There are a good many resources available to those who are considering home schooling. This has not always been so, and that is the good news to say the least. There has been a surge in recent years that has brought about the advantages that so many are finding when it comes to home schooling and the overall experience. For those that are looking for home school information all you need to do is go to the net. There are literally thousands of sites that are available to the potential home schooler that offer scores of information that can be of the utmost in importance when trying to make this very important decision. Making the choice of home schooling vs public schools is not one to be taken lightly and should never be a rash decision. This is where so many people go wrong. They get angry with the school system and pull their children out of school and then are not prepared for the incredible responsibility that comes with home schooling.

For some of the best information you should contact the local home school association. Thanks to the recent surge in home schooling there is a plethora of home school association places that will be more than happy to guide you through the steps that it takes for you to home school your children. They are also a great place to find home school resources that are not nearly as expensive as others which can make the transition a bit more smooth. This also works as a support group for both the parents and children as the home school concept is quite a change for many of the people that are involved. You should take advantage of all that a home school organization has to offer.

In most cases there is enough information available for you to make sure that there is nothing that you can not find out with a little research. The different organizations are a great chance for you to meet with other people in the same or similar situations and then you have the chance to exchange ideas and gain some valuable insight. This is especially important for those that wish to try home schooling and all that comes with it. You are not alone by any stretch and it is important to ask questions when you have them.

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Home schooling can be a difficult decision. Many believe that home schooling can not prepare a child to deal with real life situations. By attending a public school, the child is more likely to be involved in school team sports, drama clubs, band activities, after school clubs, and be more socially interactive with others. Many of these activities are fundamental for the growth and emotional well being of a child.

Alternatively, an argument can be made that there is just as much social stimulation at home as there is in public school. For a large number of home schooled children, many have friends that live within their neighborhood that they can play and interact with. After school sports programs are available for in many areas, typically at community centers. These programs can prove to be a great source for social interaction.

A good way to obtain additional home schooling information is to ask parents of other home school children. More than likely they can share what activities they do, as well as inform you what type of approach they use; a facilitated self study approach or lecture oriented approach.

This information will help lead you to a better idea of whether or not you are able to handle a teaching job. Contrary to some beliefs, teaching is not an easy task. It takes great dedication and determination to ensure that the children are always excited about learning, moving at a steady pace, and keeping them interested in what is next. If you are interested in home schooling, teaching classes are available through some schools.

There are many resources available online regarding home schooling. Blogs and websites can provide you with relevant home school information. Many of these sites are maintained by parents who home school and provide information on what problems may be encountered in home schooling and the solutions they have.

Although teaching can be difficult, many find the end result rewarding. Home schooling can provide parents and children a nice balance and learning environment to exceed in.

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In the United States, home schooling is growing. Today, we see this rate moving rapidly, with between 1.3 and 1.7 million children in grades kindergarten to 12 being educated at home by a parent. More and more families are discouraged by the curriculum being presented to the children, finding home schooling a better option. However, home schooling is also used for children that are bullied at school, those that need special attention, or for families that live in remote areas, making traditional school attendance too much of a challenge.

Families that choose to home school their children do not have to rely on public, tax-funded resources, which actually saves taxpayers millions of dollars. However, families that choose to home school, children are reliant on having connection to the internet. This means being able to download studies and tests, and then sending the child’s results into the system for grading. Obviously, having a reliable connection is important. In fact, some home school programs offer the child the option of participating in some classroom time, via the computer.

With broadband service, your child could enjoy all the benefits of being home schooled while still participating in a few class studies if needed. This means you could log on, actually having a real time interaction with other home schooled or public schooled students. With this, your child has the opportunity of developing friends in a classroom setting while still being taught by you.

You can work wirelessly if you like, making the home schooling far more enjoyable. With this, your child can move from room to room, or even sit outside on a sunny day to do homework. As you can imagine, the possibilities are endless.

You can find other home schooled students in your area, allowing friendships to bud. You can also have your child join a group such as a youth development organization. If one does not exist in your area, then create your own. In fact, you could develop a website dedicated to home schooled children just like yours, a place where students can study together, play online games, or simply chat.

The interesting thing about home schooled children is overall, these children score in the upper 80th percentile, which is far higher than children taught in school are scoring. The reason is the one-on-one attention the children receive. In addition, home schooled children enjoy a quiet setting without disruptions and distractions. Knowing you can offer your child everything needed to be a successful home schooled child.

