gracehopefaithjoy

Hi, after 6 years of wishing we could homeschool my stepson (12), his biomom (we have 50/50 joint custody) agreed to it this past fall. I have been doing most of the work, with his dad helping when he can. The biomom hasn't even been checking to see that he's completed his assignments when he's with her. (Although I'm an unschooler at heart, biomom so completely does not understand homeschooling that we have had to use a curriculum as his base so that she can see something she understands when he is with her.)

Due to some inappropriate disciplinary actions that the biomom has taken against my stepson, we filed an order of protection against her on his behalf. We have not had the hearing for that yet, but she has stated that because he is homeschooled and my husband is going to school full time and I am working full time, my stepson will be home for the majority of the day by himself and she would like full custody so he can stay with her parents during the day and they can oversee his homeschooling. Her parents are very against homeschooling, so I can see where that will end up.

My one thought so far has been to approach a woman who lives across the street and homeschools her 4 kids and see if she would be willing to "babysit" him. The thing is that he's fine by himself, and I check in with him on a regular basis. It's not illegal; in fact, at age 12, if I'm not mistaken, he is legally allowed to babysit other kids for money, at night! Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Michelle

Sandra Dodd

-=-Hi, after 6 years of wishing we could homeschool my stepson (12),
his biomom (we have 50/50 joint custody) agreed to it this past fall.
I have been doing most of the work, with his dad helping when he can.
The biomom hasn't even been checking to see that he's completed his
assignments when he's with her. (Although I'm an unschooler at heart,
biomom so completely does not understand homeschooling that we have
had to use a curriculum as his base so that she can see something she
understands when he is with he-=-

If she's not checking "assignments," maybe you could let them go, then?

-=-Due to some inappropriate disciplinary actions that the biomom has
taken against my stepson, we filed an order of protection against her
on his behalf. We have not had the hearing for that yet, but she has
stated that because he is homeschooled and my husband is going to
school full time and I am working full time, my stepson will be home
for the majority of the day by himself and she would like full custody
so he can stay with her parents during the day and they can oversee
his homeschooling. Her parents are very against homeschooling, so I
can see where that will end up-=-

This is really about legalities and not about how learning works, so
although some people here might have ideas for you, it's not within
the purview of the Always Learning list, really.

Homeschooling will always be turned into a custody issue.

-=-My one thought so far has been to approach a woman who lives across
the street and homeschools her 4 kids and see if she would be willing
to "babysit" him. The thing is that he's fine by himself, and I check
in with him on a regular basis. It's not illegal; in fact, at age 12,
if I'm not mistaken, he is legally allowed to babysit other kids for
money, at night! Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions?
-=-

If he stays with the woman who is babysitting, maybe he could be her
helper, if he's a responsible and fun kind of kid, so that you
wouldn't have to pay to have him there, and maybe he could get paid
(maybe by you) for helping out there. Or if he won't be so much help
as hindrance at the other house, still it doesn't need to have
anything to do with his homeschooling. There are a lot of hours in
the week outside of traditional "school hours."

Sandra

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