Deciding to Home School – The Do’s and Don’ts

If the idea of home schooling is something that you and your family are considering there are a couple of important things to make sure to decide before you make any decisions. This decision is something that will affect your children for years and needs to be taken seriously and not on a whim or when you are upset with a current situation. Following are a couple of do’s and don’ts when making the decision if home schooling is right for you and your family.

Do’s:

Learn the laws for home schooling in your state. The home school legal defense group, hslda.org is an important stop to make while you are making your decision on home schooling. Another great support system to find is local home school group in your area, visit some and find one that you feel comfortable in. One last stop in helping you make a decision is to find and visit a home school conference, there will be a lot of information presented to you and lots of different schooling options. Just don’t bring your checkbook, make no purchases. You will be tempted but that is not what you are there for, its education for you to make a decision you need to seek right now.

Make sure you and your spouse both agree on your decision. For the most part if you make the decision to home school there will be only one income coming into the home. Even if only one of you do the teaching you will need the support of your spouse. There will be naysayers about your decision so you will need to present a united front.

This can be a very exciting time for you and the kids. But before you do anything else write down a mission statement. What are your personal reasons for deciding to home school? What are some goals you want to accomplish the first year what are your long range goals for your home schooling. You will need this statement to fall back on when you are having rough days. There will be times when you doubt yourself and the decision you made to school at home. Believe me, there were times that if I hadn’t of had that paper to look at I would have quit many times.

Don’ts:

Decide to home school and work outside of the home. This is the education of your child; they deserve your attention and leadership for their education. This will be especially important the first year of home schooling no matter what grade your child is in they will need your help in knowing how to adjust to this new phase in their lives. And mom and dad this will be new for you and you will need to do some learning about how to home school yourselves.

Jump right into textbooks. I know this sounds like I’m now giving you the conflicting advice but as you will soon learn on your home schooling journey there is so much more to education they textbooks. If you have little ones play games that will teach them, read books and play. If the kids are older and have been in public school they may need some down time, some time away from textbooks, maybe some educational computer games, sports. Some free reading time, spend some time connecting with them and forming a relationship. Find their learning style so you can use it to help them love learning again. Warning: this is not permission to let the kids turn on the TV and zone out all day.

So I hope that these tips will help you and your family in making the right decision about home schooling. It will be a wonderful experience if you make the decision to do this. But if you can’t honestly say that you can make this the most important thing in your life, before your job, what others say about your decision or anything else, then maybe home schooling is not for you.

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Pro and Cons of Home Schooling

Home schooling is a popular way to educate children all around the globe for a variety of reasons. Main home schooling pros and cons follow.

Cons

Level of Learning – Too many people think that those children who are home schooled will not receive appropriate levels of education compared to students learning in public and private schools. On the contrary, parents of home scholars work with their local boards of education, principals and / or other educational consultants to ensure they are meeting the requirements set forth.

Socialization – Another negative viewpoint is that those students who are studying at home do not get to mingle enough with their peer groups and other instructors, administration and school personnel and teachers. And that’s just hogwash. Students at home meet with others in home school groups to tour all types of local and far away places that coordinate with their study plans. And equally if not more important, home school students are introduced to real life people throughout their days: bankers, grocers, and other professionals introduced through their program studies and real life as they go around on errands with parents.

Lack of Routine / Regimented Days – Some view a lack of disciplined hours Monday through Friday with home schooled students as negative. However, many home school parents establish routines at home, too. Children are not left haphazardly running around the streets unattended.

Lack of Real World Environment & Prep- And still others believe that home schooled children will lack environmental and other preparation for real life that public and private school supposedly teach their students. Again, more hogwash. Home schooled children learn science, technology, music, gym, any and all subjects – only more thoroughly, because they are focusing on what they are learning, not being bored with subjects taught over and over to help slower paced learners so that everyone is up to speed.

Pros

Private for Less Money – A home school education is like enjoying private education without the cost. Students get more one-on-one help, targeted lessons and advanced learning opportunities as their teachers do not have to teach to all levels, often covering lower-learning levels that bore more average and advanced learners.

Improved Targeted Subjects – lessons in the home school environment are also to be customized much more easily than those in public and private school. Results include much higher levels of education with targeted useful knowledge to help students after graduation.

Higher Grades – Home schooled students are known to average much higher grades than their peers in public and private schools. Many get accepted to top colleges and universities on scholarships.

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