An Overview of Homeschooling

Parent's chose to home school their children for various reasons. Living in a dangerous neighborhood and fear for their children's safety during school, religious reasons, and believing public schools are lacking are a few reasons I know of. Whatever the reason, parent's that home school have a long hard road ahead of them.

Melanie Marten is homeschooling her two boys. She has the added challenge of homeschooling a child with autism. And she's doing it all while working full time from home! I wanted to see how she manages to get everything into a day and just what her take on homeschooling is. Hopefully this interview will help others decide if homeschooling is right for them.

Angel: Melanie, what are your sons's ages?

Mel: They are 10 and 9. The 9 year old is autistic.

Angel: You've homeschooled them the whole time correct?

Mel: Yes, from the moment they were born. I always wanted to home school them.

Angel: Why did you decide to home school?

Mel: I decided to home school for several reasons. To begin with, I don't like things I see coming out of the public school system these days. Of course, it is not the truth everywhere, but I have seen many personal examples of children with poor abilities who hate to learn and have horrible social skills.
I have a rather 'out there' philosophy on raising children. I see a lot of problems with society as a whole, and do not consider my job to make sure my children integrate into it for the purpose of fitting in. Instead, I think I should raise them to have the positive qualities necessary to improve the quality of the world.

Angel: How is the home school day set up at your house? What is your lesson plan?

Mel: I don't use a curriculum. Well, not a purchased one. We are very eclectic. We start around 9:00 in the morning and get all the basics out of the way as quickly as possible: math, grammar, spelling, etc. My eldest does workbooks (he actually likes them!) and reads at least a chapter in whatever book he's working on. I work with my autistic son one-on-one for twenty minute blocks throughout the morning. He needs a lot of breaks between lessons. In the afternoon, we tackle unit-study style science and history projects.

I'm divorced, and work at home as well, so my day is really busy. My older son is, thankfully, to the point where he can do the bulk of his work without my help. He is a very visual learner, and we often use instructional DVDs to cover a concept. Educational computer games get in the mix as well.

Angel: What is your grading system like?

Mel: We don't grade. There is no requirement for it in my state, and I see no reason for them. We just work on something until it is learned.

Angel: Do you have to account to the county or state with testing and such?

Mel: No. There is no testing or reporting in my state at all.

Angel: What is different when teaching an autistic child?

Mel: Oh boy! That's a big question. My autistic son is in a much lower grade level than other kids his age bracket. He has speech problems which we work on extensively throughout the day as well as behavior issues. I do not even consider trying to teach him science, history, grammar, etc. He is not capable right now of understanding that. We work on basic math, reading (he reads out loud better than he converses), writing, and a lot of life skills and complex instructional activities.

Angel: Will you home school the boys straight through high school?

Mel: That is my intention. I plan to use an actual high school curriculum when we get to that point, mostly for the purpose of creating transcripts and a college-preparatory education that doesn't leave anything out of the national standard. Besides the fact that I'm not sure I could teach calculus and stuff like that effectively. Our local community college also offers classes to high school age kids, which I plan to take advantage of.

Angel: What do you think is different for children who are homeschooled verses traditional schooling as far as college is concerned?

Mel: Well, there are studies, but I can't quote any of them. I do know that more Universities and colleges are accepting and actually eager for homeschooled kids. I think that, as long as the parent and child prepare and create transcripts and take the standardized tests, there would be no problem getting into college.

Angel: How do you manage to work and home school your children?

Mel: I don't sleep much. I get about 6 hours of sleep per night tops. Also, like I mentioned above, my eldest son is very good at working on his own. Lots of people ask me this question, and I never really know how to answer. I mean, I home school my kids and work at home and keep the house relatively neat. It's just what I have chosen to do, so I do it. We stick to a schedule pretty much, and everyone helps out. And if it gets too crazy or stressful, we take a break.

Angel: Who would you recommend homeschooling to?

Mel: Anyone who feels very strongly that it is the right thing to do AND has the patience, dedication, and creativity to make it work. I don't think homeschooling is right for everyone. I'm not one of those people who say "Public school stinks! Homeschooling is the only right way to raise kids!' Homeschooling is a big decision to make.

Angel: What is the biggest challenge you face in homeschooling your children?

Mel: Hmm... The biggest challenge is probably educating my autistic son. I know a lot of home school families have challenges with doubting relatives, behavior issues, or other things. I don't really have them.

Angel: How do you make sure your boys have interaction with other children?

Mel: First of all, I don't believe that it is necessary for children to interact with a bunch of other children on a daily basis. That is hardly a natural model of social interactions in the world. Social interaction is more difficult for my autistic son, of course, and his goal is basically to be calm and use behavioral control in social situations. My other son is a bit shy, but we get plenty of interaction with people of all ages, races, and religions, whatever, all the time. We take part in library programs, he takes an art class, and we have meetings at the local parks, and belong to a home school group. There are opportunities for interactions with people every day when you home school. We are out and about in the world with all types of people all the time.

Angel: What do you think you are offering your children by homeschooling that they wouldn't get at a public school?

Mel: Let me first say that I don't think homeschooling is the "right" way to educate children and that public school stinks. That might be true, but I don't like to make sweeping generalizations. For some families, homeschooling would be a really bad decision.

Personally, I think I am offering my children a chance to develop a love of learning and an appreciation for the process of personal enrichment and discovery. I don't like the public school concept of forty minutes of Ancient Egypt (or whatever) and then you have to do math. When my son got interested in Ancient Egypt, we had a blast researching, discovering, and exploring the topic for days. It was fun, and it was his choice. Not spoon fed knowledge. I strongly believe that kids learn what they are interested in. And public schools do not give individual children the chance to explore their interests.

On another note, I think I am also helping him develop a strong moral character and code of ethics that will help him throughout life. There are a lot of great kids at public school, of course, but there are also a lot of horrible ones. Socialization issues are one of the big reasons I choose to home school. I would rather my son learn the correct way to behave and thus be able to deal with vulgar, idiotic, or criminal types, instead of having them thrust upon him immediately after starting school.

Angel: Do the boys ever ask to go to public school? If so, how do you handle the situation?

Mel: No. My eldest son knows, of course, that other kids go to a school building and hears about it from his friends. He once told me, "It sounds boring, Mom. They all seem to hate it. And it takes ALL DAY."

Angel: Is there anything else you'd like to add about homeschooling?

Mel: I think the rise in homeschooling is a symptom of the problems in the public school system and society. Besides those who do it for religious purposes (I am not one of them), I think it shows that increasing numbers of people are not willing to accept government rule over their personal family choices. That might sound radical, but it's not. Parents should be the ones responsible for their children, not the government. It gets some bad press - families supposedly homeschooling kids as a way to hide abuse - but on the whole, it is loving, caring families who want to raise children who are beneficial for society at large.

I certainly learned a lot from this interview with Melanie. I don't home school my son, and never have, but I have a lot of respect for people who chose to. I think the most important thing is that children get a good education, whether at home or in public and private schools.