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Home schooling has been around for centuries. The beginning of schooling actually started in the home and then moved into outside schoolhouses. A homeschool is where children are taught by a parent or parents without the outside influence or interference of the school system. There are many variations on a homeschool but all fellowships basic rule of no outside interference. Home schooling is legal in all 50 US states with each state having set guidelines and rules about the homeschool process. Getting started in home schooling will require the parent to do some research ahead of time, so they know exactly what laws apply to them and what they need to do to get the curriculum underway.

The reasons parents choose to homeschool their children vary. Some parents site research like home schoolers placed in the 89th to 90th percentile in national standardized testing. Others state their reasons as being able to provide religious studies and building strong family bonds. Other parents look at the quality of homeschool and feel they have more control over the curriculum and content of the materials studied in addition to knowing their children will be safe. There is also the factor of flexibility that draws some families to homeschool. Flexibility not only refers to time, but methods as well. There are many good reasons to homeschool and each family should decide based on the reasons they feel are best for their family.

Getting started in homeschool involves quite a bit of research and studying before homeschool even begins. Parents looking to home school their child or children need to first find local and state home school groups. These groups will be able to provide you the best information on home schooling in your state. You can also go online and find homeschool websites where you can discuss anything relating to home schooling. They can offer you wealth’s of information and help. The more you research and talk to others about homeschool the more you will be able to learn what you want to do in your homeschool curriculum and how to avoid common problems that may come up.

Home schooling is a broad term. There are many techniques that fit under the term home schooling. There are many different styles of home schooling that you can use. The following list describes the most common types of home schooling:

Structured – This works like a public school, in that, it follows a schedule throughout the day. For example, math would be done at a certain time, English at another and so on.

Interest-initiated- This approach is based on what is happening at the current time. For example, if it is snowing, you may chose to revolve the days curriculum around snow or if someone in your family has chickenpox, you may wish to do studies on that disease. This can be very unstructured or structured depending on your choices.

Learning-style- This method is based on each child’s learning style

Philosophical- Using educational philosophies and studies to mold a curriculum is the basis for this method.

Accommodating- For families with special needs this approach works around those needs.

Community- Using outside groups and learning areas to teach the children is what this method is about.

These are just some of the methods used in home schooling. Some people may find a mixture of these works best for them. Home schooling is all about tailoring the process to the child, so do the research and find the methods that work best for your family.

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Others home school for religious reasons, preferring to include religious information in the curriculum, which is not found in public schools. Still others prefer to inform their children about various education topics from their own point of view, rather than what they would receive in public schools. Some parents may be choosing home schooling because they fear for their children’s safety. We do hear many reports of violence in our schools.

Obviously, home schooling is not new. Public schools are really the new kid on the block. According to Patrick Farenga, in his article “A Brief History of Homeschooling,” compulsory education, as we know it, is less than 200 years old. He points out that education used to be handled by parents, the church and the occasional tutor for special subjects. He also mentions that education was intentionally left up to parents by our founding fathers. There is no mention of it in the Declaration, Bill of Rights or the Constitution of the United States.

Farenga dates the current trend toward home schooling from the 1970’s, particularly from a book called “Deschooling Society,” written by Ivan Illich that year. You can find his article at www.hsc.org [http://www.hsc.org/professionals/briefhistory.php], which features many, such articles and resources for home schooling. There is also a page of home schooling jokes. Some of them are hilarious.

If you are considering home schooling your own children, you can find many more resources on the web. There are articles, curriculums, stories from other parents, textbook recommendations, school projects, and more. Home schooling families usually interact with other home schooling families so that children do get social time with other children. They may get together to put on a play, practice music or learn a sport.

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At first glance the terms “hitting the road” and “hitting the books” might appear mutually exclusive. But if you home school your children and have access to a motor home, read on.

Your one room school house on wheels.

One of major concerns of parents who decide to home school their children is that their child is not exposed to the wide array of mental stimuli encountered by children who participate in a more conventional education. Children who go to public and even private schools are exposed to many different cultures, personalities and diverse beliefs. However, children schooled in the home sometimes are not exposed to a wide variety of other children. Co-operative home schooling, which brings a number of families together to share the work in educating their children, helps somewhat but home schooled children still, may not experience the plethora of mental stimuli experienced by their more traditionally schooled counterparts. One way to ensure that your child has access to these stimuli is to pack up your motor home and hit the road.

Math Class

As you head down the highway in your one room school house on wheels, opportunities for teaching abound. In addition to the regular daily lesson plan, you can incorporate trip specific lessons into the daily work. For example, the math lesson begins when you stop at the neighborhood filling station to top off your tank. Consult the owners’ manual of your motor home and find out the capacity in gallons of your fuel tank. If age and grade appropriate have your young student convert this measurement from gallons to liters. For younger children, a fun activity is to let them watch the pump through the RV window and count the gallons or even tenths of gallons that pour into your motor homes fuel tank. Of course with the current price of gasoline, this activity will be much more fun for them than for you.

