Archive for November, 2007

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Home schooling is fast gaining popularity among families across the globe for the numerous advantages that it has to offer. It has become one of the best alternatives to formal schooling because of its flexibility, minimal cost, excellent academic framework and safe environment.

Different Learning Behaviors

Studies over the years have shown that a person’s learning behavior differs from that of another. One person may learn better by listening or by seeing something demonstrated to him or her. Another may learn better by reading and writing. Not everyone can benefit from a single structured method of teaching. Public schools and private schools teach based on a single method or form of teaching. They cannot provide custom-made teaching methods to fit the learning behavior of every child. The child is forced to adapt to the particular teaching method being used in the school, regardless of whether or not such a teaching method is the best manner by which to educate the child.

Home schooling gives children the opportunity to maximize their learning potential, by providing them with the best possible teaching method to meet their needs. This makes children learn their lessons easily because they are learning through a method that is more comfortable to them. This, in turn, boosts up a child’s self-confidence, increases his or her sense of security, and improves his or her emotional and mental development.

Unavailability of Formal Schooling

Home schooling is the only alternative in situations where the option of formal schooling is not available. This usually occurs where a child has learning disabilities or requires instruction that is more advanced than what children of the same age require. It also takes place in the case of missionaries, military families, or other families where the parents’ occupation or profession require them to constantly travel from one place to another. There are also situations where the family’s religion does not permit them to enroll their children in regular schools or require them to teach subjects which are not offered in regular schools. In these situations, home schooling provides educational stability to a child. It is flexible enough to meet the special needs that children and their parents may have.

Formal Schooling’s Disadvantages

Studies show that through the years, the increasingly earlier enrollment of students in schools have led to juvenile delinquency, increased enrollment of students in special education classes, behavioral problems, and even nearsightedness. These studies confirmed that young children may suffer mentally, socially, psychologically and academically if they are exposed to school at an early age.

Contrary to what most people believe, home schooling does not obstruct the development of a child’s socialization skills. In fact, it does the complete opposite. When children are educated at home, they are exposed to people of different ages and maybe even different backgrounds. They learn to interact with these people and develop their social skills. On the other hand, children’s socialization skills may not be as developed in school. In school, they are exposed to children within their own age group other than their teachers. The environment is controlled and artificial.

The option to resort to home schooling children has been available to parents for years. However, it was not as popular as formal schooling. Today, millions of families all over the world resort to home schooling to educate their children. The rise in its popularity may be attributed to better awareness of children’s educational needs.

James Brown writes about Visual Link Spanish key code, clicknkids.com on-line coupons and Whitman Nobel Academy deals

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So you have finally decided to home school your child or children. It’s difficult to determine where to start. In fact, the process of learning how to go about home schooling your children is a challenge in itself. What to teach, the length of time to allocate to different subjects, what teaching materials to useâ�¦ the list goes on and on leaving you, the parent, confused and overwhelmed. Here are a few tips to consider when choosing to home school your child or children.

1. Consider the Cost

Home schooling may be cheaper than enrolling your child in private school, but be prepared to spend more compared to what you would spend when sending your child to public school. In addition to the cost of learning materials, computers, tables, chairs, lamps and other things that you might need to effectively home school your child, the annual family income may be lessened by yet another factor. Parents who decide to home school their children usually end up deciding to have one parent stay home to teach the child while the other goes to work. Although there are few who can afford to work and home school their children at the same time, this workload isn’t for everyone. Some families resort to running businesses from their homes or ask friends and relatives to help out in home schooling their children while the parents are at work.

2. Make the Time

Another factor to consider is how much time you are willing to invest in home schooling your child. As mentioned earlier, there are some parents who can afford to work full time and home school their children. Some parents agree on which spouse gets to home school their children. Some decide to divide the task of home schooling their children between them, allotting specific time periods for their children’s lessons.

After deciding to home school your children and having a figure in mind on how much to spend, you then have to determine the duration of each lesson for each day. It’s like making a class schedule for your child to follow to ensure that each subject is allotted a fair amount of time.

