I’ll try to keep this short, so it doesn’t turn into an essay!
We live in Australia, and I have decided to start homeschooling my daughter (11yo, 6th grade) this year. We start our school year in 2 weeks, as we go Jan-Dec here. I’m a single mother, and honestly didn’t give a great deal of thought to her father. He has her around 6-10 nights a year, so doesn’t have much to do with her.
He has just kicked up a storm about her being homeschooled and says he doesn’t want her to do that as she will fall behind academically and socially. I’ve outlined all the reasons why we’re doing this, and given him a full breakdown of all the curriculum I have planned (and how it follows our Australian Curriculum Guidelines) and have given him a full list of all the sports she plays and the homeschool groups we have signed up to for her socialisation. He is still ignoring all that and says he’s going to take me to court. All I had asked for was a Term trial (3 months here), and it would only be one year in total anyway as she does plan to go to High School next year (kids here start high school in year 7).
So far I’ve just given him all this information again, and told him I’m happy to discuss it if he thinks things are missing from the curriculum or if he feels she needs to join more social groups. He may be bluffing on the whole court thing, I doubt he’s keen to fork out money for a lawyer, but I told him I’m prepared to take it all the way since I believe this is in her best interest.
I’ll also add that my daughter was absolutely miserable in school all last year, and it was me dragging her out of the house and putting up with the tears every morning. She is really excited about homeschooling, and even started Erica’s literature units early as she just couldn’t wait until school started! Having her starting to get engaged in schooling again has been awesome.
Anyone else had to fight for your child to be homeschooled? Any tips or ideas?