It is Not Homeschooling If You Pay Someone Else to Do it
If a homeschooling parent takes on additional children, then thier homeschool becomes a public school.
What parents should be aware of is if your hire someone to homeschool your child, then you are not really homeschooling. I am not saying that anything is wrong with having someone else homeschool your kids. For many parents, especially single parents, it is the very best option. However, what you should understand is that when you put your children together with someone else’s children you lose the most joyful, wondrous part of homeschoolingâÂ?¦ the one-on-one parent-child relationship. For this reason alone, I have opted to homeschool my children, and no one else’s.
Homeschooling someone elses child cannot be taken lightly.
If you are a parent who looking for someone to homeschool your child in your absence, you must understand your request. At the point where a new child enters the home and joins the existing children in their educational program, their program immediately transforms from a homeschool to a private school. Surroundings immediately become more formal and regimented. After all, the mom doing the homeschooling is no longer responsible for the education and well-being of her own kids, but also for the children of someone else. Impromptu field trips, slumber party days, and history-in-bed days become a thing of the past. You should not do some things with someone else’s kid that you can do with your own. So if you do ask someone to homeschool your kids and they turn you down, please do not take it personally. They will very likely be extremely flattered, as I have been several times, but the undertaking is not something they can manage. Keep asking. You will find someone.
So, who do you ask to homeschool your child, you ask? Here is a list of some people you may want to approach:
� A close relative like a grandparent, or your own sibling who already had a close relationship with your child
� A nanny or caregiver that your child already has, and may have had for the past several years
� A single parent homeschooler who may need the funds and will be willing to adjust her program to suit your child
� A homeschooling mom who has graduated her own kids and is not ready to stop teaching
There are also people you will not want to homeschool your kids:
� Public educators who are doing it for money, and do not really believe in homeschooling
� A homeschooling mom with too many kids to be able to focus on yours
� Do not hire anyone who solicits for a homeschooling teacher job without checking references thoroughly. (I once read an article about a homeschool teacher who defrauded a family by taking money and never teaching. He is currently in jail under other charges.)