Once you’ve filled your tank, get out the map and sit with your student to study your route. Consult your motor home’s manual again and find how many miles per gallon you can expect to get. Help your young student compose a formula to find how far down the planned route you’ll be able to travel before your motor home requires fuel again. You can help your child use the map to help navigate as you travel along. Plan a side trip at the spur of the moment. Ask your child to tell you how this side trip will affect your timetable and fuel bill?

History Lessons.

Plan your trip so that you follow an historical route. Follow the Trail of Tears, maybe the Oregon Trail. Travel the dusty path the cowboys rode in cattle drives from Texas to Dodge City, Kansas. If you’ve got the time, follow the route of Lewis and Clark or, explore the vast expanse of the Louisiana Purchase. What ever path you choose to follow, make sure you have plenty of supplemental materials for your young student to study. Many motor home parks have high speed internet available to their campers. At the end of each day, have your child connect to the Internet and gather information about the history of the places you’ve visited.

Social Studies

Take a trip through Appalachia. Venture some distance from the Interstate into the heart of some small town. Stop at a small store or local diner. Observe the people who live and work there. Listen to their accents or, eavesdrop on a conversation. There is no better way to discover how other people live than to explore these microcosms of America. You might even want to contact local parents who also home school their children and arrange a visit to learn more about each other and compare home school curriculums.

Other Destinations

Many home schooling co-operatives hold events at various motor home parks to compare and refine home school curriculums and provide new experiences for their home schooled students. An Internet search for these home school meet ups will yield many entertaining and informative events. If you choose to make one of these trips, be prepared to have a good time and be sure to bring your favorite covered dish.

Exercises such as these are entertaining and exciting to your child and if properly presented, your young student may not even realize he is in school. But remember, as entertaining, exciting and educational as these road exercises are, they are not a replacement for the well planned curriculum and lesson plans available to parents home schooling their children.

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Over the years many parents have become disillusioned with the traditional schooling methods and thought more about the possibilities of home schooling. I would go as far as saying that home schooling has never been more popular than it is today. This is mainly down to the parents concerns of the falling educational standards and the increase in violence at many of these traditional schools.

Home schooling however used to be shunned as many people thought that home schooled children were anti social and did not want to interact with other children.

This is because children that were home schooled did not have the same sort of outlook on the world and were not as experienced in the ways of the world. This meant that when they finally came out of the comfort of their own homes they got a bit of a culture shock.

There is however certain advantages that can be taken from home schooling. If you have a child who struggles or has a weakness in a subject then you can spend as much time as you can with them to help them in the subject. Unfortunately at traditional schools pupils are not afforded this luxury.

Pupils in home schooling also learn to settle quicker as they have no need to worry about any outbreaks of violence from other pupils. They do not need to worry about strict teachers. In fact there are fewer distractions all round for home schooled pupils which means they tend to focus better.

Home schooling sounds an ideal scenario but as with anything else this also has certain disadvantages. As has been mentioned earlier home schooled children will probably not socialize as much as children in traditional schools. This can have an effect when it comes to them going out into the world to find employment. It could make them less likely to be able to work with other people.

Traditional schools will have a set curriculum of education to work from whereas home schooled children will not. This may mean that the level of education from home schooled children may not be as high as those from traditional schools.

Any parent that considers home schooling for their children must weigh up all the pros and cons beforehand and then they are in a better position to make a correct judgment for their children education.

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If the idea of home schooling is something that you and your family are considering there are a couple of important things to make sure to decide before you make any decisions. This decision is something that will affect your children for years and needs to be taken seriously and not on a whim or when you are upset with a current situation. Following are a couple of do’s and don’ts when making the decision if home schooling is right for you and your family.

Dos:

Learn the laws for home schooling in your state. The home school legal defense group is an important stop to make while you are making your decision on home schooling. Another great support system to find is local home school group in your area, visit some and find one that you feel comfortable in. One last stop in helping you make a decision is to find and visit a home school conference, there will be a lot of information presented to you and lots of different schooling options. Just don’t bring your checkbook, make no purchases. You will be tempted but that is not what you are there for, its education for you to make a decision you need to seek right now.

Make sure you and your spouse both agree on your decision. For the most part if you make the decision to home school there will be only one income coming into the home. Even if only one of you do the teaching you will need the support of your spouse. There will be naysayers about your decision so you will need to present a united front.

