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[H586]Home Schooling On Line

by Ted Rossio, Ted

There are many reasons why parents choose to homeschool their kids. For many it is because they want to add religious content to their children's learning experience.

Making the decision to home school is usually a very difficult not and it is not one to be taken lightly. It is a personal decision that no one can make for you, but maybe I can help in the thought process by providing you with a comprehensive guide to making the choice to homeschool your kids a successful one.

When making the homeschool decision, you must first consider these things:

1. Time commitment that is involved. Homeschooling has a tendency to take up a lot of time in your day. It involves more than just sitting down with books for a couple of hours. There are experiments and projects that have to be done, lessons to prepare, papers to grade, field trips, park days, music lessons, and the list just keeps on going. You can go online and search for some sample schedules that will help to give you an idea of a typical day.

2. Personal sacrifice. The homeschooling parent has very little personal time or time alone and away from their children. If a lot of care is not taken to set aside time for yourself, it is easy for the parent to feel overwhelmed. Basically, the parent and child are together 24 hours a day and this can get frustrating on both sides.

3. Financial problems can arise. Homeschooling can be accomplished with very little cost to you; however, it usually requires that the teaching parent will not be working out of the home. Some sacrifices will need to be made if the family is used to two incomes. Of course, if you are a single parent, this could pose an even bigger problem.

4. Time for socialization. More attention will need to be given to getting your children together with his/her peers. The best part of homeschooling is being able to have more control of the social contacts your child makes. However, the downside is that you must prepare your child yourself on how to socialize with other kids. Homeschooling has a tendency to make your child feel isolated.

5. Household organization is harder. Housework and laundry and other house work will still have to be done, but it probably won't get done first thing in the morning. If you are a neat freak, you might be in for a big surprise. Not only does housework need to be let go at times, but homeschooling creates messes and clutter on its own. You will have to get organized so that you can keep your home together.

6. Both parents must agree to it. It is important that both parents agree to homeschooling. It is very difficult for this to work if one of the parents is against it. If your spouse is against it at this time, try doing more research and talking to more people so that you can be absolutely certain it is something that both of you can agree upon. Otherwise, the chances for success are much lower.

7. Your child has to be willing. A willing student is crucial to the success of homeschooling. Ultimately, the decision is the parents to make, but if your child is dead against it, you might have a very difficult time in teaching them. The fact of the matter is that an unwilling child can sabotage his or her own school efforts.

8. Know that it works one year at a time. It isn't a lifetime commitment and doesn't have to become one. If you find that homeschooling just isn't worth it, you can choose to go the regular route.

There is a lot more to homeschooling than deciding to just do it. As a parent, you must know that your child's education is the most important factor in his or her future. You need to be thoroughly prepared for all of the time and commitment that is involved.

Many public schools today are fraught with problems. For these reasons, the benefits of home schooling become more evident. Home schooling offers a way to escape these conditions and provide a true education for the child.
Of the numerous benefits of home schooling, perhaps one of the most important is the parents' ability to provide a wholesome environment for learning. With overcrowding, understaffing, drug dealing, and gang activity, many public schools have become very undesirable places for children. Home school provides a happy and safe alternative to public school. This offers a way for children to avoid these conditions and allows parents to provide a quality education for their children.
One big benefit of home schooling is that you, the parent, can tailor the curriculum to reflect your cultural and religious preferences. Of course, public schools do not teach religion, and you may find parochial schools far too expensive. If this is the case, you can choose a Christian home schooling curriculum. If you are a parent who places strong value in math, science or other subjects, it is possible to get a curriculum that stresses these subjects. You are in charge. Your preferences for your child's learning experience shape that experience when you home school.
One of the best benefits of home schooling is that the homeschooled child is able to progress at his own speed with learning. In a regular classroom, students do not always have this luxury. There is a often a daily schedule to follow and if a child has failed to grasp a concept when the class moves onto a new topic, then that learning opportunity may have been lost forever. The homeschooled child can continue to work on each topic until he has thoroughly mastered it.
Public schools are simply not financially able to provide hands on learning to children. For many children hands on learning has been shown to be the most beneficial. This is something that can be done easily through home schooling. One of the benefits of home schooling is that the parent can customize the curriculum to a child's particular learning style.
Aside from more directed learning, one of the benefits of home schooling is that children will also be able to gain more knowledge. A regular school isn't able to accommodate the learning needs of every child. Home schooling offers children the opportunity to not only learn more, but to learn it more efficiently.
Leaving the most measureable benefits of home schooling aside, you'll also see a stronger and closer bond between a parent and child because they're learning and growing together. Home schooling is perhaps the best lifelong gift that an involved parent can give to their child.

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Both Ted Rossio & Andy Austim are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

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