Christine at Thinking Things Through has collected a bunch of planning posts in one place.
Also, Owl at Owl Flutter has a nice logbook for lollygaggers.
There is a possibility that Sean, may go to school not this year, but next year. At age 14, he is the oldest of my never-schooled kids. The older three went to Catholic school — Clare for only one year, the boys for a bit longer. But Sean has never entered a classroom except for sacramental preparation, and he is glad to have it that way. Around here, in California, you can’t play high school football unless you are enrolled. He is hoping to be able to work out something where he could do independent study, at least, so he could still be home-based.
If Sean did go to school, it would be a bit like him taking off for college four years early. We would not see much of him. It is not something I would jump at the chance to do, to say the least.
As to how this fits into a post about planning — when I’m planning for Sean this year, I have to keep in mind that this might be a transition year, and it might be my last year to have him at home. My two goals would flow from that. I would want to ensure that the academic switch isn’t too difficult. On the bright side, if there is one, he has always been a hard-working, efficient homeschooler. He doesn’t want to attend classes because he doesn’t want the waste of time and the detachment from home life, and the loss of his homeschooler identity. If the school did work out an independent study arrangement — a bunch of busywork from what I’ve gathered — he’s the most likely of my children to be able to charge through it and shake it off and do just fine.
Another possibility, of course, is for us to tell him that homeschool is more important than football. I could imagine a scenario where this would be the case. I could even imagine a scenario where he might decide this for himself. But a good part of our homeschooling has been about helping the kids develop their own gifts and giving them freedom and guidance to choose wisely and personally. A decision like that would have to be a worked-through one, not simply a close-the-door-and-bar-it reflex.
That’s where planning is right now.
