Many people describe homeschooling very much as 'do it yourself education' and most parents assume that they are the 'you' in 'yourself'. As a consequence, many parents with busy lives making a living or undertaking other important activities, and particularly loan parents, dismiss any ideas of teaching their children at home out of hand. But are they correct to take this course of action?



Homeschooling has been around for a long time and involves more than one million kids in the United States and experience means that are many options available to parents today. Indeed, it is perhaps not surprising to find that parents in almost any situation you can think of have found the solution to homeschooling their kids.

We are all of course familiar with the two parent family where dad goes out to work and mum stays home and this model makes homeschooling a quite simple option. Since the 1960s our society has changed markedly and now there are a whole spectrum of family situations including, role reversal, single parents, extended families, same-sex couples and much more.

Every situation brings with it both problems and advantages for homeschooling and it is a question of examining both and then looking for ways to overcome the difficulties and enhance the advantages.

For example, a number of parents turn to their wider family or friends for help and invite family or friends into their home to help. This is nothing new of course and, for many years, it was common for families to offer an older family members like an aunt or a friend accommodation in exchange for assisting with the care and education of a child.

Neighbors can also often provide help. A number of 'stay-at-home' moms already provide day care for children and, with the continuing rise in homeschooling numbers, babysitting services are being extended more and more to include homeschooling.

In a lot of cases families are also combining their resources to provide homeschooling on a 'group' basis.

Another popular option is that of employing a tutor. Tutors today come from a wide range of different backgrounds, at all ages and include both specialists, such as those teaching music or languages, as well as of course general tutors. In fact, it is not uncommon to find ex-public or private school teachers who are dissatisfied with the 'system' becoming tutors because of their fundamental love of teaching.

A good many parents think that private tutoring is quite simply beyond their financial reach but, having researched the subject carefully, they are normally surprised to discover that the cost of tutoring is not beyond their means.

Another very important consideration is the children themselves. It is often surprising how well motivated kids are by the independence which homeschooling brings and many parents discover that teaching a child at home can be considerably less time consuming than you might think.

Should you find yourself tempted by the advantages of homeschooling over the present poor public school system then you should avoid the common pitfall of simply dismissing the idea out-of-hand. Instead take the time to examine the options open to you and you may well be surprised to find that it is easier than you think.