I guess you could call us Hybrid Homeschoolers. While we have nothing to do with traditional schools, my children still attend a ‘school’ program. While Masters Academy is technically called a tutoring program, this coming year, the children will take History, Art, Music, and Drama on Mondays and History and Literature, Grammar, Math, and Science on Thursdays. On the days they have off they will complete their assignments at home. I am still responsible for attendance reporting, and can choose the level to which the kids complete assignment. In other words, I can opt to have the children complete a minimum level of assigned projects, and inject my own program, or have the children complete everything assigned. I still have control over my kid’s education. (I feel for middle school kids like mine such a combination is fine, but I don’t know if I would recommend it for younger)
Hybrid homeschooling is a fuzzy concept. While some would say that teaching your child all of their lessons yourself is the only true form of homeschooling, others would say that if your children are in any program outside of the traditional public school or private school system, then they are homeschooling. Still others call public school programs like K12 homeschooling because it is done in the home. Hybrid homeschooling is definitely a difficult and even contentious subject amongst homeschoolers.
As I see it, hybrid homeschooling happens when you combine homeschooling with “school”. This school can be in the form of a school atmosphere like group classes, programs that offer accreditation, programs sanctioned by public schools, and online schools. While I definitely have problems with program-sanctioned schools because of restrictions and controls, and accreditation worries me a little, I feel each parent needs to find his or her place in the world of homeschooling.
With all that said, I must now state that adding yet another label to homeschooling could be counter productive. I am not doing it to drive another stake into the homeschooling debate and to further separate the different factions of homeschoolers. Instead, I am writing about hybrid homeschoolers to help people become aware of the gazillion choices out there for homeschoolers.
In case you are homeschooling, or considering homeschooling, you need to be aware that you do not have to take on the entire job yourself. If you find the entire process overwhelming and feel you need help, I am here to tell you that there are numerous choices from which you can choose. My next series’ will introduce you to all of the distance learning programs available, and then I will tell you about a few programs that offer local classes for homeschoolers.
*Have a question about homeschooling? Just ask.
*Want to know more about homeschooling? Start with the 2006 homeschool blog in review!
* Have you seen the homeschooling curriculum glossary?