choice for us. So one year down, hopefully 18 (when the baby is done) to go.
My pastor has a saying “If you leave yourself options, you will eventually take them.” He didn’t say this regarding school options, obviously, but I have found in so many ways and areas this is very true. I liked the comment comparing it to natural birth. If you have not set your mind then when it gets intense you will run for the drugs! BUT, that being said, God is God and I am not. If HIS orders and prompting says to change, I will obey. But until that day I have to set my face like flint to run the race set before me.
Ours is a lifelong commitment – all the way through high school, no ifs, ands, or buts. We also have a plan – life insurance on me – in case something happens to me so that my husband could buy curriculum and hire someone to come in and supervise our girls’ studies while he’s at work. We have no intention – ever – of handing our kids over to the government schools.
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Interesting idea with the life insurance. We also have it for me, but for some reason I never considered my husband could use it for curriculum & a teacher!
After two failed attempts with our eldest (now 11) at our local public school, lasting a total of 6 weeks within 2 grades, homeschooling is our way of life. Our youngest is starting 1st grade this year, the eldest will be in 6th and there has been very little voiced by either of them about wishing to go to “normal” school. When it is discussed I find the reason seems to be more about extra-curricular happenings, so this year our 6th grader will participate in sports at the school.
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We are just starting homeschool this year with preschool, and not really sure where it’s going to go from there. I’m thinking until 2nd grade or so and then we’re thinking about cyber school. I think a year by year decision is best.
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We have said year by year all along. We initially began because we wanted to! We weren’t ready to be apart from my 5 yr old and even though there was a school available to us down the street, not even half a mile, we weren’t “required” to register her for kindergarten. So we thought – why would we? I loved it and we kept up with it. That was 7 years ago.
Four kids later… Last year we put our oldest two in public school for the first time. New home, new state, new community – it worked fine and we got to meet new people but, we’re heading back to homeschooling this year. We just felt they missed out on so much education last year, they were way too exhausted – gone at 6:50a.m. – not home until 4:15. I missed them!!
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I thought I would homeschool all my children all the way through. I homeschooled my oldest all the way through. She danced ballet 4 nights a week so it worked well for us. The second 2 girls ended up going into public school in 10th and 9th grades in order to be able to play volleyball. The first one that went into school ended up spending her last year of high school at a university, so she got a full year of college for free. My youngest is still at home and loves homeschooling. He has no desire to play sports at this time, so we’ll see what the future brings. Hugs those babies while you have them!
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We always planned to homeschool forever, but honestly other folks made me nervous: How would we cope with high school? What if our kids want to go to school; What about school leaving certificates… So I started to get nervous – just a little!!! And when we started high school – my poor kids went through the mill as I rigorized our very relaxed school efforts… now that we are half way through high school and my kids are following their own passions and paths we have resorted back to “They will find their way” (for all our sakes!) … and I can see that the lines between finishing school and starting real life are far less defined for homeschool kids who have a lifestyle of learning… the adventure of life starts way earlier, not waiting for their drivers license to get going, rather they are going already. They pursue college courses or part time jobs, which are just seen as a means to following their hearts rather than something to look good on their CV. So it appears that we are indeed going to be homeschooling the whole way, despite my nervous moments halfway through!!!
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Yep! That about sums it up for me. 🙂
We did the “year by year” thing and have recently committed to doing Classical Conversations all the way up (barring of course that God steers us another way). It’s so helpful to me cause I feel I can jump in with both feet without that nagging feeling of having to reevaluate all the time.
To me it’s obvious that, if it becomes apparent that they aren’t thriving, we can consider the whys and go from there. There are many variables in ones education that can be tweaked. In other areas of life being committed is a good thing. Why not with home education too? 🙂 We are committed all the way up and, as with all of life, flexible as needed.
After all, life is full of surprises because we have a plan. No plan = no surprises..and I like surprises! 🙂
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I would prefer to say we are homeschooling at least until high school. (I have 3 boys, ages 6, 4, 2.) My husband prefers to do it year by year. And my family thinks this is just one of my phases. To plan to do it long-term and not year by year makes me feel less pressure in them being compared to public school kids. Maybe They are learning x, y, z this year, but we will get there, too, if not this year then maybe next year. If that makes sense. AND it helps me with buying things for homeschooling, knowing I can use what I buy for all kids because we are doing it long-term. I would be sad if we stopped homeschooling, but maybe I’ll feel differently in a few years…
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We just returned to the States after living for three years in northern India. We homeschooled our three kids before we were missionaries, during our time in India, and are homeschooling now. I tend to be an “all or nothing” person and it’s less stressful for me to say that this is a lifestyle we’ve committed to, and we’re doing it–no matter what. But living overseas has reminded me that we never know what’s around the bend! It’s best to be flexible and hold our lifestyle with an open palm. That said, I love homeschooling and I plan to keep doing it. Our kids are 11, 9, and 8 and have been homeschooled from the beginning!
Hannah
prayingwithoneeyeopen.wordpress.com
Hannah’s latest post: Happiness Is A Vacuum
We have every intention of homeschooling as a lifestyle in our family, but plan on making sure we are always doing what’s best for each of our children (we know they will each be individuals who may require different education decisions). I think we will end up reevaluating about every 3 years or so- mid elementary, before middle, and again before high school.
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Ive watched too many children slip through the cracks in the school system in our area. We dont have the money to do private school, I dont feel the schools are safe anymore, I dont believe in standardized testing, and, most importantly-I really LIKE my kids! So, barring something drastic occurring, I plan to homeschool for the next twenty-plus years (two kids with one more in the plans).
Funny this post should come now. My family just had this conversation. When Son1 started K, homeschooling was my idea. Husband said ‘we’ll try it for a year and see how it goes’. Two years later Son1 started 2nd and Son2 started K. Husband said ‘we’ll try both of them for a year and see how it goes’. ahem MY plan was to stay home through elementary, then go to public middle school. In our area several elementary schools feed into the middle, so it seemed a good idea to transition then (not the ONLY ‘new’ kid). We didn’t. Son1 starts High School this year. We gave him the option to go to school, public or private, totally his choice. He chose to stay home. Husband looked at me and said ‘looks like we’re going all the way through’. lol As long as it’s feasible and works for us, we’ll be at home. My baby starts 1st this year so I have a LOT of years ahead!