The most important factor that differentiates both home schooling and state/private schooling is that home schooling allows for one on one tutoring where as state/private schools teach in large groups and in a social environment.



Obviously, it is the desire of parents to provide the best education available. Coupled with this desire is to control the educational environment as much as possible. Those controls include the provision of a safe environment and an education that reflects the values and beliefs of the parents.

Different mediums for home schooling

There are different types of homeschool programs available that specialize in using different mediums to teach with, the main ones are: teaching via the Internet, audio and visual, software for your PC and the more normal textbook.

Each of these variations of a home school course is acceptable and should be selected by keeping one overriding factor in mind. That factor is based on choosing the program that best suits the learning style of your child.

Some children find it very easy to learn from visual things where as when reading they find it much harder. Others can find learning on their personal PC to be more engaging.

As home schooling has gained popularity over the years the laws and guidelines in each state have slowly got stricter. You must make sure when starting up a home school that you abide by all regulations.

Length Of Study

When a person takes it upon themselves to homeschool a child they are in complete control of the speed of which the child learns, however normally there will be exams to test your child's progress that the authorities will enforce upon your child and if they are not passed you may be obligated to put your child back into public school.

Also quite often you will find that when you obtain classroom materials your provider will issue you a license, normally something like 365 days in which you must complete all of the materials provided.

Government tests

Most governments or states will require that your homeschooled children be tested to reassure all the authorities that your child is in fact learning with a reasonable progression.

It will depend upon your local authorities, but those that do adopt obligated tests normally issue them once yearly or every two years and in many cases the test can be administrated by the homeschool tutor.

At the end of the day whether a test is obligated where you live or not it is still a very good idea for you to have your child perform one every now and then so that you can properly assess the progress of your child and know how to move forward.