3. Determine Your Teaching Philosophy

There is a wide range of teaching philosophies which you may want to consider, depending upon your beliefs, your religion, or simply on what you think is best. Among the teaching philosophies to choose from, the most common are: the Charlotte Mason education, the classical education, the Montessori method, the theory of multiple intelligences, unschooling, “school-at-home”, and a Thomas Jefferson Education. Each of these teaching philosophies has their advantages and disadvantages. It is recommended that you do some research on these teaching philosophies to determine which one suits you and your child the best.

4. Choose Your Teaching Method

There are many different teaching methods to choose from. Some of these teaching methods are: the unit study method, the “all-in-one” curricula, student-paced learning, community resources, and unschooling. Again, you must do some research to determine which teaching method suits you and your child the best.

There are many books and resource materials on home schooling. There are also many websites on the Internet today that are filled with information on home schooling. With all these resources, you will be able to make an informed decision to home school your child as well as read up on current teaching methods and obtain useful tips in home schooling your child.

James Brown writes about signingtime.com on-line coupons, Frontline Phonics online coupons and Belford High School discounts

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Home Schooling, also known as home education, is defined as the education of children at home, generally by parents or guardians instead of in a public or private school. It provides children with a different learning environment rather than that in public schools or private schools.

Violence in schools has been dominating the headlines lately. More and more parents fear for the life, safety and health of their children. Home school seems to be a better alternative than sending children to school where they may become the victim of school violence.

Damaging Effects of Preschool

In a study conducted by the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University, proof was gathered on the fact that children who spent more than six hours in preschool had difficulty with respect to cooperation, sharing and participating in classroom activities, while children who remained at home with their parents prior to starting school showed no difficulty whatsoever. According to a Harvard Longitudinal Study, children who went to daycare centers were shown to have inability to form psychological attachments later in life. Another study showed that the time spent by children in daycare was directly proportional to the likelihood of their becoming disobedient, defiant and aggressive by the time they reach kindergarten.

The conclusion that can be derived from these studies is disturbing. Children who attend preschools or go to daycare centers instead of remaining at home with their parents suffer serious problems with social and emotional development. This leads to aggression, hostility, and eventually violent behavior as they grow older. This may be one of the reasons of violence in schools. A child who is socially and emotionally underdeveloped may have difficulty controlling his or her aggression or hostility, which may lead him or her to act out and resort to violence, endangering the safety of other children.

Home Schooling as the Solution

Studies have shown that children who are home schooled are more socially and emotionally adjusted compared to children who go to private or public schools. Children who are home schooled have stronger ties with their family and feel more secure because they know that they have their family’s support. This gives home schooled children more confidence to think and act without subjecting themselves to peer pressure.

Home schooled children learn from the people that they trust and with whom they have the closest ties to their parents. This encourages them to open their minds without the restrictions imposed on them in a classroom setting. They not only learn what they are supposed to from their academic lessons, they also learn about real life because they get to learn in a real setting and not in an artificially controlled environment like that in classrooms. The end result is that these home schooled children learn to resort to patience and reason rather than aggression. They are better socialized since they interact with different people other than those in their own age group and they are more emotionally secure compared to children who learn in a classroom setting.

It is not difficult to see that home schooling may be one of the solutions to curbing violence in schools. Parents who can afford to spend more time at home with their children should consider home schooling as an alternative method of instruction considering the fact that children who are home schooled grow into socially and emotionally mature people, who in turn become assets to the community.

James Brown writes about ClickN READ Phonics promotion code, Two Little Hands Productions promo code.

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by Bayan Khatib
Homeschooling is growing more and more popular these days. One of the many benefits of homeschooling is that it allows parents to tailor learning environments to their children and their family values. Although homeschooling comes with many benefits, there are some drawbacks. Many homeschooling parents worry that their children aren’t interacting with peers on a regular basis as they would in a school setting. Other worries include carrying the responsibility of ensuring your child’s education is up to par and covers all curriculum requirements. If you are new to homeschooling you probably have many questions and concerns. A great way to address this is to get together with other homeschooling parents.

