Homeschooling
Advantatges of
homeschooling
Home education is a wonderful
way to stay close to your children while helping them become well-rounded
teenagers and adults. It offers you the opportunity to tailor your children’s
education to suit your children, your lifestyle, and your beliefs. Education at
home also gives you a safe ‘home base’ for your children while they explore the
people and places around them. With the ability to individualize your child’s
education, you can truly foster a lifelong love of learning.
A home school is a school in
which parents teach their children an academic curriculum at home instead of
sending them out to a public or private school. Home schooling is legal
throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Hong Kong, and South
Africa. Home schooling is most popular in Canada, France, the United Kingdom,
and the United States. Home schooling is legally accepted in all 50 states of
the U.S., but each state has its own laws that a family must adhere to. 
Currently, it is estimated
that over one million families school their children at home. Most of these
families include a breadwinner and a stay-at-home parent who does most of the
teaching, although there are single parent families and dual career families
who home school. Home schooling education models range from unschooling to
traditional classroom schooling. Unschooling is based on interest-based
learning in which the child expresses interest in a particular subject, and the
parents take steps to provide the materials for that subject. Most parents who
home school, however, have a traditional setting in which the children are
taught subjects such as math, reading, history, science, grammar, and spelling
within a structured schedule created by the parents.
Home school support groups
In most communities, the home
school family can take advantage of a local support group. A home school
support group organizes monthly meetings in which new and existing home school
families discuss different home schooling issues. The group may also arrange
for cooperative teaching in which parents with different skills teach a group
of home schooled children once a week in a rented or donated building. In some
places, the home school group shares in hiring a professional teacher to teach
a particular subject. The group may also arrange field trips and sports
activities. A number of home school groups field sports teams that compete
against each other or with local private schools. These activities are intended
to provide socialization skills for the students.
External support schools
The home school movement is
getting the attention of private and public schools. In response, some schools
are providing support and materials such as books, videos, educational
software, science kits, computers, field trips, workshops, and special classes.
Home schooling occurs when
parents take charge of their children’s education organizing subjects, teaching
lessons or arranging for tutors, evaluating progress, and supervising social
contacts. Home school parents believe that one-on-one attention and
individualized study produce the best education possible; most also think that
peer groups are NOT the best “socializing agent” for their children.
Disadvantages of homeschooling
There are disadvantages as
well. For
instance, home schooling is often lonely because children aren't socializing
with other children their own age. They don't get to commiserate with their
peers about things like parents and homework, and they do not get to
participate in school sponsored extracurricular activities. Parents are also
isolated socially as days are spent teaching children, rather than
communicating with other adults in a work environment or neighbourhood groups.
In addition, students may not get the benefits of many of the services and programs
available to those within the school system.
