The Good and Bad in Home Schooling Your Child
Okay, why should you home school your children instead of sending them to public school? First of all, you don’t have to wake them up before the sun rises, feed them in a hurry to send them off with 1000 instructions, and worry about them all day long.
In addition, home schooling allows you to have more control over the things and influences that can affect your child. You are in absolute control of the things that you believe your child needs to do or learn. You get to determine their curriculum based on their individual needs and interests. You get to decide what is of the greatest benefit to your children.
You get to monitor your child’s intellectual and academic growth and tailor his or her lessons according to her actual needs. If your child is having a difficult time with math, but excels in reading, then you will know to give extra emphasis and extra time to her math studies.
You get to determine the length of the lessons and are able to base your decisions on your personal observation of your childs individual needs and progress. Artificial, external pressure is eliminated
Peer pressure, which has been the bane and downfall of so many children in the traditional school setting, is no longer an issue.
When parents get more involved in the learning experience, education becomes a family activity, bringing all members closer. Outings become field trips with all members of the family involved.
Competition has its place in sports and business, but not in the education of your children. home schooling eliminates the competition normally found in a traditional school setting, thereby ensuring your child remains confident. Your child does not need to prove himself.
You as a parent understand your child better than any teacher possibly could, especially in a crowded classroom. You know what interests your child. You know what motivates your child. And you know better than anyone the proper length of a lesson and how to inject fun activities into those lessons to keep your child’s interest.
You can make learning fun. You can teach based on things that you know work for your individual child. Some people are visual, some people verbal, and others need to write things down, or see actual examples in order to learn. No rubberstamped public school environment can provide for those needs, or even understand what works best for your child the way that you can.
An increasing number of parents are coming to distrust the school system. They see their children being pushed too hard, or ignored completely. Teachers are forced to comply with rules and methods that they may disagree with, rules that originate from bureaucrats and which they often believe are not in the best interest of your children. Their jobs are in peril, and they are forced to comply. Your children suffer as a result. And pretty much the only thing you can do is to take matters into your own hands. Remove your child from the public school system and place him or her in a better learning environment, in your home, where you can determine what’s best for your child.
home schooling and Real Learning
home schooled children tend to adapt better to real-life situations than children who were sent to public schools. There’s no way to quantify that statement, but if you think about it. It makes a lot of sense.
Socialization is important, however, in the school setting, socialization is artificial and extremely limited. Your child is forced to sit still for six or seven hours at a time without speaking to other children. The only really noticeable children’s voices are those who misbehave. Misbehaving gets attention, thereby reinforcing this negative behavior and setting an example for your child that I’m sure you would prefer were not a part of his life.
The school system creates an artificial busyness, an environment with constant input, where introspection and contemplation is called daydreaming and discouraged. Creativity is squashed. In the public school system, a child is not allowed to concentrate for any prolonged period of time on any one thing, never follow anything through the end, never really learned to savor and appreciate literature, or understand the depths of science.
Public education is superficial, designed to teach facts, not to teach understanding. Teachers are forced to teach for exams, for rote learning, where children regurgitate back isolated disconnected facts without acquiring true knowledge or wisdom.
In the school system, children can interact pretty much with only their peers. They’re never taught how to interact with adults and rarely with children in other age groups. home schooling is a more natural environment.
The Real Cost of Home Schooling
One would assume that educating your child at home would be inexpensive, however, that is in fact, not the case. In order to ensure that a child is able to compete with traditional school goers, the actual cost is surprisingly high.
Consider this, in order to educate a child properly, is necessary to have textbooks, and up-to-date computer, a fast Internet connection, school supplies, and a proper learning environment.
Specific course materials, proper lighting, ergonomic furniture and when necessary specialized tutors who are, adept in more advanced subjects, all have costs. Field trips and get-togetherness with other home schooled children for the purpose of socialization cost money.
In addition, the parent primarily responsible for the home schooling now becomes a stay-at-home parent, someone who cannot join the workforce and bring income into the household.
When added up, the total cost of home schooling your child properly may be staggering.
However many people believe the price is well worth and have been successful in reducing the costs to a manageable level.
Households with more than one child can reuse the course material on successive children.
Your public library can be an excellent source of material. And the Internet offers free resources easily found and free for the taking.
Locating other home school families, to share the burden and exchange materials, ideas and resources can lower the cost dramatically. Such relationships can also enable you to share costs of field trips, projects and other activities.
Bartering for services is also an option. If you can teach piano, perhaps someone in your home schooling support group can teach art.
home schooling can be done on a budget, but whatever the price, parents of home schoolers believe that you can’t put a price tag on your child’s development. They believe that whatever the cost, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.
home school GradingOne of the worst aspects of a public school education is the constant testing, and judging of your children through the grading system. In a home school environment, grading is up to you. As abhorrent is grading, and judging is, it is an occasional necessity when it comes to understanding the progress, deficiencies, and needs of your child’s home school education.
Lack of objectivity and an absence of any point of reference make grading your child difficult. Therefore, traditional methods of grading are not advised.
In a traditional classroom, when your child has completed his exam, and a grade has been determined, that’s the end of it.
When grading a child undergoing home schooling, it is more important to determine if your child has actually learn the subject than to assign a number or letter to his achievements. If your child has not understood the lesson, grading should merely be used as a tool to determine that you need to go over the lesson again.
This is particularly effective because your child knows that should he not have understood the subject, it will be repeated until he actually does understands it and second that once he has understood the lesson he will be given full credit for that understanding, the equivalent of a high grade. Ensuring that your child comprehends the skill means that your child will always excel, always fully learn the subject and remain perpetually confident. Success is a great motivator for a kid.
But here’s the rub, you love your child. His or her tears of frustration pull in your gut. Resist. Do not give into your emotions. If it is necessary for your child to learn a subject, persist over the tears and whimpers. When your child becomes belligerent, be strong. When your child exhibits frustration to the point where you want to cry yourself, be strong. Find creative ways to get through to your child, because you are responsible to make certain that your child gains the knowledge and skills that will enable him or her to have a happy life later on.
Having a gauge through which to judge your child’s progress can be helpful. Some states require yearly tests of home schooled children. These tests can serve as a guideline to help you judge how your child is doing compared to traditional public school children. They may even show variations in your child’s learning preferences and patterns. Use these exams as merely a barometer or as a map to enable you to proceed with your teaching, with emphasis on the areas in which your child is weak and to build upon those areas in which your child shows strength.
Whether or not your state provides these annual exams, it’s still important to be able to evaluate your child’s progress. The web has a tremendous amount of resources available to home school families. There are many websites that allow for free downloading of informal exams for children of all ages. These provide an excellent assessment tool and when done properly will even serve as a confidence booster, since you will ensure that he will inevitably master all subjects and therefore excel in the exams.
Home School Burnout
I love my kid and I walk naked and barefoot through the fires of Hades just to see her smile, but there are times…
Parenting isn’t easy and home schooling is parenting on steroids. When you take on the responsibility of being a home school parent, of being the sole guardian of their education, burnout is an inevitability. It is a lot easier to consign your child to the public system then it is to wear hats of both parent and teacher.
Life doesn’t stop just because you decided to home school your Child.
Additional Home Schooling Resources
Home Schooling Guidebook: “Thinking About home schooling? Read This Book First!”
home school.com: Everything you’ll ever want to know about home schooling.
Everyday Education: “Everyday Education- Literature, Home School Teens, Etc. home school Through High School & Beyond With Easy To Use Resources!”