There is help and support available for those who are on a homeschooling journey. Most of us homeschoolers find it helpful to join a homeschool support group. There is so much help available there, including likeminded parents who are homeschooling their children (for the same or different reasons), children for our kids to play with, organized field trips and outings, and lots of advice and wisdom from veteran homeschoolers.

When I began homeschooling, I couldn’t find a support group in Chicago, Illinois that met my needs. Most of the ones that would have been a good fit were far away in the suburbs and here sat I in the city with no transportation to get to the ‘burbs.

I wanted to join a Christian homeschool support group, because I felt as thought it would be a good fit and that it would meet my needs. However, I couldn’t find one no matter how hard or long I searched, so I joined a secular support group. The people were nice and helpful, and there were many veteran homeschoolers in the group; yet, it still wasn’t a good fit, because most of the children who attended the group regularly were older, and my son was only 7 years old then.

Since I couldn’t find a physical group that met my needs; I started one of the many online homeschool groups. It now has more than 80 members and is more of a resource list than a support group. Finding a good online homeschool groups is as simple as doing a search on the web; here’s a link to a site where you’ll find a group for your state:  http://time4learning.net/groups/

I later joined several other online groups that have proved to be a great support resource. Eventually, I joined a physical secular support group too. Online homeschool groups in Illinois really helped me to understand Illinois homeschooling laws and to network with other Illinois homeschoolers.

Even if you are a member of a support group that has meetings, you’ll probably find belonging to one or more online homeschool groups very helpful; you may have a question or concern, and if your online group is an active one–when you post, you’ll get an answer quickly. More than likely, it will be just what you need, exactly when you need it.

My son is only 10 but recently told me he wants to be homeschooled through high school. I often think, “Will I be able to rise to the challenge?” Do you have similar thoughts?

We attend a homeschool co-op, and there are several parents who are homeschooling their kids through high school. It seems to be a time of great concern for most of them. They’re concerned with keeping accurate records, making sure their children take the right classes (especially if the kids plan to go to college), applying to universities, and tons of other things on their to-do lists. Some have enlisted the aid of their local public schools, and their children have a part-time home school and part-time public school status. Other kids are homeschooled and take classes via community colleges and universities to ensure that they’ll learn those difficult subjects that their parents may not be able to teach them, i.e., Advanced English/Writing, Physics, Calculus, Chemistry, Foreign Language, and others.

There are parents who have decided to use online high school programs (both public and private) and others who are using high school writing programs. Writing is a subject I’ve heard parents say they don’t teach their high school children but serve more as a guide. High school online writing programs serve to give teens guidance and direct feedback on their writing. Some are geared toward essay writing, others toward standardized test writing, and still others toward research writing.

Lots of success stories are being shared via our homeschool co-op, i.e., school acceptances at Stanford, Oberlin, Wellesley, and Northwestern University, among others.

When the time comes, I’ll be praying that my son will be among those who are accepted at the university of his choice.

Please leave a comment sharing your experience with homeschooling through high school.

Illinois doesn’t require you to initiate notification with your school district when you decide to homeschool, and it’s easy to follow Illinois homeschooling laws. There’s no specific home school statute in Illinois, but you can legally homeschool via an alternative home school statute. Check out the Home School Legal Defense Associations’s (HSLDA) website for credible information on homeschooling. There you’ll find lots of state homeschool resources; Illinois law states the following:

“If a child is ‘attending a private or a parochial school where children are taught the branches of education taught to children of corresponding age and grade in public schools, and where the instruction of the child in the branches of education is in the English language’ the child shall not be required to attend public school and the child is in compliance with Illinois compulsory attendance law.” Home schools that met these two requirements are considered legal private schools (Illinois law: 105 ILCS § 5/26-1).

Although both the HSLDA and Homeschool Legal Advantage (HLA) have summaries of homeschooling laws on their site, you should ask your librarian to help you find a copy of the Illinois homeschooling law. Yes, the HSLDA and HLA have summarized the law for you, but it’s their interpretation of the law–not the actual law. Do your research and after you read your state’s homeschooling statute/provision, then read the HSLDA’s or HLA’s interpretation of the laws. If you find the homeschooling laws on the internet, make sure it’s the actual law and that the site is a credible one.

If your child is in school, and you decide to homeschool, you should write a letter to the school principal, so no one will think he’s a truant. But if your child has never attended school, you don’t have to inform any one that you’re homeschooling him.

What you need to know has been outlined here. There are no heavy duty rules or regulations, and no standardized tests or teacher certifications are required. Now that you know the law, decide what curriculum you’re going to use, and go for it!

We all have some sort of bump, don’t we?

We have to deal with a lot of medical-type interruptions in our house.

Our youngest is a CHD Warrior!  Eli was born with complex congenital heart disease.  He has a very rare defect, along with three very common heart defects.  We found out during the pregnancy and were encouraged to terminate the pregnancy-that week!    

We immediately chose life and had to re-plan our delivery hospital, OB, and even the pediatrician we planned to use.  We expected Eli to have surgery a couple of days after birth, then another at about 6 months, another possibly at a year or so.

Eli is 2 years, 4 months old and has not had any surgeries yet!   However, we are looking at a possible surgery later this spring/summer.  He is truly a miracle…..

He has many, many doctor appointments….in two other cities.  So, we attempt to work around them.  

I was sincerely concerned about my first grader’s schooling.  I felt he was getting lost in the shuffle.  Not anymore, thanks to T4L.

By the way, Eli is our second heart kid.  We lost our oldest son after heart surgery in 1993.