Homeschooling an Only Child

Looking about at the homeschool families you apperceive in your co-op, abutment group, or church, you ability beam that a lot of abide of added than one child. In fact, a 2006 National Center for Apprenticeship address begin that families with three or added accouchement accomplish up 62% of the homeschool population. If you're one of the few with an alone adolescent at home, you may be allurement yourself the question, "Can I homeschool my alone child?"

The absolute acknowledgment is yes, you can. Only-child families acquire the aforementioned allowances homeschooling provides to beyond families. A acquaintance who homeschooled her alone son until the age of 10, if their ancestors miraculously grew in size, reminded me that homeschooling, like annihilation else, is what you accomplish it. If you sow acceptable berry in your homeschool, you will acquire an abounding harvest, behindhand of the bulk of accouchement in your home.

My bedmate and I set our hearts to homeschool our kids afore we even had any. We'd been alien to homeschooling just afore our now 12-year-old was born. Our affidavit for homeschooling mirrored those of a lot of families: to brainwash the accomplished child, to accumulate her affection at home, to accession her with a able Christian worldview. We paid little absorption to her getting an alone adolescent until I abutting a homeschool abutment accumulation and accomplished we were in the minority. Alone two of the added than thirty families in my abutment group-including ourselves-were only-child families.

I didn't panic. Our aesthetics hadn't changed. We had a God-given eyes for our family. I animated in the allowances of only-child homeschooling I could see immediately: an affluence of one-on-one time, added abandon in allotment class and activities, and added adaptability in our agenda than that already afforded by homeschooling.

But first, let's accede some of the trials you ability face as you endeavor to homeschool your alone child. Homeschooling an alone adolescent does accommodate some altered challenges, but none of them are insurmountable.

Interaction with Others

I don't accept there's a homeschooling mom out there who has not fielded questions about socialization. As an only-child family, you ability feel doubly targeted. Well-intentioned accompany and ancestors argued that our babe bare to be in a acceptable academy ambience because she didn't accept ancestors to advice her apprentice to allotment and plan out differences. Privately, I didn't wish her subjected to a classroom of same-age aeon who would advice appearance her faculty of self.

So I advised to ample in the gaps larboard by the absence of brothers and sisters. One of the aboriginal acquaint we accomplished her was respect: for herself, for others, and for things. Simple, I know; aswell advantageous as all-embracing activity values. Applied to homeschooling, these rules accomplished our babe the elements of accurate socialization, not what association calls socialization. She was accomplished to account herself in her anticipation activity and in her angel of herself as a bright, compassionate, and able adolescent of God. Respecting others became important if we visited the library and if alert to the instructions for her algebraic assignment. Account for things developed by itself out of discussions of God's creation. Caring for her own toys, the brittle things in our home, and items adopted from accompany grew out of that.

We aswell strove to accommodate opportunities for our babe to body relationships. We complex ourselves in abbey and association events. We abounding acreage trips organized by our abutment group. We took accomplish to advance friendships, scheduling time together. We abutting our abutment accumulation in visiting association at a retirement home already a month, accouterment our babe both the account of practicing her amusing abilities and the bulk of getting a absolution to others. These activities had as their capital purpose to advise her to collaborate with humans in all ages and stages of life.

Avoiding a Child-Centered Home

Falling into the allurement of a child-centered home is a 18-carat affair for any parent, abnormally the ancestor of a homeschooled alone child. With our adolescent getting such a ample focus in our lives, how do we advance the able ascendancy in our home? We accomplish abiding her responsibilities at home access as she grows in ability and capability. We set the archetype of confined others by extensive out to abandoned neighbors and ailing friends. We archetypal a advantageous alliance area we accomplish time for anniversary added as bedmate and wife, and we bethink to put God aboriginal aloft all else.

One-on-One Time with Parents

Homeschooling already affords admired superior time amid parents and children. If you are homeschooling an alone child, that time becomes conceivably even added beneficial. With Mom and Dad as our daughter's capital playmates, we are able to focus on specific abilities such as administration and arena fairly.

Once, my bedmate came in from plan and begin our babe and me aggressive angrily in a bold of Candy Land. Although it's sometimes appetizing to let her win, we apperceive that if we let her win every time, she will not apperceive how to lose graciously. We are able to allot abundant of our time to adorning her ability and interests and embedding our ethics into her heart. Behindhand of ancestors size, that's one of the greatest blessings of home education.

Freedom and Flexibility

Every adolescent is a one-of-a-kind conception of God, and homeschooling gives us the befalling to focus on the character of anniversary child. That's addition one of the blessings we adore behindhand of ancestors size-which agency families like ours can account from homeschooling just as abundant as anyone.

We admire our abandon of choice. We accept the class that adulation our child's acquirements style, the bulk of time adherent to a subject, whether our adolescent will apprentice cursive or Latin, workbooks or manipulatives, and on it goes.

Different Sizes, Aforementioned Blessings

As I've emphasized afresh and again, the blessings of homeschooling are basically the aforementioned behindhand of ancestors size. Some of the blessings may appearance themselves in altered ways, and to some admeasurement they may alter in quantity. For example, a ancestors with added accouchement enjoys added congenital opportunities to advise qualities such as cooperation and sharing, while a ancestors with alone one adolescent enjoys greater adaptability in allotment class and activities. In both cases, the versatility of homeschooling allows families to adapt their approach, yield advantage of congenital strengths, and ample in abeyant areas of weakness. That's the abundant advantage of homeschooling-it's customizable, flexible, and adjustable to the altered affairs of your family.