Announcing Your Decision to Homeschool

Yes, we know you “don’t care about what anyone else thinks” about your family’s decision to homeschool – or maybe you do? Either way, it’s beyond frustrating to have that decision questioned by well meaning (and no so well meaning) friends and strangers.
 
The best defense is a good offense, so as you’re excitedly reading through curriculum options, you’ll do well to have your thoughts in order to shut down any conversations before they happen. Because honestly, who do these people think they are?

​I’ll be covering a variety of responses to have ready in a variety of situations in upcoming posts, but this post focuses on your initial announcement to those closest to you. This can really set the tone for interactions with friends and family moving forward and make the difference between hellish and harmonious holidays. You decide how you would like to do it, of course, depending on the anticipated response – my people know I’m very direct.

The Announcement

Hey Everyone!

​We’re very happy to share this: We're taking our little out of school after the Christmas break and homeschooling him come January.

We’ve put LOTS of thought into it and we're tired of our extremely bright focus-challenged child wondering why he gets Fs on material he knows ("they think I'm not smart and it agurvates me!" - We'll be working on spelling ;) and we've run out of patience for teachers pushing us to medicate him when he's not disruptive (opposite actually) but requires redirection. (If you medicate your child - that's nice. This isn't about you.)

I get the teachers' perspective, I do (I have a masters degree in elementary education and taught first grade for 3 yrs), but I also know my little guy can have an entirely awesome education spanning a much shorter school day with NO homework (I despise homework) - and that's what I'm going to do! We're VERY fortunate that I'm home and able to do this. It's not for everyone.

Important: Supplementing state frameworks with a more robust world geography and Latin (because I can), and learning about the world while out in it, I'll have little time for "socialization" debates. If anyone is worried, all I'll offer is this: we got it covered. Thanks. And mind yo' bidness! (REREAD THIS.) And if you MUST share your unwanted thoughts, write them down on a slip of paper, put it in a bottle and shove it up your ass ;)

We're just trying to pin down the name for exclusive little private school. I vote for Awesome Academy, because it will be awesome (of course) - but Washington Redskins is a top contender as well. (Tim's idea. And you'll only get that if you watch South Park.)

Considerations to keep in mind when drafting your own note:

• Why you’ve made this decision, being careful to NOT leave anything open to debate or feedback.
• Your plan in general terms, to show that you are in fact a thinking human being, taking care to note that you know you don’t HAVE to share any of this, because no one would be so insulting to assume you would take your child’s education lightly, but you’re excited about the whole thing and want to share.
• Acknowledgment of typical homeschool concerns (like socialization), which you can detail or not, but mentioning them deflates that self-righteous know-it-all from asking “out of concern.” Should you wish you explore socialization in-depth in your announcement, be sure to provide a firm “not seeking your input unless you homeschool as well and have positive advice to offer” stance. 

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And despite all of your planning and careful word selection before clicking post (or send, or committing this to memory), know that you’ll have at LEAST 25 people asking you about socialization privately at some point, unless you’re like most homeschoolers and obsessively share kid events to head this off. Or they’ll ask how s/he’ll get into college, even if s/he is six-years-old right now. The best response there? “Oh. My. GOD! We never thought about that! Oh no, oh no, oh no!” And then fake cry.

I'll cover THAT response next!

In the meantime, if you haven't read it yet, check out Questions to Ask Homeschool Haters, which I wrote in a moment of frustration and stand behind 1000%!

Image by Oatsy40.