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Tips For Successful Homeschooling
by Desmond Edwins
http://www.orgeducation.com
There are many reasons why parents choose to homeschool
their kids. For many it is because they want to add
religious content to their children's learning experience.
Making the decision to home school is usually a very
difficult not and it is not one to be taken lightly. It is
a personal decision that no one can make for you, but
maybe I can help in the thought process by providing you with a
comprehensive guide to making the choice to homeschool
your kids a successful one.
When making the homeschool decision, you must first
consider these things:
1. Time commitment that is involved. Homeschooling has a
tendency to take up a lot of time in your day. It involves
more than just sitting down with books for a couple of
hours. There are experiments and projects that have to be
done, lessons to prepare, papers to grade, field trips,
park days, music lessons, and the list just keeps on
going. You can go online and search for some sample schedules
that will help to give you an idea of a typical day.
2. Personal sacrifice. The homeschooling parent has very
little personal time or time alone and away from their
children. If a lot of care is not taken to set aside time
for yourself, it is easy for the parent to feel
overwhelmed. Basically, the parent and child are together
24 hours a day and this can get frustrating on both sides.
3. Financial problems can arise. Homeschooling can be
accomplished with very little cost to you; however, it
usually requires that the teaching parent will not be
working out of the home. Some sacrifices will need to be
made if the family is used to two incomes. Of course, if
you are a single parent, this could pose an even bigger
problem.
4. Time for socialization. More attention will need to be
given to getting your children together with his/her
peers.
The best part of homeschooling is being able to have more
control of the social contacts your child makes. However,
the downside is that you must prepare your child yourself
on how to socialize with other kids. Homeschooling has a
tendency to make your child feel isolated.
5. Household organization is harder. Housework and laundry
and other house work will still have to be done, but it
probably won't get done first thing in the morning. If you
are a neat freak, you might be in for a big surprise. Not
only does housework need to be let go at times, but
homeschooling creates messes and clutter on its own. You
will have to get organized so that you can keep your home
together.
6. Both parents must agree to it. It is important that
both
parents agree to homeschooling. It is very difficult for
this to work if one of the parents is against it. If your
spouse is against it at this time, try doing more research
and talking to more people so that you can be absolutely
certain it is something that both of you can agree upon.
Otherwise, the chances for success are much smaller.
7. Your child has to be willing. A willing student is
crucial to the success of homeschooling. Ultimately, the
decision is the parents to make, but if your child is dead
against it, you might have a very difficult time in
teaching them. The fact of the matter is that an unwilling
child can sabotage his/her own school efforts.
8. Know that it works one year at a time. It isn't a
lifetime commitment and doesn't have to become one. If you
find that homeschooling just isn't worth it, you can
choose
to go the regular route.
There is a lot more to homeschooling than to just do it.
As a parent, you must know that your child's education is the
most important factor in his/her future. You need to be
thoroughly prepared for all of the time and commitment
that is involved. If you are thinking of choosing homeschooling
for your child (ren), this guide will help to make it a
successful transition
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