What Is Homeschooling? An Introduction for Parents and Students
What Is Homeschooling? An Introduction for Parents and Students
What Is Homeschooling
What Is Homeschooingl: While the majority of children attend public or private school, an increasing percentage are being educated at home. Find out more about the homeschooling movement and what’s truly involved when parents teach their children at home.
Homeschooling is a growing trend in the United States (and the rest of the globe) in which parents educate their children at home instead of sending them to traditional public or private schools. Families choose homeschooling for a variety of reasons, including unhappiness with the existing educational options, differences in religious or educational views, and the feeling that children are not advancing inside the standard school framework.
In the 1970s, popular authors and scholars, such as John Holt and Dorothy and Raymond Moore, began writing about educational reform, which contributed to the expansion of the homeschooling movement. As an alternate educational choice, they proposed homeschooling. According to the National Home Education Research Institute, there are now more than 2 million homeschooled children in the United States, and the proportion is growing quickly each year. Homeschooling is lawful in all fifty states and in a number of international countries.
What are the Standards for Homeschooling Your Children?
In the United States, legal regulations for homeschooling differ by location. Some states have minimal or no requirements, whilst others demand periodic portfolio reviews or standardised exams.
According to Holt, author of the best-selling book Teach Your Own, the most crucial thing homeschooling parents need is “To like them, you must like their company, their physical presence, their vitality, stupidity, and passion. They must appreciate their conversations and queries, as well as their attempts to respond to them.” The majority of parents who homeschool merely require the desire to do so and a commitment to the educational process as prerequisites.
How Do You Get Started Homeschooling?
Parents do not need a degree in education to homeschool in nearly all locations of the country. Those who have small children who have never attended a formal classroom can start a home education programme when their child reaches school age. At that point, they will begin to adhere to the requirements of their state.
How expensive is homeschooling?
When parents with already-enrolled children desire to homeschool, the process is slightly different. They must first submit a letter of withdrawal to the school’s principal or superintendent. The letter should detail the parents’ intention to withdraw their child from school and begin homeschooling. After being notified, parents continue to adhere to their district’s unique regulations.
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Planning a Homeschool Curriculum: Suggestions
Homeschoolers structure their daily schedules whichever they deem most effective. Some students choose to draw less of a distinction between “school” and “home,” despite the fact that the majority of students attend school in the morning. If a youngster is enthusiastic about a science experiment before bed, some parents will follow the child’s interest to see where it leads; this then becomes part of the school day.
The educational philosophy chosen by a homeschooling family will have a substantial impact on the daily schedule. The majority of us are only familiar with one form of education — the conventional system of textbooks, desks in rows, and standardised testing — although there is a vast variety of educational philosophies. These include Waldorf, Montessori, Charlotte Mason, classical, leadership education, interest-driven learning, and unit study, among others. Homeschooling parents are able to combine concepts that best fulfil their children’s educational needs.
You may also wonder if homeschoolers adhere to the public school calendar. In actuality, homeschoolers have total control over the structure of their school year. Many students adhere to the traditional school schedule, while some attend classes year-round and others take certain weeks off when they require them.
Developing a Homeschooling Curriculum
The tremendous rise in the number of homeschoolers has resulted in an abundance of available curriculum and resources. Catalogs are brimming with possibilities depending on various educational philosophies, learning methodologies, the amount of time a homeschool instructor should dedicate to daily instruction, etc.
Subjects commonly taught include both the normal subjects followed in a traditional school programme and those that capitalise on the child’s interests. In his best-selling book The Element, Ken Robinson argues that “the key to [educational] transformation is not to standardise education, but to personalise it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, and to create an environment in which students want to learn and can naturally discover their true passions.” A homeschooling environment provides a natural setting in which parents can provide tailored education that corresponds to their child’s specific interests, aptitude, and learning style.
How to Transition Your Children into Homeschooling After Attending Traditional School
History, literature, and the arts, which are not necessarily grade- or age-specific, are frequently combined by homeschooling families. For instance, children of varying ages may study the same historical era together and then receive projects that match their individual age and aptitude. For other disciplines, such as arithmetic and reading, a homeschooling parent may tutor each child individually to fulfil the student’s specific needs. Depending on the age of each child, the remaining pupils may be working on individual assignments or playing in a different room.
Homeschooling FAQ
The following are some frequently asked questions regarding homeschooling your children.
Are homeschooled students more or less advanced than their public school peers?
Students can advance according to their own temperament and schedule, which is one of the advantages of homeschooling. In a study conducted by the National Home Education Research Institute, homeschooled students scored in the 87th percentile on average on standardised tests, compared to the 50th percentile on average for children attending public schools. However, they may be several grades ahead in certain courses and several years behind in others.
What homeschool programmes does the state fund?
Government-funded programmes vary greatly from state to state, but the majority of homeschooling families pay for their children’s education on their own. In some locations, participation in a state-run programme is voluntary. In such a situation, the state pays for particular resources in exchange for the homeschool satisfying specific standards to remain in the programme.
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Does a group of homeschooling parents exist?
Homeschoolers have access to a wide variety of resources and social networks in the majority of states and areas. In addition to organising co-ops in which families come together to take classes, there are social events such as lectures, field excursions, art workshops, music lessons, sports, and playdates.
What occurs if a parent is ill?
Flexibility is one of the most significant benefits of homeschooling. A parent who is ill can nonetheless guarantee that the day’s most important tasks are completed, if required by giving instructions from bed. Group assignments that necessitate the parent’s direct participation may be cancelled for the day, but the parent could still oversee the child’s individual assignments, such as penmanship and reading beside. Both parents are able to contribute according to their respective schedules in two-parent households.
Do children who are homeschooled have homework? How are objective grades assigned to students?
In many ways, homeschooling reduces the amount of traditional homework expected by schools, especially for elementary-aged children. When there are fewer than 20 students in a classroom, schoolwork can frequently be done in a shorter amount of time throughout the school day, hence minimising the need for extra work.
As a one-on-one tutor, the parent-teacher continually monitors the children’s progress. This firsthand observation enables a parent to keep track of a child’s competency or challenges. Consequently, assignments are modified accordingly.
Homeschooled children, especially as they become older, frequently attend more conventional classes, which gives them practise with completing more standard homework assignments. Some public schools permit homeschooled students to enrol in elective subjects. As they age, home-schooled children may enrol in community college courses and begin their college studies early.
Although grades in specific topics are not always required, many families still administer graded assessments, with some utilising computer tools. The homeschooling setting permits children to proceed at their own pace until they have learned the required information.
Do homeschooled children need to take standardised or state-mandated tests in order to “graduate” or advance to the next grade?
Some states mandate periodic standardised tests, while others do not. To verify that their children are making academic progress, some families opt to test their children. Others argue that such testing is unnecessary until a child reaches high school.
How lengthy is homeschooling?
Homeschooling is permissible until the student graduates and enters college. Families may opt to homeschool their children throughout the duration of their education, or they may homeschool for a few years before returning them to a traditional school setting. The majority of institutions are beginning to recognise homeschooling’s growing popularity. Even Ivy League institutions pursue and admit homeschooling graduates.
