Be Prepared: It isn’t Just a Song from the Lion King

More and more parents are choosing to educate their children at home. They are making this choice for a number of reasons including but not limited to religion, location, and public school quality. It is easier than ever for parents to make this choice for their kids because homeschooling has finally entered the new millennium and become tech-friendly.

Gone are the days when homeschooling parents had to wait for weeks to get their teaching packets in the mail. Today, homeschooled kids can simply log on to their educational portal and complete their lessons digitally. They can even work and get real time tutoring with teachers via video conferencing. That panic over “how am I going to teach my kids algebra when I can’t even remember how to divide fractions?” is long gone.

There are even web-based schools that cater to K-12 students. These schools are fully accredited and their diplomas are just as good as those issued by a traditional school district. This is fantastic for students. They’re able to have real classmates and group discussions just like the kids at “regular” schools. It’s also great for parents who might not feel comfortable in the role of school teacher.

Of course, relying on technology can be dicey. What happens to your child’s education if the power goes out? What happens to their work if your computers and tablets malfunction? What happens if your cloud service gets hacked? Do you have a backup plan in place? You should. Here are the major components you need to have at the ready should something interfere with your homeschooler’s ability to access their web-based class materials.

Data Recovery

Hard drives malfunction for a lot of different reasons. And just because yours is glitchy, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all of the work that has been saved to it is gone. Having the number to a good data recovery service can help you salvage the data that feels “stuck” on a drive that no longer wants to operate properly. Having a good service at the ready will be a tremendous help when your system decides to become sentient and rebel (well, that’s what it will feel like anyway).

Hard Copies

Always print out any lessons, instructions, supplemental materials, etc. that are given to your homeschooler. Try to print them out a few lessons ahead of time so that if your system crashes unexpectedly, you still have the materials you need to help your kids keep working. And for goodness sakes, make sure you buy (or rent!) physical copies of whatever textbooks are required. Don’t assume that their electronic counterparts will always be available. It isn’t that hard for a child who doesn’t want to read her social studies chapters while you’re traveling to run down the battery on her tablet or eReader.

Read Ahead

Yes, your homeschoolers’ teachers and tutors are fantastic and you love what a great job they do. Even so, it’s a good idea to quietly stay a few lessons ahead of your kids so that in the event their network connectivity is compromised, you can do the teaching and keep them current while you get everything and everybody up and running. This is particularly helpful during the moving process and when you travel.

Your Local Library is Your Best Friend

This is not a euphemism. Public libraries are godsends for homeschoolers. In addition to providing your kids with a social outlet via the programs they offer, libraries often have many of the supplemental materials homeschooling parents need to round out their children’s’ educations. Librarians are also well versed in arts and crafts and can be a font of incredibly invaluable advice when you need to help your kids put together physically-based projects. They will also know which science experiments, etc will be good from a parent’s practical point of view (no baking soda volcanoes in the kitchen!).

The point is: don’t take your web access for granted. There are a lot of different things that can bring an electronically run homeschooling situation down. Make sure you’re prepared to put it back together and keep up with your kids’ education not if but when the worst happens to you.