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Deciding To Go On (To The Higher Grades)© Joan Archer
I have reluctantly come to that great fork in the road of homeschooling, deciding whether or not to continue on into the higher grades or to turn my child over to the Great System to be educated. I have talked to The Beloved One about it, I have prayed about it, and I have talked to Jasper about it. In the end of it all, I have decided to carry on--I will continue to homeschool Jasper into the higher grades! While I am at the same time both overjoyed and overwhelmed by this, I feel I can definitely "handle" it.
This decision was not an easy one, by any means. However, Jasper has difficulty learning and retaining math facts, even when we repeatedly go over them. He is getting the things he needs to get, but pressure to get things quickly overwhelms him. He is very easily distracted especially when the task before him seems daunting, and I feel he would not do well in a classroom setting. There, too, is the social factor of what usually happens to a young person easily distracted by social things in school. Jasper, being a very social person, would probably not do very much actual school work. In deciding to homeschool your own children into the upper grades, there are a few questions you can ask yourself. Is my child capable of competing in a classroom, or is he better off studying at home? If your child seems perfectly content with home study, there is no need to change his schooling. If, on the other hand, your child is itching to be in the ultra-competitive school environment, maybe you could try an alternative for a while. Are you capable of making their subjects challenging enough? Don't worry that you don't understand things like Statistical Mathematics or whatever, you can find a person in your community who can help your child with that if that's where they are in math. Language Arts will naturally become more complex as your child's ability to speak and use language becomes more complex. Science has many forms, and can be made to fit your abilities and budget. Don't worry about getting scholarships, awards or whatever for college! Just a few days ago, our newspaper ran the photos of some children who were winners in a scholarship contest, and among them were a few homeschool kids. The only reason I can think of that more were not named is probably because more homeschool parents do not enroll their children in the contests. Articles abound in homeschool magazines about students who are actually preferred in colleges and universities, because home-educated children tend to become self-driven and actually interested in what they are learning.
The copyright of the article Deciding To Go On (To The Higher Grades) in Homeschool is owned by Joan Archer. Permission to republish Deciding To Go On (To The Higher Grades) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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