When we started homeschooling our children back in the stone age days of 2001, I had only known that it was even legal to do such a thing for about two years. My family is incredibly school-y. My father was a music teacher who then became the principal of my school. My mother was a nurse and has a nursing instructor degree. My grandmother was a sixth-grade teacher. My great-grandmother was a special education teacher. I have an English Literature/education degree. The urge to teach just kept flowing through the gene pool, I guess. Therefore, we did school. No questions asked. Because it was such a seismic shift in my awareness of the world, I will never forget the moment that it was revealed to me that I could take the education of my children into my own hands as well as the feeling of betrayal that no one had TOLD me that this was possible. It was 1999; I had a two-year-old and a nursling and I was sitting in a mom’s circle, discretely trying to figure out which “side” the baby needed next when I overheard one of the moms, a woman I had never laid eyes on before or, interestingly enough, ever again, talking about choosing preschools to another mom. “Yes, but they encourage you to enroll them at three or four now, did you know that? We’re thinking about homeschooling ours.” She said this, all matter of fact, as she dug into the diaper bag for the sippy cup. I glanced at my two and half year old who was very carefully turning the pages of Katy and the Big Snow and thought…school? At THREE?! In like…six months?!? There was no way I was putting my toddler in a classroom setting for six hours every day unless I absolutely had to, and that meant if I had to go back to work. And here is where I must pause and say, it turns out that I didn’t have to go back to work in the office because the internet was a brand new thing and I worked for a software company who let me work from home, part-time and just come in for meetings once a week or so. They also had beer ball Fridays and I walked around barefoot in the office a lot so there was that kind of vibe…I realize with all of my heart, that this is a privilege and a blessing that has been afforded to me and which is not always possible for every family. I get it, I really do. I’ve been where I had to make money in order to eat hot dogs and canned beans before, so when I talk about homeschooling as a lifestyle, I do not, in any way, mean to overlook those families who simply cannot get by without mom in the workplace. Plus, lots of women really love to work outside the home and I get that too. However. In the twenty years that we homeschooled I have known families where both parents or a single parent worked outside the home and homeschooled their children at the same time. It sounds crazy, but it can be done. So, with that in mind, I’d like to write a little bit about what it looks like to start on the path of taking the responsibility for your children’s education into your own hands at whatever stage of the game you find yourself.
The first thing I’d like to say is, take a deep breath. You’ve got this. You can absolutely do this thing that feels so huge. It must be said that New York is one of the most paperwork intense states to homeschool in, compared to say, Oklahoma where you don’t even have to tell the school what you’re up to, but once you have a system down and understand what is required of you, it will become a habit that you fall into. Eventually, I promise, you’ll stop worrying that someone is going to call CPS on you because they saw your kids out front without shoes and carrying chickens under their arms. Maybe while playing baseball. Chicken baseball happens.
The next thing to do, and this is a must, is to acquaint yourself with the state regulations. Read them. Print them out. Put them in a binder for future reference. Love them. You are now formally married to NY-CRR 100.10 until you decide to consciously uncouple. You want to know this document so that you can protect your right to educate your children at home. You can pull this document out anytime you need to and quote it chapter and verse to any school official who, I guarantee, doesn’t know the regulations like you are about to know them. The very next step is to find at least one other family with children near your children’s ages who are homeschooling. This can be done through the magic – that is the internet. By searching for co-ops and other loosely organized groups of homeschoolers in your area, you can begin to network with other families who are traveling the same road you are. Believe me, it’s incredibly helpful to have at least one other adult to whom you can communicate your fears, questions and plans. Plus, you can plan super cool field trips to places like Old Sturbridge Village with them, and they might even cook for you when you’re sick. The next thing you need to do is let your school know, in a timely fashion, that you intend to home school your darlings. Timely fashion means something like the July before the school year begins, but can also mean the Friday before the Monday that you are going to begin homeschooling because you’ve decided to pull them out immediately. This happens. All. The. Time. So, if that is your situation, if your kids really need to not be in school anymore, don’t fret. Pull them. Don’t ask for permission to do this, tell them that you are doing it. It is your right. The advisement that you owe the school is called “A Letter of Intent”. In it you say something like, “Please be advised that Darling will be homeschooling for the academic year of 2022/2023. Our IHIP (Intentional Home Instruction Plan) will come under separate cover.” That’s it. Next week, I’ll walk you through your IHIP and how to decide on curricula. Don’t think too much about it right now. Just let it settle into yourselves. You are homeschooling. You are homeschoolers. In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding homeschooling please do not hesitate to reach out to me at hliscomb@yahoo.com.