This can be a very exciting time for you and the kids. But before you do anything else write down a mission statement. What are your personal reasons for deciding to home school? What are some goals you want to accomplish the first year what are your long range goals for your home schooling. You will need this statement to fall back on when you are having rough days. There will be times when you doubt yourself and the decision you made to school at home. Believe me, there were times that if I hadn’t of had that paper to look at I would have quit many times.

Don’ts:

Decide to home school and work outside of the home. This is the education of your child; they deserve your attention and leadership for their education. This will be especially important the first year of home schooling no matter what grade your child is in they will need your help in knowing how to adjust to this new phase in their lives. And mom and dad this will be new for you and you will need to do some learning about how to home school yourselves.

Jump right into textbooks. I know this sounds like I’m now giving you the conflicting advice but as you will soon learn on your home schooling journey there is so much more to education they textbooks. If you have little ones play games that will teach them, read books and play. If the kids are older and been in public school they may need some down time, some time away from textbooks, maybe some educational computer games, sports. Some free reading time, spend some time connecting with them and forming a relationship. Find their learning style so you can use it to help them love learning again. Warning: this is not permission to let the kids turn on the TV and zone out all day.

So I hope that these tips will help you and your family in making the right decision about home schooling. It will be a wonderful experience if you make the decision to do this. But if you can’t honestly say that you can make this the most important thing in your life, before your job, what others say about your decision or anything else, then maybe home schooling is not for you.

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It is estimated that over 1.5 million children in the United States are home schooled every year and this number is growing. There are many reasons for this: Dissatisfaction with public school education, religious reasons, ability to customize education to the specific learning style and needs of your child, opportunity to spend quality time with your child. Whatever the reason, it is important to know that every parent has the right to home school their child and it is not as difficult to get started as you might think.

Many parents have turned to home schooling because of dissatisfaction with the education their child was receiving at their local public schools. While many private schools do provide a more nurturing environment, with today’s economy, unfortunately, private school is not an option for many of us. The cost of tuition has skyrocketed in recent years and so, many parents are looking to home schooling as a way to ensure their children receive the best education possible.

Getting started can seem a little daunting. But once you make the plunge and get past the first year, I am confident that you and your child will find home schooling to be the most rewarding thing you have ever done. You will get to know your child in a way that you could never have imagined. This is not to say it will be all fun and games. It is a lot of work for you as the educator. I have sometimes spent more time preparing a lesson than I actually spent teaching it. But the results have been amazing. My child has learned so much and I am able to focus on his strengths, weaknesses and interests allowing me to make our home schooling experience rewarding and memorable.

The first step for you as a parent who is interested in home schooling is to call or meet with the school superintendent of your city or town. They will send you the specific legal requirements for home schooling in your community. Don’t get overwhelmed by the legislation they might send you. It might look complicated but it usually just requires that you teach 180 days per year and spend approximately 6 hours per day teaching lessons. Now, most people who home school will tell you that it rarely takes 6 hours to get through a day’s lessons. Remember, you are teaching one on one with no distractions. Therefore I have found that I can get a lot more accomplished in a LOT less time than they do in a traditional school setting. They most likely will request that you submit attendance sheets at the end of the year so they have a record that your child received schooling. Other than that, they really cannot tell you what you have to teach. So where do you go from here?

Deciding WHAT to teach can be the biggest obstacle that holds back many potential home school parents. Unless you are interested in “unschooling” your child, I suggest more or less following the standard curriculum that is being taught to other children in the grade your child is currently in. As a tax payer, you are entitled to use text books that the public school children are using. So, I always request these at the beginning of the year. This gives me an idea of what the other children will be learning and gives me a place to start. Between these books and other online resources such as EdHelper, I am able to put together a curriculum specific to the needs and interests of my child. Some home school parents purchase curriculums. They can be a little expensive but if you are really nervous about what to teach, this may be the answer. They usually come with books, workbooks, teacher’s guides and even tests and quizzes all ready to go. There are a lot of home school curriculum available for purchase and can be found online. Another option is an online school. I do not have any experience with these, but I know they are growing in popularity. With internet access, your child attends school online everyday. Assignments and tests are given online with live teacher help.

Whichever road you take, remember this should NOT be a stressful situation. Laugh and have fun with your child. Color, draw, paint, make volcanoes and watch them explode! Do jumping jacks while learning the multiplication tables. But remember to cover the basics, so your child is prepared to go out into the world and become a productive member of society. And finally, ask your child what they want to learn about. This is their education. Make it an experience neither of you will ever forget.

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