The COVID-19 pandemic has closed most public and private schools across the country, leaving more than 55 million students in the U.S. stuck at home, most through the end of the current school year.
While these school closures are temporary, as the saying goes “necessity is the mother of invention,” with advocates of home education hopeful that for some parents, short-term exposure to home-schooling will bear long-term fruits for families.
In 2019, about 2.5 million K–12 students were home-schooled in the U.S., according to the National Home Education Research Institute. The widespread school closures means this number essentially increased more than twentyfold overnight as nearly every student in America is currently participating in some form of home education.
As a result, millions of parents have been forced to adapt quickly to the new normal of schooling at home.
Encourage and reassure
To address the current demand for home-schooling resources and information, the Texas Homeschool Coalition, a nonprofit organization for Texas’ more than 100,000 home-school families, recently partnered with actress and home-school proponent Sam Sorbo to launch coronavirushomeschooling.com.
“You don’t need a Ph.D. Just be a parent and you will be fine,” the site’s homepage encourages. Through the site, parents can sign up to receive daily emails that include free digital downloads and links to projects, activities, encouragement from other home-school parents and instructional videos.
While most people view home-schooling as an alternative to public or private schools, Sorbo believes parents are the chief instructors of their children; therefore, every child is “home-schooled” — whether that means having a parent as their primary educator or as someone they can ask for help with their homework.
When she began home-schooling her own children, Sorbo said she did so because she concluded that it was the responsibility of her and her husband to educate their children. Now she is using her experience to help others.
“Coronavirus is now offering us this opportunity to recalibrate a little bit,” she said. “We developed coronavirushomeschooling.com to come alongside parents and encourage them and reassure them that it’s just not as hard as they’ve been led to believe.”
Jamie Gaddy manages homeschool.com, one of the original online communities for home-school families on the internet.
Besides compelling parents to be more active in their children’s education, Gaddy said that as families are stuck at home, many are spending more quality time together and connecting in a way that is usually disrupted by various distractions and obligations.
Currently two camps of homeschoolers exist, according to Gaddy, crisis homeschoolers and existing homeschoolers.
‘Be flexible’
For families who were not actively home-schooling until recently, Gaddy said the challenge is figuring out how best to go about home education, including best practices and time management. She also encourages parents who have not previously home-schooled their children to relax, find their groove and understand that home-schooling “doesn’t have to look like school at home.”
“Maybe you do an hour in the morning and [an] hour after lunch. Maybe an hour before bed or whatever is needed.
“But be flexible,” she said. “I think that is the name of the game right now. And find what works for your family,” she added.
For families who have already prioritized home-schooling, she said the greatest challenge is being unable to leave home for activities and learning experiences that are usually important aspects of the curriculum.
Family time
During this time when all families are spending lots of time together, Gaddy challenges parents to explore ways of making learning fun and engaging.
“OK, you need to study fractions? Well, let’s get away from the desk and go to the kitchen and break out the measuring cup,” Gaddy explained.
Malinda McGill, a Birmingham-area mother of three daughters, said she began educating her children at home long before they knew they were being taught.
“I have been home-schooling since day one, and I truly mean it. I began reading and conversing with my oldest child when she was born,” said McGill.
‘Become inventive’
She said her family first decided to home-school because of the freedom it provided for more academic and cultural experiences than could be fit into a regular school schedule.
Today her family’s primary motivation for home-schooling is that it allows them the opportunity to disciple their daughters and educate them according to a Christian worldview.
The current pandemic has caused all families, McGill’s added, “to reconsider how we spend our time in all areas,” she said.
“Regarding education, I think some parents have been given new confidence in parenting and educating their children and have seen that there are so many resources available to learn about God’s world, and that learning is an organic experience that does not always have to take place at a desk or inside a textbook,” said McGill.
And though many families will not continue to home-school once the coronavirus crisis ends, McGill hopes “some will begin to see in a new way the value of open space and time for exploring, even for being bored enough to become inventive.”
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