Homeschooling Questions and Answers: Homeschooling for One Year

Some people find they need a break from the regular grind and decide to homeschool for one year for any number of reasons. Hopefully they will find this advice to be helpful.

Question: I want to homeschool my child for one year and them put them back in school, how do I proceed.

Answer: I will start by saying that homeschooling for just one year is not a good idea in many cases. Because there is not a true commitment to homeschooling as a lifestyle, it becomes a laborious effort to keep up with the local public school. Long before the year is completed, everyone involved declared the homeschooling experiment a failure, and to make matters worse, they may even end up repeating the grade they attempted to homeschool.

If I haven't scared you away yet, you should know that homeschooling for one year can be quite successful with the right planning and preparation. But so much more important than that is the motivation for short-term homeschooling. Some of the very best reasons to embark on short-term homeschooling for one year is a family vacation. I realize that sound crazy, but a year long family vacation often includes nation wide or international travel, which provides an excellent learning experience. Other reasons are health of the child, or giving a child who is stressed out and depressed a chance to heal and de-stress. Homeschooling can only help such situations.

To homeschool for just one year, it is a good idea to go ahead and enroll the child into an online school. If you use an accredited online school, you will have an easier time re-enrolling the child into school without your homeschooling program being questioned. In fact, I have seen this done a couple of times with the homeschool child actually being skipped a grade after one year of homeschooling. Computer based homeschool curriculums like k-12, or Alpha Omega mirror a traditional school experience only online, the child will be able to have an educational experience that will mirror the school they will return to.

Should you decide to design your own curriculum for the year (which can be effective), you should be aware that the schools may test your kids before re-enrolling them, and they may not agree with your assessment of your child's academic process. Still, if the child is getting a truly unique experience, it may be worth the gamble.