Everybody can homeschool
I have written on this blog a few times about homeschooling and a number of people had emailed me to voice about their concerns and the possible cons of homeschooling. I haven’t had any posts explaining the basics of homeschooling, where to go for more online resources, or how to find the legalities of homeschooling for where you live. This was brought home to me when a 15 years old boy asked me last week how could he get started with homeschooling.
For a 15 years old boy who has a few more years to go in the public school system before going to college, homeschooling is about taking the route of self-education. It’s not about buying the most expensive curriculum or passively waiting for a “teacher” to spoon feed him. He can take on a program for independent study through a local homeschooling chapter. In these programs, students usually meet with a teacher several times a week and the center would provide the materials. While this is not true “homeschooling,” it may meet his needs and satisfy his parents. In fact, a few good books and some educational software could cover almost everything.
What is Homeschooling?
Homeschooling is basically is parent directed instead of institutionalized education. This can occur in the kitchen of a home or at other locations in a home, for example a spare bedroom, the garage, the basement, or the study room. Many parents also find ways to teach their children outside of the home i.e. taking lessons, going to the library, going on field trips and visiting museums. In short, parents assume full responsibility in educating their children. The parents may choose to involve others to help, but they are still in charge.
Why do people homeschool?
There are a wide array of reasons why parents may choose not to enroll their children in public schools. However, a majority of parents have chosen to homeschool for one or a mixture of more of the following three basic reasons: school environment, academics and religious or moral.
Many homeschooling parents were concerned about the environment of public schools. The worries ranged from safety, bullies, gangsters to drugs, and so on. Many also homeschool because they are dissatisfied with the academic and education standard at public schools. Some parents choose to homeschool desire to impart their religious or moral instruction at homel. There are also many more other reasons people choose to homeschool i.e. their children have learning difficulties, special needs. Some try to get away from bad public school teachers, some do it because of the father’s work schedule. The reasons can go on, and on.
How to homeschool?
There are just as many ways how people homeschool as in why they homeschool. Some people use a very structured curriculum, other have a more relaxed approach. Some parents pick and choose individual curriculum for each subject. Some might use a particular approach like Montessori, Charlotte Mason and Unschooling . Some parents take a mixed of a few approaches, some are doing school at home, some allow child directed learning. It’s also very often to find parents who use one approach for one child, and another approach for another child. Most families also find their approach changes over time. You would find a diverse demographic of homeschoolers, they are people with different ethnics background, educational levels and financial situation.
If you are interested to become a homeschooler but worry about the financial aspect of it, Here’s how it can be tuition-free! You should never let your financial circumstance deter you from homeschooling, because you can homeschool with tuition free materials through this K-12 Free Homeschool. If you need additional thoughts, resources and information on homeschooling, check this out, you can browse through the K-12FreeHomeschool.org Course Catalog for more information.
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