by Phyllis Wheeler
I am guessing you aren't happy with the schooling your kids are getting, for whatever reason. You've suggested homeschooling to yourself. But you can't imagine yourself doing it because you aren't superwoman, able to juggle lessons and other mom duties.
Take it from a homeschooling veteran, you can do it IF you love your kids. That's the only qualification. As you move through the homeschooling journey, you will develop the skills you need, as you need them. That's how jugglers start--juggling just one thing. Then they add another, and after a while another.
And here's another secret: homeschooling can actually be easier than the standard soccer mom routine. Soccer moms are everywhere but home, juggling same-age activities that are different for each kid (unless you have twins). In contrast, when you homeschool, you focus on what you can all do together.
In addition, kids in school often have plenty of homework and need help from you in the evening. If you homeschool, you get all that out of the way in the morning, and your evenings are free.
Large families often enjoy doing unit studies. These are large topics, for instance ancient Egypt, which can be treated differently for various ages.Your read-aloud could be a book called Mara, Daughter of the Nile. A young child might write sentences about it; an older child might create a paper. They all might work on an art project, such as a scroll with hieroglyphics. Math can be worked in too--figuring the height of a pyramid using similar triangles. The unit could be capped with a visit to the art museum. Such unit studies might last a month, and are commonly available for purchase.
You can expect to use workbooks and curriculum made for homeschoolers, to make sure your child learns what he should for his age and grade. Typically these curriculums include an answer key--you don't need to be the expert. In fact, homeschoolers become adept at learning from the book, rather than from a teacher. Their reading skills are well prepared for college.
Correspondence schools will teach your child, too. These can take the form of videos, workbooks, or online.
How do you structure your day? Many families do the tougher studying in the morning, leaving the afternoon for projects or play. There are plenty of organizations these days with daytime classes for homeschoolers, if you want to sign up for something outside the home. You could even send your kids to organized sports with schooled kids in the late afternoon, if you are willing to do some driving! Watch out how much of that you sign up for though! You have to be careful to avoid burnout.
How about socializing? Staying home all the time may be easier for you, but it may not make your kids happy. You may decide they need to get out and about for socialization. But here's the best part: you get to choose whom your child socializes with. You don't have to worry about bullies. You can make sure that socialization is well-supervised. You can choose adults, too. Homeschooled kids are usually very comfortable talking to adults, unlike schooled kids, I have observed.
A homeschool co-op is one of the best solutions to the need for socialization. If you meet once a week with other homeschoolers for class or field trips, your child gets well-supervised social interaction, and can learn and grow socially in a way that a schooled child cannot. Bullying is simply not a problem for homeschoolers! So how do you find a co-op? You have to ask other homeschoolers. If your area has a homeschooling convention, by all means go to it, and go to workshops if they have any. You need to network with other homeschoolers until you find or can create a co-op.
You will need support as well. Homeschooling provides unique challenges, and it helps so much to have others to talk to who are doing it too. You can find plenty of homeschool moms online, in discussion forums and email groups. You should try several!
The answer to the homeschooling question is simple: yes, you can do it.