Renee “Homestead Honey Hour”
If you’re a parent – especially a parent who preps, homesteads, or both — chances are you’ve thought about home schooling. Maybe you’re homeschooling already.
There’s more joining the home schooling camp every year. The National Center for Education Statistics reports 1.7 percent of kids were home schooled in 1999, 2.2 percent in 2003, and 2.9 percent in 2007. In 2011, that figure was at 4 percent. If you crunch the numbers that means the rate of growth in home schooling is steadily increasing: It increased 29% between 1999 and 2003, jumped to 36% between 2003 and 2007, and between 2007 and 2011, came in just under a 39% growth rate.
Even if you are happy with the school your children presently attend, having the ability to educate your children at home is a huge asset for the self-reliant minded person. What if your child’s school burns down or suffers some other devastating event like tornado or hurricane damage? What if the continually deteriorating economy causes your child’s school to close or be so severely affected by budget cuts that a quality, well-rounded education becomes questionable? What if you discover your child has special needs that can’t or aren’t being addressed in your district to your satisfaction? What if there’s a long-term pandemic that closes your school indefinitely? What if you simply don’t feel safe sending your child to public school anymore? And in a worst-case scenario, what if the grid goes down indefinitely? For these reasons, as well as many others, having a back-up plan to educate your children at home should be a part of every prepper’s repertoire of skills and supplies.