Should we homeschool independently during Covid-19?

I have already heard from several parents who are open to homeschooling independently from the Milpitas School District this coming school year, 2020-2021. If you have additional questions, please use the chat bot to contact me, Ann Zeise. If you want me to call you, please leave your name and phone number and a good time to call. I will only use that information to contact you.

First, what do you need to consider?

Primarily consider putting your family health first. If someone in your household is compromised such as they might die if they catch Covid-19, then definitely read on.

Did your children enjoy the online EcuatEveryWhere virtual classroom?

The district has learned some things, so they are calling it Version 2.0 this year. But if learning at the computer is not ideal for your child or your home life, consider that, when homeschooling outside of an online program, your child could spend more time learning with you or other family members, or on their own, reading a wide variety of books on all sorts of things they’d rather be learning about. They could be playing games with other family members, learning strategies useful through life. This is not to say they would never be on a computer, but it would be for learning computer applications, or learning with resources there that they truly enjoy and find worthwhile.

Does you child expect the same social experience that they had at school pre-Covid?

It won’t be like any new school year.

Their best friends may be in a different class. They will be assigned a new teacher, and will be with the same 10 or so students throughout the year, virtually now, and in maybe 2 days of school each week in 2021. Does that sound like normal socialization to you?

Milpitas USD plan for the 2020-2021 school year

When in-person instruction is appropriate, we have a phased-in hybrid plan to minimize risk for students and staff, with consideration of scientific research regarding the spread of COVID-19. This includes:

• Limiting numbers of students on campuses to meet PHD guidelines
• Maintaining stable cohorts of students & teachers with measures to avoid mixing elementary students with other classes on campus

There won’t be time to be social with the other children: no recess play, no lunch break. Grab & Go lunches will be provided for kids to take home, which I’m sure will be nutritious, but will they be foods your child enjoys?

There will be lots of time spent reinforcing “wellness protocols.” Try to imagine what keeping 10 kids 6′ apart for a full school day is going to be like?

• Establish daily wellness protocols
• Ensure we have adequate supplies of personal protective equipment, hand sanitizer, and access to handwashing
• Establish protocols to sanitize frequently used facilities and high touch surfaces
• Signage and floor markings directing students moving between classes and using safety precautions at all times

Are you or your child concerned about grades?

When home educating, parents instruct their children until they are pretty sure they understand a concept. Only then do they give them some time to work independently for practicing the new skill. The parent stays nearby and answers questions as they come up, when the child isn’t confident about something in the assignment. There is no shame is asking for help from mom or dad or an older sibling. Thus, the assignment is 100% correct. Both the parent and the student knows this. You don’t have to report an “A” to anyone else.

What if you have a high school student who is college bound or intent on a career that takes special skills.

Homeschooled high schoolers get into colleges all the time. Have for decades. Colleges love them! They have learned to research independently on some topic of high interest, much like a grad student. Yes, they need to show mastery in what that college expects, but not some general competency required by some unnamed university. In other words, they can create a portfolio of the amazing things they’ve accomplished where they have talent: might be an artist wanting to get into an art college, an aspiring scientist wanting to go to MIT, an entrepreneur starting his own business at age 15, a writer completing and publishing her first work at age 16. The list is endless. Colleges are like orchestras: they are looking for a diverse student body, with enough students that can thrive in each of their many programs.

What about state standards? Do we have to follow them?

Take a look at the skills that are recommended at each grade level. They may give you some idea of what children in each grade level should be able to learn, if they are have a “standard” intelligence level. Is our child “standard?” Have yet to have a parent tell me their child was average.

Here’s what the Reading Comprehension and Writing Skills overview looks like. Could you do this at home?

“With an emphasis on developing comprehension with texts, students are exposed to a variety of literature and informational texts and learn how different genres, or types, of books have different structures. Students are encouraged to read, read, read and to expand their knowledge in areas of personal interest or new research topics. They begin to develop analytical skills, going beyond stating explicit information from the text to learning how to draw inferences and how to summarize what they read.”

“In grades three through five, students are becoming more sophisticated writers and speakers. These skills include engaging in research projects that question what they read and hear, taking information and putting it into their own words, and creating written pieces that follow a structure geared toward a writing purpose (e.g., a narrative story, an informational report, or an opinion text). Classrooms allow children to explore new topics using books, videos, and technology and participate in interactive, collaborative activities with teachers and classmates.”

At home, of course, your children will collaborate with other family members, usually people of a variety of ages, more like the real world. Have you ever collaborated with only people born around the year of your birth? Probably not.

OK, what about something harder than elementary language arts. How about high school science!

“The goal of the California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS) is to prepare California students to be informed citizens and future scientists. Students build science mastery through repeated learning experiences centered around everyday events in nature and their lives (“phenomena”). Focusing instruction around these observable phenomena allows students to understand how their world works and gives them the tools to solve problems they identify in it. Students shift from learning facts about science to actually engaging in the practices of science. They learn how to be scientists!”

I emphasized that phrase about nature and their lives, because I don’t believe that the controlled experiences at a high school are at all as wide and interesting as the experiences a teen has in their home and neighborhood. They will be able to devise their own hypotheses, design experiments over and over, and draw their own conclusions based on scientific evidence they have uncovered. No time limits! If the experiment will take weeks, so what? Here are some scientists who were homeschooled or have homeschooled their children.

Where do I learn more about homeschooling?

If you want to learn a whole lot about homeschooling in California right NOW, may I suggest you  check the HSC Conference site. They have been having it in San Jose recently, so handy for us here in Milpitas. It is usually held in late July or early August.

We also have a virtual homeschool group here in Milpitas that has both a page and a group on Facebook.

Milpitas Homeschool Support – East Side Silicon Valley, California
Are you transitioning from the school district’s online program, to homeschooling on your own? We long-time Milpitas homeschoolers can tell you about the various ways to legally homeschool here, resources, and connections. A page, open to anyone for comments. Full of resources for homeschool families, and those who enjoy doing things with their kids.

Milpitas Homeschool Support Group
This is a private group for those who homeschool or plan to homeschool in Milpitas to look for nearby homeschool friends, invite others to join them for an event. You need to be homeschooling a child Kindergarten age or older. Younger and older siblings may attend events if appropriate. This is not a religious group, but is tolerant of all. If you wish to discuss something related to your religion, be very clear about your beliefs so that replies will be relevant. If your Facebook profile says you live in any other city other than Milpitas, you will not be allowed to join, as we want to find homeschool kids ages 5-17 and living nearby.

See also ~ Homeschooling – Milpitas Homeschool Support Group