Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition to host homeschooling discussion event

Published 4:55 pm Monday, July 27, 2020

School will soon be back in session…at home?

As school systems continue to work on reopening schools for the upcoming school year, many parents are finding themselves homeschooling for the first time. With this transition and the unprecedented times we are in, questions are plentiful. To address some of these questions and concerns, the Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition is stepping up to help.

On Friday, July 31, the organization will be hosting a virtual event called “Conversations about Homeschool” in which eight different speakers, including Jilian Reece, the organization’s director, will share their stories on homeschooling.

The event is part of a virtual series on hot topics of discussion.

“We decided to do this series of conversation events via ZOOM and really look at things by having individuals who have lived events come on the call and talk to community members who wanted to know more,” she explained.

Reece said she realized it was a hot topic when she began getting questions about the subject.

“I am a homeschool mom myself and I have gotten so many questions lately about what’s required and what it looks like, so we felt like we had people in our community who would benefit from being able to ask questions and learn a little bit more,” she said.

Reece will be speaking some during the conversation and also serving as a moderator. Other panelists include: Monica Calhoun, Rebekah Edmonds, Kim Nave, Holly Pate, Erin Worthy, Danielle West and Christin Williams. These individuals have different experiences and approaches to homeschooling.

Reece said that with the growing number of mothers transitioning to homeschooling due to the virus, she anticipates that this will be the majority of attendees. She explained that the importance of learning at an event like this is support, especially starting out, and learning navigation of things like homeschooling and working as well.

In addition to speakers sharing their own experiences, some of the topic questions to be discussed include: registering with public school, maintaining special needs support through public school, registering with umbrella schools, importance of/how to get involved in extracurriculars, high school homeschool, working and homeschooling, secular homeschool, etc. Resources, such as mommy support groups, will also be discussed in detail as well for attendees to know about.

For more information regarding the event, you can go to the event’s Facebook page as well as finding it on Eventbrite. The event is free and open to the public online.