Meeting on a regular basis with other homeschooling parents has many advantages for you and your child. You will be able to exchange ideas and teaching techniques with other parents. Most importantly, though, you child will get a chance to interact with some of his or her peers. Children can be very impressionable and concerned about being different from everybody else. Therefore, it is important for your child to get together with other homeschooled children in an environment where they feel they fit in.

Homeschooling parents face the challenge of explaining to their child why they want to homeschool and why everybody else goes to a regular school. Meeting with other homeschooling families regularly can help in with this challenge. It will help your child see that there are other families that homeschool and that will foster your child’s feeling of belonging.

There are many different ways you can get together with other homeschooling parents. One of the best ways is to incorporate it into your child’s education. Keep in touch with other parents and if find that your families are studying the same subject at the same time, suggest a joint field trip. This way, the field trip will not only be educational but it will also give your child a chance to socialize and work on their interpersonal skills.

Another good idea is to suggest a group project for your child and a friend from another homeschooling family. If the other child is also working on a biology unit for example, you could suggest that the children work on planting a garden together. This will help your child develop important skills such as cooperation, leadership and sharing.

Another great idea that works well while teaching your child writing skills is to find child a penpal from among your homeschooling famlies group. This will provide your child with the opportunity to write often and to learn the proper format of letter writing and sending. Getting together with other homeschooling families can help you deal with the many of the challenges of homeschooling. It will make the homeschooling journey easier and more fun for you and your child.

Bayan Khatib, mother of four and author of two books, has been homeschooling for two years. She holds a degree in English and Professional Writing. Read more of her homeschooling articles at http://www.homeschool-central.com

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For most of us who have gone through the hallowed halls of learning a.k.a. the busy and sometimes bumpy corridors of a private or public school, home schooling may be a curious and bizarre choice. The idea of not being able to have classmates and interact with them during class or recess or not being able to participate in school organizations like sports and the glee club gives the impression that you are missing out on a lot of great things and experiences.

As a famous book title says “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten”. You might as well accept that you may have failed to take up these lessons as there is no such thing as kindergarten when you are home schooled all alone. But then again, there are reasons why children are home schooled.

The term home schooling generally refers to teaching and instruction done at home but under the regulation and administration of school associations also known as umbrella schools or correspondence schools. The home school movement was roused by John Caldwell Holt, a teacher, when he published “How Children Fail.” The book raised controversy as it criticized school instruction stressing that the failure of children to learn was not due to the amount of effort and determination to learn but on the setting provided by the schools.

Mr. Holt believed that the home is the most appropriate base where the child can explore and learn where there is no interference, no regulation and no control. This view was shared by an education professional couple, Raymond and Dorothy Moore. The Moores advocated that children from 8 to 12 years old can learn more from home than at schools as there is an added advantage of the strengthening of the bonds and emotional development between the parent and the child during these formative years.

On some account, home schooling is typically an alternative that some parents opt to have for their children with the wish that the latter may dwell in a learning environment different from that of public or private schools. This does not seem too unreasonable considering the situation of some of our schools nowadays.

In this day and age, it is not surprising that we hear news of school bullies hitting on the timid and meek kid or of teen cliques who discriminate at those who do not belong to their group to the point of embarrassing them in front of people scaring them for life. These horror stories could haunt any parent who only wants the best for their child and who would anticipate that they never get a chance to live through these kind of experiences.

Some parents choose home schooling for practical reasons. It is apparent that enrolling in schools is expensive. One need not only consider the tuition fees but there is the concern on the costs of books, of school materials, of projects, of field trips, and even the bus fares and the lunch money. School expenses could take a toll on some underprivileged families. A number of school regulations also preempt kids to go to a regular school. For this reason, home schooling is the fall back option.

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As any set of parents who chose to send their children to public or private schools would do, there are also those who wanted to literally be a part of their offspring’s educational advancement. As much as this requires one of them to spend full-time at home, there is also the need to gather basic facts and materials to cover the necessary lessons for each child in a year.

