Homeschooling Overseas Part 3

I'm continuing my series of posts on homeschooling overseas. In the first part I looked at some of the schooling options open to ex-pats such as ourselves. In the second part I talked about our journey as a family down the road towards homeschooling. In this third part I’d like to address the question of what to say when local friends ask the question ‘why?’.

Sophie was 7 at the beginning of this academic school year, which means that here in Russia she should be going into Year 1. And so, like never before, I find myself being questioned by interested and/or concerned local friends and neighbours as to what exactly I’m doing with her and why I’m choosing to teach her at home rather than send her to local school. Homeschooling is so rare here that they just don't understand why anyone would even want to do this.

As I contemplate this, I realise of course that there are certain things I would say to some groups of people and not to others. For example, I don’t want to go into detail with local people about how I feel I can provide better teaching materials and resources for my child at home, or how I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of my child learning how some students ‘supplement their teacher’s income’ in order to ensure good grades, but I might mention those things to some ex-pat friends. With friends who are believers I would probably go into a few details about some of the spiritual advantages of homeschooling, but it's usually not appropriate with the majority of local people who tend to ask me questions.

So what would I say? Here are some things I came up with:

Friend: “Which school are you sending Sophie to?”

Me: “Actually, Sophie learns at home with me. We have ‘Home School’.”

Friend: “Oh! Why did you decide to do that?”

Me: “Well, I’m a teacher by profession (OK, I know not everybody can say that, but if you can then it helps!). We decided it was more helpful for her to learn in English so that when we go back to England it will be easier for her to go to an English university.”

Friend: “But how do you do exams? Do you have to show someone what you’re doing?”

Me: “It’s not necessary to do exams until she’s 16 or 18. And in England you don’t have to show someone what you’re doing in home school. (This may not be true for you depending on your home country situation). Exams are needed to check how the student is doing, and I can see for myself whether she’s learnt something or not.”

Friend: “How do you know what to teach?”

Me: “I bring lots of books from England, and I follow a curriculum on the internet that tells me what I should be teaching.”

Friend: “Isn’t it boring for her not to be with other children and have friends?”

Me: “Oh, she has friends and opportunities to mix with other children. She plays every day with our neighbours, she has friends at our church and she goes to an art class and dance class twice a week in town.”

Friend (running out of things to say): “Well, it must be really difficult. I couldn’t do it!”

Me: “It does take up a lot of my time, but I really enjoy it. I like to have all the children with me during the day, and they go to bed at 8pm, so I get some time to myself in the evenings.” (Russian children usually go to bed when their parents do. They make up for this by having an enforced 2 hour nap at kindergarten).

So that might be how a typical conversation might go. I tend to stress certain things (like the importance of learning in English) which aren't actually among the top ten reasons why I homeschool in the first place! In my next post on this topic I'll list those top ten reasons, but in the meantime, let me know how you deal with these kinds of situations, I'd love to hear how other people handle them:

Qu: What kind of questions do you get asked by local friends about your homeschooling? 

Qu: What answers do you give?

Abide in Him!