Elena 
How it started
This is my 29th year of homeschooling. I know that because my very first week ever of homeschooling was done at Children’s Hospital, where my 3rd baby was hospitalized. With my baby in his crib, I attempted to do what I thought was homeschooling with my kindergartner and preschooler. With doctors and nurses coming in and out and with a struggling milk supply and engorged breasts, I was shell-shocked and miserable. But as a newbie homeschooler, I was determined to stay the course and not fall behind. I don’t know what I was falling behind from, but I felt like school had to go on, no matter what. I like to joke around that we got behind on Day 1 and never did fully catch up!
I flash forward to the present day, and those three kids are all men with careers and jobs. That awful first week doesn’t seem to have phased any of them. Despite such an inauspicious beginning, we homeschooled through high school and survived.
My second group of three children went the college route and have either graduated from college or are currently attending school.
How it’s going
So that leaves me homeschooling the next generation—my granddaughter, who is currently in the 6th grade. It’s different homeschooling this sweet girl as an only child. Yet I feel very blessed to be able to do so because we have a close relationship, and she fits right into the home. She’s comfortable enough here to raid the fridge on her own and to know how to use the TV remote. She even has a bed on the second floor for the occasional overnights. Life is different but good.
One of the differences in homeschooling my granddaughter is obvious. I am not the mother but the grandmother. I must get permission and signatures and be part of a team instead of making decisions independently. And yet, that’s okay, too. I enjoy collaborating with Miss C’s mom and with my son. We’ve molded ourselves into an effective educational team of sorts.
But what works in our homeschool doesn’t necessarily translate into the outside world, even the smaller and historically supportive world of homeschooling. In our homeschool co-op and our Catholic support group, I am truly the oldest member, the oldest leader, the oldest anything unless one of the alumni moms pops in to visit. I’m also the only grandmother homeschooling a grandchild.
I don’t want to be known for being older, but rather for having some experience. With six kids, boys, and girls, from gifted to severely dyslexic, I’ve had many challenges, failures, and triumphs. But that doesn’t seem to matter. Recently, I almost lost a leadership role when new bylaws were being written up because Miss C is not my biological child, even though I am her primary academic teacher. Shockingly, decades of experience and years of service didn’t seem to matter much.
Ageism and homeschooling
Although grandparent homeschooling may be rarer in my community, it’s not unheard of. In Ohio, the leadership of the Christian Homeschooling Educators of Ohio (CHEO) has a few grandparents on it, as does HSLDA (Homeschool Legal Defense Association). I found several Facebook pages for homeschooling grandparents too. It may be an upward trend.
That could be a good thing for grandparents as well as kids, moms and dads! It was for me when I was homeschooling and my mom helped out.
You start to disappear when you are over a certain age. I’ve experienced in other aspects of my life. I was surprised to find it here, in this community.
The homeschool co-op world.
For those that don’t know, homeschool co-operatives, or co-ops (also known as school pods, or educational pods), are simply a group of families that have joined together to help educate their kids. It can be one or two families, or a large group of 20 or more families in a rented space. It can be about enriching the educational experience or it can have classes that hold students accountable. It can be loose, free, or rigorous in its policies and curriculum.
I recently talked to a homeschooling mom of ten. She homeschools her kids and did the homeschool co-op thing. She surprised me by saying she was happy to pull back. She likes her own plans better than what was being offered at the co-op and wants to take advantage of the universal good of homeschooling – educational freedom. Another mom of six told me she liked being part of a co-op, but only in the fun things that are harder to do just in the family – like choir and drama. She loved being able to be at home with her kids.
The downside.
On the other side of that, with the recent boom in homeschooling, I see many moms doing school at home just like they were taught in public or parochial school. It’s a classic mistake. One acquaintance of mine was even traveling to multiple co-ops per week because she didn’t feel comfortable being with her kids alone at home. A co-op in our area also tends to operate as a school with drop offs pickups, operating several days a week with strict classes as well as being stringent about state standards – the very things I was trying to get away from in the first place!
One of the nicest things about a co-op is having your child get instruction from a different teacher. It’s nice to have a mom who knows a thing or two about chemistry or algebra to take over some of the things I’m not as comfortable with. On the other hand, over the years, I have become more educated and understand things better than when I was in high school. One of the blessings of homeschooling is that if you need help, you can find it easily now. But you can still do it yourself if that’s better for your family.
Homeschooling has certainly changed over the decades. It’s nice to have choices. But each choice comes with risks, benefits and complications. One has to weigh those things and keep evaluating them.
Going forward
As we prepare for Christmas break in about a month, I’m re-evaluating what I want to do. What will homechool look like for us next year? Miss C. is an only child and enjoys her friendships at co-op. I certainly honor that. How can I balance my role with her needs? Those are the things that I am pondering at this point in the school year.
What types of home-schooling things are you pondering this year?