For some, deciding to homeschool their children is an easy decision. Something that was decided early on and there was never any doubt or question about the decision. For others, choosing to homeschool comes later. Often, because something isn’t working at school. It could be a bullying issue, an academic issue, an environmental issue, or a myriad of other reasons. Everyone has a different breaking point when you have been in the school system and you finally decide it’s time to leave. This could happen at any time, with your children being any age. It might be as early as Kindergarten or it might come later during middle school or high school. Whenever it happens, follow your gut and pull your kids out of school. There is never an age where it’s too late.
Recently, I helped a senior in high school leave school and start homeschooling. For the sake of anonymity, I will refer to this person using they/them/their pronouns. There were only three months left before graduation, but going to school was causing extreme anxiety including feeling physically ill. Even just driving by the school was causing them high levels of discomfort, it wasn’t just when they were there during the school week. Years of bullying and confrontation from peers and teachers/staff had built up so much that they could not bear the thought of walking in the building any longer.
When they first approached me about homeschooling, I was not aware of the severity of the bullying and suggested that they stick it out. It was only a few more months. Surely it couldn’t be that bad. It would just be easier to continue at the school. A couple days later, they came to me again and told me more details about what had actually been going on at school. I was only told the tip of the iceberg and it was horrendous. I agreed that they should leave the school and finish the senior year homeschooling so that they would not be subjected to the atrocities any longer. Their mental health was more important and we needed to act quickly.
I immediately provide them with the different options available in their state for homeschooling. We came up with a plan, I provided the forms, and explained the process to them. They spoke with their parents and after some additional questions and explanation of processes, the withdrawal process was in motion. Within just a few days, it was done and they were officially registered as a homeschooler.
In this circumstance, they didn’t need any of the credits from the classes they were taking in order to graduate. They were just forced to be at the school because of attendance requirements. This was also part of the original issue; there was no real reason for them to be going to school and being made to take classes that weren’t needed and they had no interest in anyway.
If they did need to finish classes for credits needed to graduate, we could have taken care of that too. There are plenty of options, so many in fact, that listing them would take far too long. I assure you, whatever “what if” or “but what about” you can think of, there is a solution. Whatever age, whatever grade level, whatever it is…it’s never too late to start homeschooling.
If you have questions about homeschooling, reach out to me at Stephanie@WanderLearnEducationalEmpowerment.com to schedule an appointment.