In my post-entitled “Supposedly Homeschooling”, I wrote about how a person might deal with their feelings related a homeschooled child who they felt was not being educated. Interestingly enough, I later came across a story about a father in South Carolina who felt his son was not getting a proper education through homeschooling. I was left dumfounded.
Obviously, this family is not only divorced, but the parents are somewhat estranged. The father and his mother videotaped the child reading, took the tape to a reading “expert” and reported it to the reporter who wrote the story. This kind of passive aggressive behavior does nothing to resolve differences and is first on my list of things not to do.
I am not saying a divorced family cannot homeschool. However, the homeschooling parent does need the backing of the other parent. There will be exceptions such as extreme cases where the other parent has lost all rights to the child, but without some kind of support, the one parent doing all of the work will only is able to go so far before burning out.
So what does a single or divorced parent who wants to homeschool do? They need to get buy in from the other parent. Without agreement, support, and even help from the other parent, the homeschooling parent will have to fight an uphill battle.
Some ways to get your ex-spouse in agreement with your desire to homeschool your kids are:
- Communicate the reasons you want to homeschool and how it will help the child.
- Discuss the different methods of homeschooling and all of your resources and come to an agreement on educational styles.
- Meet regularly to go over the progress of the child and to address strengths and weaknesses.
Yes, you will need to have civil discussions with the other parent of your child. I normally would advise a homeschooling parent that they do not need permission to homeschool. However, I have to admit when it comes to dealing with the other parent, that this is an exception. A house divided cannot homeschool.
*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?