Homeschooling - The Family
by Mimi Rothschild
Adding another child to your home-school can throw a wrench into the established routine you have worked hard to put together. Whether you have opted to share homeschooling responsibilities with another parent; or one of your own children has either decided to leave public school or is now of age to begin in earnest, it can be a rough road at first. The original home-schooled child may feel that she isn’t getting as much attention as before, as you strive to make the new child feel comfortable. To smooth the transition as much as possible, there are a few things you can do.
Prepare
This isn’t something you want to spring on your home-schooled child. Mention it as soon as it is brought up as a possibility. It is her school and her home and she must feel that she has some control over her surroundings. Naturally resistant to change, the older a child is, the more she may be against the idea. Giving her as much time as possible to consider the idea and assess the implications, she may come around of her own accord. And if it doesn’t happen this time, then perhaps, should another opportunity arise to add a child to her personal home-school, she may be more amenable to the idea.
A Helping Hand
Even great teachers have assistants. Impress upon your child the importance of her presence and help when the new child is added. She will be a mentor and show the new kid the ropes. She can help with his work when he has a hard time. She can also show him around her area and his when he first arrives. She can show him how to do some of her favorite projects that she did when she first began school. Let her know that her expertise will be needed and wanted.
A Course of Her Own
Naturally, the new child will be on a different course of study in some progression courses. If you are in the middle of reading a novel with your original homeschooler, the new child would be lost if you were to have jump right in. By giving him his own book to read, as well as some different courses or projects or tutorials, you will be giving her space to herself so that she won’t feel impinged upon; and he will have a place of his own in which to adapt at his own pace.
Together As a Family
Just as everyone in the family gathers for meals, so too are all the home-schooled kids coming together everyday to share their learning experiences. Whether it’s an outside gymnastics class or piano lesson, a group cooking or gardening project, or watching a documentary together, everyday should have a couple of overlap activities to emphasize your home-school family. The camaraderie they develop together will serve them well when they join other home-schooled families, and give them a sense of belonging and togetherness that can only come from participating in a tight knit home-school family.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children’s rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because “our current system of education has broken its promise…” Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.
Rothschild has authored a number of books about online learning published by McGraw Hill and others. Her daily RSS Education News Feed contains feature stories on alternatives in education.
Some of the online academies managed by Learning By Grace, Inc. include:
www.TheJubileeAcademy.org – The Premier Online PreK-12 Christian
Homeschooling Academy
www.TheMorningStarAcademy.org – K-12 Accredited Private Christian
Diploma Granting Online Academy
www.TheGraceAcademy.org – The Most Trusted Source of K-12 Online
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