Home Schooling Guidelines For Parents

By Wendy Lim


The benefits of home schooling, as compared to traditional schooling, are numerous. For this reason, many parents are choosing to home school their children. One advantage is that your children are only exposed to your values and beliefs. Other benefits include the close monitoring you can do and your involvement with their learning progress. The main objective of this report is to let you know a few of the many elements you need to consider before you begin home teaching.

Make sure you don't have any doubts about being a home school teacher before you decide permanently that this is what you are committed to do. It would be sad to get all set up for home schooling and then realize that it wasn't the best choice and end up putting your children back into a regular school. Each member of your family must support the idea of home schooling and truthfully comprehend what it will mean to the day to day life of the family. Another thing to seriously think about are the financial ramifications if one parent - the one who will be responsible for the full-time home schooling - has to quit work in order to stay home with the kids. Consider this: would your kids be happier in a regular school where they could be around other kids and make more friends, or would they adjust well to the isolation of being schooled at home?

Even though you are homeschooling, state standards still must be taught; this is why many schools operate home schooling programs under what is called an "umbrella program". It is a legal requirement in many states for parents to participate under these programs. On the other hand, certain states do not require this making it a voluntary choice for the parent. The reason why most parents like this type of program is that the curriculum is already done for them and they simply have to teach their kids. However, instead of being able to teach your kids in a free-spirited manner, you are required again to follow state mandates. Just check out whether or not you have a choice, and make the right choice for your children.

It's a good idea to keep good records of your home schooling activities. There may or may not be a legal requirement to do so, but it's a sensible thing to do anyway. You can make it your habit to keep track of the topics you've covered, any tests or reports your child has written and other relevant data. Records can be used to satisfy any questions from a local authority, or perhaps as accompanying material in place of a transcript when your child applies to a university. You may also find such records make it easier for you to plan future curriculums for your child, as you can see what did and didn't work well in the past.

In some ways, the hardest part about home schooling is starting out with it. Most parents think of school as a place they send their children to in order to become educated. If you decide to home school, you will have challenges to face and one of them will be your conception of what "school" is. Yet once you get into the spirit of it, you may find that it's a great alternative that allows you to bring your kids up in a healthier environment.




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