Should your family homeschool or should you send your child to a school? This question has crossed the minds of many parents in the past few years. So I am here to share with you my thoughts on whether it’s best to home educate or to send the child to school.
Together with my husband, we agreed to homeschool our children long before we welcomed our first child. We always considered it to be the best option for our family.
Whilst on our homeschool journey, I met many parents who faced this dilemma and struggled with conflicting emotions. It seemed to me that they anticipated that in the course of our conversations I would try to persuade them toward homeschooling. It has never been the case.
My answer always was and is – your child’s well-being is the most crucial and core aspect of this decision. To homeschool, one needs to be passionate about their choice and be able to recite every reason for homeschooling in their sleep. Because once you set the goal in your mind, the options and opportunities to have a successful and amazing experience homeschooling are ample. The sky is your limit. But if the conviction is not there, homeschooling has the potential to turn into misery for all from the very start.
The same goes for schooling. If you feel strongly that you would truly struggle with this responsibility (trust me I do at times) or that homeschooling would not suit your family for any reason, then schooling is most likely the best option.
But when examining both scenarios, what you need to consider is the child’s well-being. I am strongly convinced that it plays the most crucial role in this process of decision-making.
If at any stage you feel that your child is genuinely struggling and he or she is not their happy self, here is your red flag you can’t ignore.
I am not implying here that when you see your child struggle you have to change the course altogether. I mean that when the child begins to withdraw, does not feel secure, and brings up issues that are way beyond his or her control, this is the time to fight for your child’s well-being by every means possible.
Dig up every resource, seek help from every specialist you can, look for support, take the child’s words and concerns seriously, and don’t become complacent. Fight for your child until this concern has been dealt with.
As a parent, you need to trust your intuition even in situations when teachers see you as a nuisance. Or in a homeschool situation, it might mean that you need to get out of your comfort zone and start meeting new people if you feel that your child feels isolated, for instance.
Yes. Challenges in general are a part of life. They push us to grow, they build us and strengthen our character. Children need to learn to face their own battles.
Hence parents are to be aware of age-appropriate challenges – emotional, physical, social, mental, and spiritual. We need to take notes of the child’s strengths and define areas where they need extensive support.
My children are intensely strong-willed. Yet I don’t let them do only what makes them happy every day all day. I know it’s not going to form the habits that would help them thrive in the future. I combine routine together with their interests and show them the value and benefits of hard work.
As a parent, you have the ability to sense when the situation is beyond your control or fixing and requires drastic measures because the child’s whole well-being is at stake. This is the time to make a change.
My advice is to be an aware and involved parent 100% of the time. Set a list of priorities that you would never be able to compromise no matter what.
I hope I gave you some food for thought. You are your child’s guardian angel who has your child’s best interest at heart and the person he or she will always look up to and trust the most. Not even the most amazing teacher is capable of taking your place when it comes to taking care of your child’s needs.
With that understanding, we accept the responsibility to know what is beneficial and what produces positive outcomes when it comes to the child’s well-being and welfare.
Below I shared a list of books and resources that formed my beliefs and helped me grow as a parent and my children’s educator.
I would wholeheartedly recommend each and every single one of them to every parent I meet.
Homeschool Simplified
Are you feeling overwhelmed and don't know where to start? Join this guide to Montessori inspired homeschool to ease into homeschooling with confidence.
Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five
What’s the single most important thing you can do during pregnancy? What does watching TV do to a child’s brain? What’s the best way to handle temper tantrums? Scientists know.
The Gentle Parent: Positive, Practical, Effective Discipline
Written by best-selling parenting and children's book author and mother of six, L.R.Knost, 'The Gentle Parent: Positive, Practical, Effective Discipline' provides parents with the tools they need to implement the Three C's of gentle discipline--Connection, Communication, and Cooperation--to create a peaceful home and a healthy parent/child relationship.
The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives
The Self-Driven Child offers a combination of cutting-edge brain science, the latest discoveries in behavioral therapy, and case studies drawn from the thousands of kids and teens Bill and Ned have helped over the years to teach you how to set your child on the real road to success. As parents, we can only drive our kids so far. At some point, they will have to take the wheel and map out their own path.
