The following is a post from Linda.
A mom approaches the homeschool director with fear and trepidation. “My son has been cheating,” she says. The director smiles and says, “It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last.”
Yet as moms we somehow think that our kids won’t cheat. We don’t expect them to be perfect people, but homeschoolers are not supposed to cheat! At least, that’s what I thought.
You’ve probably guessed. One of my high school kids did cheat. And it wasn’t the kid who I might have suspected. He had never shown a tendency towards being dishonest.
How You Can Avoid Cheating
1. Never say, “This kid would never cheat.” Assume that any of your children could be tempted in this way.
2. Oversee test taking, and daily work if necessary. If a test is in the same book as the answers, be sure to copy the test. Then have the kid take the test in the same room with you. If daily cheating is a problem, then all work should be done that way.
3. Tell your kid that in high school, you don’t always get A’s or even B’s. My son did not cheat because he was failing. He cheated because in grade school math, I didn’t move on until he learned a new concept. As a result, he always got A’s, and he thought he should always get A’s in high school.
4. Help your child have realistic expectations. Similar to point three, kids can expect too much of themselves because they think all homeschool kids should be geniuses. When they start coming up short, they might be tempted to cheat. Let them know you want them to do their best, but that won’t necessarily mean straight A’s.
5. Talk to your kids about this temptation. Help them work through it. Little did we know that the guilt he was carrying was the issue behind his challenging teen behavior. Once he confessed, he was a different person! How I wish we had brought up the topic of cheating and given him opportunities to talk about it sooner.
The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects.
Linda has three boys and has been homeschooling for over 15 years. Her oldest is now in college, the second graduates this spring, and her youngest is in 10th grade. She blogs about food at The Gluten-Free Homemaker.
kathleen says
You I had thus come up this year. My son is in school not homeschool but I thought oh he is an honor student so I don’t have to worry about him cheating. Then I find out he is have people pay him to do their work. I was shocked I never even thought about that. I immediately put a stop to it.