Homeschooling Early

A coworker is considering homeschooling. He has a one year old daughter, a wife who was homeschooled and a community that has a decent homeschool support network. He has qualms, but seems to be thinking about it. I get the impression, however, that he feels he has plenty of time to decide whether he is going to go the homeschool route or not. I'm writing this as a sounding board to develop my arguments that he should be considering starting homeschooling sooner rather than waiting until mandatory school age (Seven here in Illinois) and deciding then.

Since this argument is centered around a specific case, it has limits. It does not deal with unschooling (That's an argument I can't win with him - even his wife is opposed to that), it deals with a first time parent (there are arguments I can make about bringing a younger sibling into the fun that won't apply hear), it does not deal with "special" needs (the little girl is cute and normal and happy as far as I can tell) and it does not deal with legal issues of homeschooling (not much of a worry in the first place in Illinois, but your state laws may vary).

With the above in mind, I have grouped the points of my argument around three pillars. How starting early helps the child, how it helps the parents and how helps deal with family and friends.

First, the benefits it has for the child:

1. Starting off, there are the academic benefits the "schoolers" keep touting for children who attend pre school compared to children who do not. By homeschooling around three, you get to tap into the benefits any "head start" gives to a child without the emotional tradeoff you would have to deal with caused by separating a child from her parents to go to an institutionalized preschool. The same studies that say preschoolers start of ahead academically also point out that they are emotionally "harder" - more likely to lash out, fight, take things etc... Basically,institutionalized preschoolers tend to be smarter, but meaner. However, homeschooling a pre schooler means giving a child an academically enriched environment and offering mentally stimulating activities without traumatizing her by yanking her away from the support she has relied on since birth. This gives you a smarter AND nicer child.
2. Next we move to continuity. If we put a child on a "traditional" timeline where she has gotten used to one way of life for about six years and then the rules all change on her, you have the mess we have all come to know as "starting school." I'm really surprised more people don't realize that this is a BAD thing. Anyone who deals successfully with children in any capacity whatsoever will tell you that a key to success is following a routine. Disrupt the routine and you invite problems. changing from "no school" to "school" is a MAJOR disruption to the routine. EVERYTHING changes whether you are going to school or doing it at home. Before starting school, your child had a simple set of rules for life. Now she has a different set and - from her point of view - essentially no reason for, or net benefit from the change. Starting early, however, means that these changes can be introduced more gradually, which is less disruptive to the routine. Why turn her world upside down all at once when you can make the trip to the other side a leisurely journey with fun tourist stops and a chance to enjoy the scenery?

This brings us to the benefits for the parents:

1. The initial benefit comes from perspective. There is a BIG difference in the attitudes of one who says he "might" homeschool compared to one who says he IS homeschooling. The latter shows commitment, which translates to clearer goals and a more purposeful journey. Committing to a course of action is a key to success in any endeavor. It is what separates the hobbyist from the professional in athletics, in business and in the arts just to name a few areas. Also by committing early, your "purposeful journey" will be well on its way by the time your child would normally start school or homeschool. This brings us to our next benefit.
2. Starting early means that you can develop your homeschooling methods, practices and styles in a more relaxed environment. Education for a three year old is necessarily less rigorous than it is for a seven year old. This means you have more room to develop your homeschool when you start. You can try a few things and see how they work. Throw out the stuff you don't like and add what you feel would make it better and let your homeschooling style develop naturally instead of trying to start off as a fully developed homeschooler from day one. This has the added benefit of giving your homeschool a more personal feeling. Instead of going the "school at home" or the "homeschool in a box" route, you will naturally develop a homeschool that reflects the values, beliefs and interests you feel are most important to your child and your family.
3. The next benefit to you, the parent is an extension of the last one. Starting early means that by the time your child IS "school age" you are prepared to handle the challenges homeschoolers face. You don't have to learn how to homeschool, by this time you KNOW! you have a routine, you have methods and practices and, by now, you will have an array of homeschooling supplies that will make a public school teacher green with envy (trust me on this - you can build up an ENORMOUS wealth of homeschool supplies in four years with little effort). You are now going into the "mandatory school age" arena as a "veteran" homeschooler, which leads us into the final area of benefits.

Handling objections from family and friends:

1. Starting off early means you are going to start of with a WONDERFUL advantage over the late starters. They can't effectively say you are acting irresponsibly toward your child because it is still not considered abnormal if your child is not in school at three. In a way you are acting MORE responsible than many of your potential detractors can say their parents acted toward them. After all, it really wasn't that long ago that going to preschool was the exception rather than the rule. Chances are, more than half of your would be detractors started school in kindergarten or first grade.
2. Homeschooling early also means you have an array of effective comebacks to the "socialization" question. For starters, three year olds aren't EXPECTED to be socialized, so it's harder to raise the objection. Secondly, there are fewer children "stuck" in preschool than there are in grade school, so there are more opportunities throughout the day to "socialize" with the general population. Thirdly, starting homeschooling early means developing your homeschooling connections early - both with other homeschoolers in the area and with homeschool friendly activities and businesses like the YMCA, 4H (starts at 5), library and bookstore programs, local clubs, the area homeschooler's group (or groups - I'm in two), and so on. By the time your would be detractors can cry "what about socialization?" You'll have a plethora of counterexamples showing that this is being addressed better than it would ever have been in public school.
3. And finally, by starting early, you have the advantage of dealing with objections by letting them wither with age. It's simply harder to effectively criticize a homeschooled three year old - often would be critics are silenced by the possibility that "you don't really mean it" and by the fact that the alternatives to homeschooling a preschooler often are expensive preschools or simply not schooling her - both of which can be argued as having their own problems. However, by the time your child is at an age where attacks would be more likely, your critics have had a chance to get used to the idea and to see how well you have already done with your child.

So from these three viewpoints, it makes sense to go ahead, jump in and start swimming sooner rather than later.

As I said earlier, this is an argument in process - any comments are welcome!