Homeschooling Safety

Homeschooling Safety – Is homeschooling the solution for your family?

Homeschooling safety benefits are why many families homeschool. Some say that homeschooling is sheltering too much, but when is putting your child at a higher risk a good thing? Homeschooling safety benefits can reduce risks related to travel, bullying, classroom sickness, and several other things. However, most consider it because we have a fast changing culture. The non-biblical proverb “it takes a village to raise a child” only works if the village’s morality, worldview, and social health is acceptable to the parents. Surprisingly, some feel there is still a need for this proverb’s theme regardless of the village’s condition even with the downward spiral of culture and statistics. Read some of the reasons why homeschooling safety benefits are a priority today.

 

Youth Violence

A 2011 National Center for Juvenile Justice report clearly shows an increase in juvenile court caseloads from where we were in 1960. A CDC.gov 2010 survey stated that almost 1/3 of high school students were in a physical fight in the previous 12 months with 1/3 of those fights on school property. There were 17.5% that claimed to have carried a weapon in the previous 30 days with 5.6% carrying on school property. Approximately 6% claimed to have carried a gun in the previous 30 days. There were 7.7% that reported being threatened by a weapon on school property in the last 12 months. The FBI’s UCR database shows in 2009 that 41% of all arrests were people 24 years old and under. Statistics for youth across all areas have gone the wrong way. Youth crime is increasing and adult crime is decreasing.

Negative juvenile behavior has been a matter of the ages, however many feel we are in uncharted waters and heading to disastrous results. Several changes in our world have taken place recently, many for the first time in man’s history.

Education Changes

Education practices have changed drastically in relationship to history. With the introduction of public education in the last 150 years, all children are placed in a system where academics must be their strength, whether they are naturally gifted or not in that area. A young person that might have excelled in a non-academic area is less likely to experience that today. With traditional education, children that have to work harder for academics have been placed in classrooms with identical age levels for 13 of their first 18 years. All the struggling student learns is that he is stupid, a failure, and a disappointment by constantly comparing himself to others his exact age. This causes behavioral and self-esteem problems.

Church Changes

The United States has seen a decline in church involvement that has left a void in parent training. Other than grandparents’ impact, a church has been one of the main sources for parent training. Children are able to hear from someone else, besides their parents, how children should honor their parents. The church will encourage children to please God and parents. They also learn many other values such as treating their neighbors as they would want to be treated. Young parents are able to learn parenting skills from the values taught and wisdom shared by older parents attending the church. Parents learn how to be better examples to their children. There is also some built-in encouragement for parents when around other parents pursuing similar values.

In 1962, public school prayer was banned in the United States. The next year, all religious activities were prohibited in public schools. In less than ten years, the theory of evolution replaced almost all references to a “Created” universe, which many believe undermined the belief in God. The posting of the “Ten Commandments” in the classroom was also prohibited. Without consistent character-building and values training, children’s morality will be affected. It should be no surprise that whatever is being taught from the parents and church can be greatly undermined or supported depending on the educational choice when there are five days of school each week. With public school, several character areas often become more subjective than absolute.

Parent Availability

Although parents have had the ultimate responsibility for training children through much of history, this has greatly changed in recent decades because the number of both parents working outside of the home has increased. Hopefully with the advancement of technology, this trend will reverse with at least one parent being able to work from home. In 1900, 15% of women worked outside of the home. Today, it is 75% and growing. Due to the increase in daycares and preschools, we can see parents are giving up a substantial amount of caregiver time for their early adolescent children. For busier parents, it also means there is less supervision for older children after school and during school holidays.

Both parents working have also impacted the traditional family dinner table, plus sacrificed good nutritional practices. Statistics show teens that frequently have dinner with their families are at a lower risk for substance abuse. For many, the financial gain of both parents working outside the home is substantially offset by increased expenditures. Some of those increased expenditures are obvious while many are subtle or hidden. After comparing a true financial gain with both parents working outside the home, one also has to wonder how that affects the true expense to the family.