The Talent Code: Unlocking the Secret of Skill in Sports, Art, Music, Math, and
In The Talent Code, award-winning journalist Daniel Coyle draws on cutting-edge research to reveal that, far from being some abstract mystical power fixed at birth, ability really can be created and nurtured.
Keep Your Love On: Connection Communication And Boundaries
Keeping your love on. It’s a hard thing to do. Sometimes it’s the hardest thing to do. But if you want to build healthy relationships with God and others, learning to keep your love on is non–negotiable. Adults and children alike thrive in healthy relationships where it is safe to love and be loved, to know and be known.
The Strength Switch: How The New Science of Strength-Based Parenting Can Help Your Child and Your Teen to Flourish
This game-changing book shows us the extraordinary results of focusing on our children’s strengths rather than always trying to correct their weaknesses. Most parents struggle with this shift because they suffer from a negativity bias, thanks to evolutionary development, giving them “strengths-blindness.” By showing us how to throw the “strengths switch,” Lea Waters demonstrates how we can not only help our children build resilience, optimism, and achievement but we can also help inoculate them against today’s pandemic of depression and anxiety.
THE NEMECHEK PROTOCOL FOR AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS: A How-To Guide For Restoring Neurological Function
The Nemechek Protocol for Autism and Developmental Delay is the most scientific and refined approach to reversing the devastating effects of autism, ADD, ADHD, SPD, and the myriad of other developmental disorders. Dr. Nemechek's approach frequently triggers rapid and often breath-taking improvements in children within only a few weeks. And surprisingly, the protocol employs common and natural supplements and avoids the countless homeopathic remedies and antibiotics frequently prescribed to children that are often both toxic and expensive.
The Joyful Child: Montessori, Global Wisdom for Birth to Three
This rich but brief introduction is based on the author's 50 years of experience as a teacher, parent, grandparent, school consultant, government consultant, speaker, and oral examiner for Montessori teacher training courses. Montessori guidelines presented here have held true all over the world, no matter what the culture of the child, for over 100 years and prove to be as true now as ever. It is the goal of this book to help parents look for, discover, appreciate, and support the mental, physical, and emotional needs of the child in the first three years of life, in their own culture.
Child of the World: Montessori, Global Education for Age 3-12+
The word "Montessori" is not legally protected and is used sometimes in ways that have little to do with authentic Montessori practices. In this book the author, who has almost fifty years of AMI Montessori teaching and consulting experience and work as an oral examiner for teacher-training courses, briefly presents authentic Montessori practices for ages 3-6 (the primary class), ages 6-12 (the elementary class), and ages 12-18. Here are ideas for using Montessori principles in the home.
What You Should Know about Your Child
The Montessori Method is scientific education based on a sound knowledge of childhood. In this volume, Dr. Montessori examines the physical and mental development of the child in its early years and discusses what she considers to be the basic truths underlying the child’s nature, growth and development.
The Montessori Method
The Montessori Method, With Illustrations - ORIGINAL AND COMPLETE EDITION, by Maria Montessori.First Edition.The Montessori Method of Education, developed by Italian physician Maria Montessori, is a child-centered educational approach based on scientific observations of children. Montessori's method has been used for over 100 years in many parts of the world.The Montessori method views the child as the one who is naturally eager for knowledge and capable of initiating learning in a supportive, thoughtfully prepared learning environment. It attempts to develop children physically, socially, emotionally and cognitively.
Maria Montessori speaks to parents
Maria Montessori was very much aware of the role of the parent, and their need for a clearer understanding of her ideas. She responded to this need by giving special lectures for parents during her training courses and congresses. Regrettably, she never found the time to write a book especially for parents. The Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company has now collected 11 lectures in which Maria Montessori addresses parents, explaining how they might better understand their own role in the development of their child. Paula Polk Lillard, an internationally respected Montessori author, wrote the Foreword, in which she also describes her transition from a traditional public school teacher to a Montessori mother, teacher and trainer.
The Secret of Childhood (Montessori series Book 22)
The book The Secret of Childhood is divided in three sections, dealing in turn with early childhood development, the author’s educational method, and the relation of the child to society. First, Montessori talks about the new-born child who is not only a body ready to function as a body, but also has a spiritual embryo with latent psychic capacities.