Thinking of Home Schooling? Scared?

by    T. C. Pinckney                                                                                                                                       Vol. XX, No. 3, March 2007

Perhaps the most common reaction to the thought of possibly home schooling your children is uncertainty and fear: How in the world can I do all that? Won’t I be out there all alone? How can I put together all the courses, gather all the materials, teach subjects I’ve never studied? And if there is help, how can I find it? Won’t it be horribly expensive? How will I know what’s best for my children?

Relax, mom and dad. Lots of help is available. An estimated two million students are being home schooled in the U. S. now, and there are many, many sources to help get you on track.

There are many publications devoted to home schooling; numerous curricula available in many different formats; local, state, and national support groups; and even the Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools (407-808-9100, info@SBACS.org) which not only serves classroom schools but also home schools. Here are just a few of the many, many sources of helpful information:

Homeschooling Family to Family, 713-937-7510, www.homeschoolingfamilytofamily.org

Southern Baptist Church and Home Education Association, 972-213-5460, sbchea@gmail.com

iTeachMyKids, www.iteachmykids.org

North Carolinians for Home Education publishes an excellent Resource Guide. 919-790-1100, nche@nche.com.

Home School Digest, a quarterly magazine with many brief articles on all aspects of home schooling and very helpful lists of resources. $18 per year. Write: HSD, P.O. Box 374, Covert, MI 49043.

And, of course, you can search online for “homeschooling”. I just did and received a response of “about 32,700,000" sites!

So, no. mom and dad, you won’t be cast adrift on a sea of uncertainty. Many have traveled this route before, many are doing so now. And you have easy access to lots and lots of help.