The short and perhaps expected answer — no, it’s not too late to homeschool. Whether your child is in finishing elementary school or beginning their senior year of high school, it’s never too late to withdraw your child from a traditional school to start homeschooling.
Is It Too Late to Start Homeschooling?
You may have heard that homeschooling is a journey for the long haul, that the best rewards are reaped in the final years of high school after you spend years and years educating your child from elementary school on up.
Of course, this idea does hold some truth and is undoubtedly the case for thousands of families. However, there are also many parents, perhaps like you, who begin to realize when their children are already enrolled in a traditional school that they could do a better job of educating their children.
Indeed, many Classical Conversations members begin their homeschooling journey with the Challenge program (which generally aligns with the junior high to high school grade levels), without previously completing our Foundations and Essentials programs.
Ever-Increasing Reasons to Homeschool
For more reasons than one, thousands of parents around the country (and around the world for that matter), parents who never thought they would consider homeschooling, are losing faith that the traditional school system is the best option for their children’s education.
If you are reading this post, chances are that you fall into this category of parents. Whether you’re worried that traditional school can’t provide a well-rounded education to prepare your child for success, frustrated that the curriculum overrides your family’s religious beliefs and values, or just overall discouraged about not having enough say in your child’s education, there are a variety of reasons to feel discouraged with the traditional school system.
However, there is another way. Homeschooling has swept the world by storm these past several years, and we don’t anticipate it slowing down anytime soon.
Still, even though many parents are intrigued with the idea of homeschooling their children, they don’t know where to start. And if their children have been in a public or private school for several years, they may fall into the trap of thinking it’s too late to homeschool.
Can You Withdraw Your Child From School?
One of the most common roadblocks parents who want to homeschool face is not knowing the answer to this question — can you just pull your child out of school to homeschool them?
Well, if only things were that simple. Since homeschooling laws differ from state to state, so do the processes of transitioning from a private or public school to homeschooling. On the one hand, if your state’s homeschool laws tend to be more relaxed, this process could be pretty simple. On the other hand, if your family lives in a state with stricter regulations, this process is naturally more complex.
However, this does not mean the withdrawal process is impossible in your state! Remember that homeschooling is legal in all fifty states. So, while the transition can vary from state to state, you are allowed to pull your child out of school to begin homeschooling them.
Thankfully, you can find a free breakdown of homeschool laws by each state on HSLDA’s website. This makes it easy to find out how to pull your child out of school and begin the homeschool transition process. Presented as an interactive map, click on your state to view your homeschool laws, then click on the state-specific article on how to withdraw your child from a traditional school. To view this map, click here.
What Are You Waiting For?
Beginning your homeschooling journey aligns with that familiar adage, “The best time to start was yesterday. The next best time is now.” So, get started today!
Not yet a Classical Conversations member and interested in our community-based approach to homeschooling? We’d love to hear from you! To learn more about us, click here.
