Continued from Part One...



Why should one consider homeschooling the internationally adopted child?

Many children adopted internationally, including those adopted from Haiti, are past the baby stage. With the length of the international adoption process, among other varying reasons (such as a child needing to be older than a certain age to be considered available for international adoption), internationally adopted children usually join their adoptive families labeled as “older children”. They come with life experience, however small it may be. They speak a different language and are used to an entirely different culture. They may be developmentally delayed and beyond.

For instance, our three and a half year old daughter in Haiti, Georgia, can barely walk. She can barely talk. She weighs about twenty-two pounds. There might be something more going on with her than just simply being delayed, but no matter what we know that she is behind. She will have a fair amount of “catching up” to do. When she comes home from Haiti, she will be at least four years old. Technically, she will have one year post-adoption and arrival in America before she starts Kindergarten. Will she honestly be ready for that?

What if she catches up quickly? What if she runs and jumps and does every physical thing a five year old should be able to do? What if she talks up a blue-streak … in English? What if, miracle of miracles, she can read by then? Does that mean she’s ready to start Kindergarten? Maybe. Knowing her the little bit that I do, I would still have to say, “No. She isn’t ready.” I think the same would be true for many internationally adopted children.

Why? It is because she will not be fully bonded to our family by then. She may still have food issues that she is dealing with then. She most likely will not have a good grasp on American culture—what is socially acceptable and what isn’t. She will probably still suffer from abandonment issues. The list could go on and on, but suffice it to say; I do not think she will be mentally ready to enter public school.

In my personal opinion, most newly adopted children won’t either.

Continued…