Homeschooling

Hi there,

I have very recently made the decision to homeschool my son, who is 6 (in grade one). He is currently in the public school system. I would REALLY like to start as soon as possible, but I'm not sure how long to wait to start up. I have ordered two great books on homeschooling/unschooling and I have been finding all kinds of materials online and I have a tonne of ideas.

My question is if I should start after Christmas break OR wait until next school year? I would LOVE to start after Christmas, but does anyone have advice of whether or not this is too early since I've just made my decision within the past two weeks? Note that I am an avid researcher/thinker/OCD information gatherer and so will know a fair amount by Christmas...

Please help!

Actually, I've noticed that the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks are pretty popular "switch" points.  They're far enough into the school year for parents to know that school isn't working, and with the vacation time, it's logical to just not send them back.  So, you can definitely start after Christmas break...or tomorrow, if that suits you (and if you don't have a notification period that you need to comply with ;-)

As for your user name...does that mean you love vegies, or that you're a vegetarian, or both?  I sometimes go by "vegiemama", for the above reasons ;-)

Personally, now that you've made the decision, I would pull him at Thanksgiving, give him time to "deschool", then start with your actual school plans in January. Let December be all about the joy of the season, reconnecting with family, crafts, gifts (homemade!), baking, etc.

Good luck!

"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."- Abraham Lincoln

You know, there's a distinct advantage to starting "before you're ready." The advantage is that it forces you to deschool for a while. You don't have a whole bunch of plans and schedules lined up, so you're forced to just give things some time, to let your child begin to discover what he wants to do, to be, to learn.

I think that once you're sure of your decision, find the nearest convenient transition point and go for it. Come on in -- the water's fine!

Welcome to the board!

Miranda

When my son was in 2nd grade, we decided in October that we would start homeschooling the next school year.  Then, things started looking a little worse for him, so we decided we'd start after Christmas.  One more thing went down, and we began at the beginning of November.  :o)  Since we were doing our own thing, it didn't matter when we started.  Really -- the sooner the better.  You could wait for a break (like Thanksgiving) or you could just let him finish the week, and not go back the next week.  That's what we did.  Good luck!

Melinda