Homeschooling is indeed not an easy decision to tackle when it comes to dedication and commitment. A guardian or one of the parents has to be present during the day to be with the children and to meet their educational needs and appointments. The next necessary step to take is the selection of curriculum to be used for the program. The right books to use and age-appropriate activities to introduce to each child are common concerns especially for beginning teachers.

Since there is no perfect template to be followed as to how the process of homeschooling could be perfected, as that could be a subjective view, there are suggested programs provided by various organizations to enable the starting family launch on their personal homeschooling journey. The internet can provide a list of hosts that suggest books, materials and projects for the children.

If there are two or more children in the same homeschooling household, then it would be more practical to share the books of the older students to their younger siblings and create a pattern or program that fits with their learning curves. How the older ones fared with a certain subject may help gauge the younger ones’ approach to the topics at hand. But this is a tricky approach to some extent.

As we are all different in a lot of ways, so does our handling of tasks both mentally and socially. Thus parents should not be surprised if they notice how different one child’s reception to a lesson is compared to an older or younger sibling. This may come as a shock to some who expect that since these kids grew up together, they can have somewhat similar takes on their lessons.

Handling these children individually may be daunting to some. But they should see the beauty and the challenge in their differences. One child may be more active and extroverted to his approach in his lessons, while another might be more passive and receptive without much physical restlessness involved. Thus comes the need to discern what actions to take prior and after each lesson. Parents can personalize each lesson plan according to the strengths and weaknesses of each child, and take note of those differences. He or she can then note the improvements as the weeks and months progress.

The tie that binds to the successful outcome of homeschooling is the teacher’s personalized handling of his/her kids both educationally and parentally. Children easily pick up the mood of the parent, and thus are sensitive to his/her personal struggles at home as well. This can also be regarded as a beautiful bond that cannot be obtained in a structured school setup. Although teachers in an institutionalized learning facility can be sensitive and approachable enough for their children, they could not replace the parent’s role in the children’s lives.

James Brown writes about Whitman Nobel Academy promo code, eCampus.com on-line coupons

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Homeschooling is defined as providing a child’s main education at home. Although this topic has been one of great debate by both critics and supporters, families continue to choose the option of educating their child in the comfort and privacy of their own home. If you are considering this method of learning, keep the following tips in mind:

Consider various teaching options. As a parent, you can often homeschool your child on your own or you may enlist the help of a professional tutor, which is a private teacher who typically teaches one child or a small group of children. In some cases, a child may also participate in independent study programs that are made available through a school.

Make sure the curriculum is approved. If you plan to homeschool your child, you will need to request a curriculum package containing an approved course of study. It’s important that parents make sure the program they use to educate their child is one that’s approved by their state and/or board of education.

Make learning fun. In order for a child to get the most benefit from homeschooling, many believe that visits to the library, museums and other cultural outings can help the student to learn more effectively. This is one of the reasons why public schools often participate in field trips, which allow the children to see a location up close and personal as it relates to their program of study.

Prepare your child for college. Studies have shown that children who learn at home are just as likely to attend a higher learning institution as other students, which means parents who participate in homeschooling will need to prepare their youngster for this change. A homeschooled child who wishes to apply for college must submit a copy of his/her ACT or SAT test scores. As for transcripts, children who gained their education at home may submit records from their supervising high school or correspondence course.

Get everything in writing. As a parent who wishes to homeschool your child, you are required to file the appropriate paperwork with either a local or state education agency. For more information on this topic, you can consult with your county’s board of education or your school’s principal. The name and age of the student must be given, along with lesson plans in some cases. Currently, parents are not required to have a teaching certificate in order to educate their child at home, but it’s important to check with your state’s laws regarding homeschooling as they may vary by state.

One final note: It is very important for home schooled children to be properly socialized with other children. Playing with kids their own age they can learn valuable social skills that will help them become more successful later in life.

The information contained in this article is designed to be used for reference purposes only. It should not be used as, in place of or in conjunction with professional legal or educational advice relating to homeschooling and/or the laws relating to this subject. For more information, consult with your local or state education agency.

Alex is a wedding consultant who spends spare time reading healthy recipes on the web and watching SciFi shows like the Ghost Hunters on television.

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