Changing Family Dynamics

Only 63% of American children grow up with both biological parents. That is the lowest figure in the Western world. The United States has the highest rate of divorce in the world. Each year, about half of all marriages occur between couples where one or both have been previously married. This indicates a large number of children are in a single parent home for at least some part of their life.

Loss of Control Via Technology

There is a truth from Moses that still stands today. “Do not bring any detestable objects into your home, for then you will be set apart for destruction just like them.” Deuteronomy 7:26. A person would think that parents would not allow their child to be exposed to detestable objects right in their home. However, in the last generation, technology has created several ways for this to happen. Even if the parents stay on top of this at their home, other homes the child might visit may not think the same way.

In relation to history, video is new to us. Television and video devices have become a natural babysitter in the home for most families. In the last ten years, TV programming and movies have become available with internet devices as well. Along with all this access, the ratings for movies have changed with our culture. Movies in 1969 that were rated “X” are now rated “R”. Movies that were rated “R” are now rated “PG-13”. This exposure to violence and adult themes has been cited as affecting behavior in several well-known crimes.

Video games entered the world for the first time in history. In 1972, Atari began selling video game consoles. In 1980, IBM’s personal computer became available. The video game industry took off. Another tempting babysitter was born. Although there are several educational games today, most are not. Many of the more popular games are violent, disrespectful, and offer the player to be the “bad guy”. The content is not the only bad influence. The addiction to playing games robs from important child responsibilities.

First Time In History

Rarely if ever in history has there ever been a time where parents knew less about technology than their children, until recently. Beginning in the late 1980’s, a growing percentage of young people became more knowledgeable about technology than one or both parents. This trend seems to be staying with emerging technologies. This keeps the parents at a disadvantage for implementing family rules until after the fact, which can create attitudes.

More Challenges

In 1991, the Internet became available. Along with it, came chat and email. Chat has evolved into services such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, but the historical change is that children can communicate with people the busy parent does not see or know. A concern is how young people will associate openly with a friend of a friend so quickly via the Internet. A recent news release from Facebook states they found the “Six Degrees of Separation on the Earth” is now 4.37 people to know anyone in the world. A teen’s circle of relationships can easily develop without the parent’s knowledge! With many Internet services including virtual worlds, it does not even take a friend’s introduction to meet a stranger. The ability for a parent to monitor a child’s acquaintances is diminishing with technology.

Just in this last decade, cell phones have become so popular that even pre-teens have them. The ability for parents to communicate with their child has encouraged the practice. Texting and accessing the internet can be hard to monitor if parents let their guard down. Young cell phone users can even privately access these communication tools while in proximity to parents, because the screens are small. Many are concerned with the mental health impact from today’s technology. Some studies show alarming increases in such areas as narcissism, and discuss a possible connection with social media and related tools.

It seems overwhelming, but there is hope. The benefits of homeschooling safety are not going to be the single answer, but can be a major platform for success.

Homeschool Safety Benefits:

Homeschooling safety benefits are not just for physical safety. They are for mental safety too!

Physical Safety

Homeschooling Safety in travel: Students and parents travel much less when homeschooling.

Homeschooling safety from bullying: Your child is much less likely to interact with a bully when homeschooling, especially physically. Your child might be less likely to learn to be a bully if homeschooling.

Homeschooling safety in health: Your child will not be exposed to as many viruses and bacteria when homeschooling. Children being sent to school when sick will no longer be an issue. Homeschooling supports what you believe whether you are for vaccinations or against them.

Mental Safety

Homeschooling safety in academics: Homeschooling can keep children from comparing themselves daily to others their age in academics. When education for children is competitive, there has to be losers. Even if your child is a “winner”, participation contributes to a system that negatively impacts many where academics is not their primary gifting. If your child is a winner in that situation, you might not see the bad of that system. However, students with above average academic ability are often held up by the pace of a class. By not going at the appropriate pace, behaviors can form such as laziness, attitude, and getting into trouble. They might even become life long traits! See Why use an individualized curriculum?

