Words of Advice for New Home Schooling Parents

By Patty Rich


As parents become more aware of the benefits of home schooling, this alternative to traditional schooling is gaining popularity. You have control over how and what your children learn, you can keep track of their actual progress on a day to day basis, and you can make sure your values and traditions are instilled in your children. Before you can be sure that home schooling is the right choice for your family, you need to think about many things. The focus of this report is to give you some points to consider.

Home schooling may not be as rigidly structured as conventional schooling, but you still want to make sure you have certain standards. It is important that your children understand what they are being taught, but with homeschooling, you are not required to give tests as frequently as in a regular school. It is important to test, however, so that you know where your kids are in regard to the subject matter being taught. Kids that are homeschooled are not exempt from testing as many state laws require formal assessments to log their progress. To make sure your kids get the help that they need, regardless of laws, you need to test them from time to time.

Have you considered home schooling your children online? This is now a reality and an alternate to doing the home schooling yourself. With a structured program like this, the chosen school determines the subjects and curriculum for the students. It's similar to many of the home-study programs you see online for adults. Your children, however, will still have the benefit of your presence and they will be able to study and learn at home. If you choose this option, you must also take into consideration the advantages and disadvantages. One huge benefit is that you won't have to come up with the lesson outlines or subject matter. You also have to ask if it's ideal for a child to have to be in front of a computer all day long. It wouldn't hurt to go online and see how these online home teaching schools work and to decide if it's an option worth considering.

Home school co-ops are another home schooling option that you can check out in your area. Co-ops are not a new idea. They have been used in many industries. In this case, the families who want to home school their children form a co-op which, in essence, is forming their own mini-school. One of the benefits of this type of arrangement is that your children will have the company of other kids and won't feel the isolation of individual home schooling. As a rule, these co-ops are very limited in size. Your child won't be stuck in a situation with twenty or thirty other children. The co-op format is also to your benefit because you will be sharing the responsibilities and duties with a congenial group of other parents who have the same goals that you have. You may want to see if such a group exists in your area, or if you might want to look into starting one. If you consider the pros and cons of a home school co-op, you will quickly realize that you have the better of both worlds - a regular school where your kids can be around other kids and a home school with fewer students and individual attention by caring adults.

Anyone that decides to homeschool needs to be aware of the factors that we have presented in this article - knowing them will help you succeed. You will discover, as you teach your children at home, that homeschooling is beneficial but requires constant modifications. Home schooling gives you the opportunity to learn as well as teach, and both you and your kids can gain many valuable benefits from this process.




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