I did not decide to homeschool because of the Covid-19 virus. In fact I seriously considered homeschooling when we lived in Utah a few years ago. Our applications had been accepted at a homeschooling program there…but it just didn’t feel like the right time. Back then my husband and I both thought other benefits of public school outweighed our limited concerns. Then Covid-19 came to Idaho and public school changed dramatically. Everything that was worth keeping our kids in school for came to a screeching halt. The social interactions, the loving professional teachers, the open spaces to play, learning how to be a good friend, etc.

When the school decided to do home packets and online work, it was a disaster. It was hours every day just dealing with technological difficulties, and zoom meeting hiccups. I couldn’t stand it because honestly, I became my kids’ teacher, but was told what to teach. My kids were given the same packets that every other kid in that grade had been sent home with.

As I looked over my 4th grader’s writing assignment attempts that first week, I came to the shocking realization that he didn’t know how to write a complete sentence. He also wasn’t sure when to capitalize or not capitalize a word. Every writing assignment was a big run-on sentence. I never missed a parent teacher conference and my son is in 4th grade. How did I miss this??… I was shocked.

Now you might be asking yourself why I never noticed this issue in the work that was sent home. His teachers all had him do online writing-I saw 1 writing assignment in the past year. The school policy was no homework besides reading ‘since research hasn’t shown that extra work at home helps’.

This was all in my mind as summer went on. I waited to see what the district would do amid the Covid crisis. If I knew they were going to resume full time school for sure, I wouldn’t be writing this post because my kids would be in public school. I would just be doing extra writing practice with my son at home. I LOVE my kids’ teachers and everything they do to teach my children and communicate with me. However, the district did not reveal their plan for the school year. I had to make a decision if I was going to have a chance at acceptance into a homeschooling program by the deadlines.

The whole time I agonized about what to do, I kept having the same thought. If I’m going to end up teaching my kids at home either way, why not teach a curriculum that I choose, based on their individual needs? The main concern I had was social aspects. I wanted them to have those social experiences with different personalities at school and in different situations. Learning to cope and deal with other people as practice for real life when they have roommates and coworkers is one of the great things about public school.

While glancing through facebook, I noticed a post about homeschooling programs that provide state funds to help with educational materials. The program we were accepted to in Utah had provided funds as well but I didn’t remember how much. I was relieved to see a comment that Idaho did have two options for homeschool funding programs. I brought up the topic to my husband about homeschooling vs public school. He told me I could do whichever I prefer but I could tell his preference would be public school. This deflated my persistence in finding out more information about homeschool for a bit.

One night he sent me a screenshot of a facebook post saying that registrations for Tech Trep Academy were due by midnight the next day. Because of his willingness to send me this info, I knew that he would be supportive enough. I didn’t want to homeschool with the extra stress of his disapproval. It took a lot of divine help for me to register my 3 school age kids in that amount of time. Birth certificates, immunization records, proof of address, etc. had to be downloaded onto the enrollment and all of the questions answered. Everything seemed to fall into place much easier than anything I usually can do computer-wise(haha)!

We have been overly blessed to be enrolled into Tech Trep as homeschoolers. Every day is a testament to me that for at least this year, it is definitely the correct choice for our family. I pass no judgements on the education choices of other parents…how can I? I chose to homeschool because I disliked the lack of agency that I had as a parent teaching my children at home what other people wanted me to. All parents should have the agency to do whatever suits their family best.

Good luck with your school planning!

Jexi