Homeschooling safety in faith: Homeschooling can prevent the undermining of your family’s faith that takes place in public school curricula. It also prevents the undermining of faith that can happen both subliminally and outwardly by teachers and peers at school.

Homeschooling safety in family structure: Homeschooling creates the stability of a stay at home parent. A stay at home parent is more likely to provide a better home environment, increased family times, better nutrition, and consistent supervision. Consistent supervision is invaluable so things that need attention do not slip between the cracks. If a person isn’t just trying to keep up with the Jones’s, and really needs the income, a person can look for a home-based job. Before homeschooling is going to really help, the parents need to make parenting a priority.

There are many other homeschooling safety benefits, because there are so many random influences in a campus-based school.

How To Overcome

For homeschooling young children, parents mainly just need to make a solid commitment, plus adjust to their financial situation. If switching to homeschooling with older children, there are more challenges, but is possible to be successful!

Although you can find advice for almost any challenge or situation, love, an open relationship, and involvement are a necessary foundation for success.

Asking Forgiveness Is A Good Leadership Trait

Here is a key area in an open relationship. Surprisingly, children want a leader more than a buddy, but parents should regularly reflect to see if they have made any mistakes in leadership. It is essential the parent asks the child for forgiveness when the parent has said or done something that was not good. This also teaches the child to ask for forgiveness when needed, and keeps a good open parent-child relationship.

When starting to homeschool an older child, there is often a need to make new rules or boundaries. Sometimes it is understandable to the child why there are new rules or boundaries when starting a new structure. After all, schools have a lot of rules. However, sometimes the parent discovers a need for a new rule just because of spending more time with their child and seeing needs better. Sometimes there is a need for the parent to ask forgiveness in that situation. For example, “I am sorry I didn’t clarify this rule before. I missed covering that with you. I am trying to do my best as a parent, but I messed up. Can you forgive me?” This can help avoid an attitude if the child sees you are trying your best.

For an open relationship, it is important to implement rules or boundaries long before the need. It is very common there will be an attitude if waiting to make a rule after the need for it. That is where an open relationship helps. The child needs to know you are sincerely doing your best. This includes acknowledging you didn’t see the need for a rule before. Family values and rules must be established as early as possible, then consistently supervised and reminded as needed.

Stay Ahead Of The Game

With technology and culture changes, we are bound to be sideswiped with new areas that can negatively affect our children, often too late unless we are constantly thinking ahead. Because we live in a fast-changing world, it is very likely some family boundaries cannot be set until after the need for them lands in our home. This is the reason for the previous section. A heart-felt apology for not previously seeing the need for a rule goes a long way! Apologies are not just for broken promises.

CDC Youth Violence Facts at a Glance 2010:
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/yv-datasheet-a.pdf

National Center for Juvenile Justice clearly shows delinquency is increasing:
http://www.ncjj.org/pdf/jcsreports/jcs2008.pdf

2009 crime type statistics showing 24 years old and younger:
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/table_41.html

Seculare changes in U.S. schools from 1962-1972:
http://wikipedia.org

Statistics about marriage and effects on children:
http://www.virginia.edu/marriageproject/pdfs/SOOU2005.pdf

Quiet Revolution – Women going to work:
http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/goldin/files/GoldinEly.pdf

National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse – Family Dinner and Substance Abuse:
http://www.casacolumbia.org/templates/Publications_Reports.aspx#r26

Effects of Violent Video Games:
http://www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/VideoGames1.pdf

Example of addiction recovery service including video game addiction:
http://www.addictionrecov.org/addictions/?AID=45

Study that included academic impact from overuse of video games:
http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/~dgentile/SRCD%20Video%20Game%20Addiction.pdf