Archive for category Home Schooling
Why Many Parents Decide to Home School Their Children
Of course in America there are many options to educating our children. There are public schools, private schools, charter schools, Montessori schools and, of course, the option of home schooling. There are advocates of both home schooling and public schooling. Those of us who don’t home school, which is still the majority of Americans, need to fully understand the reasons why people choose to home school their children.
Religious or Philosophical Convictions:
Religion is not permitted in the public schools. Many families feel that religion needs to be a larger part of their child’s education than that which the public schools allow.
People who have deep religious beliefs show great passion. These are the individuals who are passionate about their children’s education and feel that only they are able to teach them to the best of their ability and the content that they feel they should be learning. The home schooling parent is in charge, they call the shots and they like it that way.
Socialization:
Some people that don’t understand home schooling believe that it is confining rather than socializing. But those individuals that believe that are stuck in thinking about the stereotypical socialization of an age-based classroom. Children that are home schooled are exposed to social situations in a mixed age range. They have “age-mates” instead of “class-mates”.
Many home schoolers feel that their children need to be exposed to the appropriate ways to behave not inappropriate. They feel that their child should be exposed to the model behavior of people who have learned to make decisions and handle themselves in various social settings. By being exposed to appropriate modeling of social behavior, home-schooled children will learn how to act appropriately.
Parents of home schooled children can also see when their child “gets-it” when they model for a younger child appropriate behavior.
Home-schooled children get a reality based social lesson. On a daily basis they see adults they know, love and trust manage and balance life day to day. Modeled for them is academics balanced with real life chores; caring for a sick friend or neighbor, shoveling the driveway and walkway, doing the grocery shopping and dropping of the dry cleaning, cooking dinner while folding laundry, putting laundry away and talking on the phone with Aunt Sara. These are real life situations that home schoolers are exposed to and public school children are often sheltered from or are privy to a controlled school environment.
Academics:
Home schoolers have several advantages over publicly schooled children. The curriculum is designed specifically for them – not for children their age and what children at a particular age are expected to know and learn. Public schools differentiate instruction the best they can. However, a home-schooled child has a curriculum tailored to their needs. They may read at a 4 th grade level, spell at a 3 rd grade level and complete math at a 6 th grade level.
A home-schooled child is neither rushed nor not given enough time. There are no other children to “keep busy” so they are free to work at their pace and move as quickly or as slowly as need be.
Much research has been done on how children learn best. A home-schooled child is not only taught by the person who knows them best in the entire world but also since they are the only student, the learning style never has to be varied. If a student learns best through music, then the curriculum of a home-schooled child can be tailored to meet their needs so they will be more successful.
Home-schooled children get to spend more quality time as a family. They are not trapped in a traditional school setting for 6 hours a day but are free to spend quality time as a family every day.
It is said that parents are a child’s first teacher. Families that home school want to continue to be their child’s teacher because they feel that their children need the guidance of their family and God and not the guidance of someone hired to do a job that is naturally theirs from the day their child was born.
Choosing The Right Home Schooling Curriculum
When researching curriculum for home schooling you will find there are many options available. If you are new to homes schooling, choosing may be overwhelming. Many parents who home school do not have a background in education or may work full time outside the home so need more support when choosing curriculum for their children. In this case, choosing a packaged curriculum will be the best option. With a packaged curriculum, everything will come included. The textbooks, tests, teaching aides, report cards, everything you need to successfully home school your children. Parents who are not able to devote all their time to the home schooling of their children will find this option very beneficial. Often, when using a packaged curriculum, you will have the support of trained and credentialed support staff to assist and answer questions when needed. You also have the option of enrolling your children in an online school so they are taught by teachers via the Internet.
For those parents who are more familiar with home schooling, or even have an education background, an option for choosing is to mix and match from the different programs available. Because children are different, one package might not suite the needs of your children in total. You may feel it’s better to choose different curriculum for different packages and teach that way rather than using one package that might not meet the needs of your family. When you pick the curriculum you want to work with, you give yourself and your children freedom to work in a way that benefits both them and you. The one issue with teaching in this way is you will need to have some experience. If you are new to home schooling, this may not be the route to take right away. Give home schooling some time and learn what curriculum you really like, and the one’s you do not and you will have a better feel for how to make the curriculum you want for your children.
Another great thing about being able to choose your own is the ability to incorporate your Religion into your teaching. Public schools are not allowed to have any form on Religion taught in their schools, so unless you pay to send your children to a private school that will teach them Religion, they will not learn about it. By home schooling your children, you have the ability to teach them about their religion in the way you see fit. You can infuse your faith and morals into your teachings. Your children may have a writing assignment that needs to be completed, and you can have them write about a Religious icon or celebration where as in a public school they would not be allowed to do this.
Choosing the right may seem overwhelming, but there are many support groups for families that home school. A simple search of the Internet will land you in chat rooms and blogs about where you can get wonderful information and guidance.
There are numerous benefits of home schooling and choosing an appropriate and proper home school curriculum for your child. For more information about Home School and Curriculums, please do visit our site – http://www.homeschoolcurriculum.org/
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Christian Home School Curriculum
As more and more parents become deeply concerned about the public school system and the many problems, from over-crowding to teachers with poor judgment, or moral issues surrounding them, parents are taking on their responsibilities head-on by schooling their children at home. is the same schooling your child was to receive if in a public school except many of the subjects and materials are easily modified to bring the Christian faith into them. All the states have approved a to be conducted in the home, and has been allowed and certified by the states for several decades now. This means that the states accept credits that are taught in the home and that they understand and support credits to be applied to their overall education records. Naturally, the teachers of your children will have to be registered with the state as home schooling teachers.
Once you have decided to have your children complete their education using , you need to develop the Home schooling curriculum to meet the state standards as a minimum. This entails acquiring or developing programs from their content standards, which are available on the state board of education or similar website. They can also be obtained by contacting the department. Every state also has a section that can provide all the information necessary to meet the state’s standards in issuing a diploma at the end of a curriculum.
Once the standards are obtained and the teachers have been selected, the rest is in developing the lesson plans for the program that are available through many program providers or that you can write yourself using the content standards from the state. While the work may seem daunting, by taking each course and working on it for a set period each day, the curriculum will shape into a program that reflects your faith’s values and the standards of the state so that your children will benefit the most from the exercises in their .
Just remember the result is to have both a good and the best education for your child. A little work on your part – with the help of those teaching the curriculum and the content standards of the state – will ensure your children have both the best schooling possible while also developing the values you desire to be taught to your Christian faith children.
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