What's Hot and not in Homeschooling

With all the advances in education over the last century, it may seem that there is little need for homeschool anymore. But parents are choosing, in increasing numbers, to opt for a distance learning homeschool education for their children. The reasons of this are many, but before we get into them, it is necessary to dispel two common fallacies about homeschool and distance learning.

Firstly, homeschool today is nothing like the informal home education given in the past. It is as advanced and sophisticated as regular school. Secondly, parents who choose to homeschool their children by using distance learning are not turning their backs on modern education, they just want to be more involved and in control of how it is imparted. Besides this, it is important to keep in mind that:

• Even good teachers are limited in their effectiveness by the size of their classes. Distance learning homeschool is a direct parent to children interaction so personal attention is always present as well as an understanding of the children’s psyche that enables the teaching to be done in the most effective way.

• A regular school curriculum is limited to subjects that are popular. Homeschooled children can be taught, along with the regular subjects, those which appeal to their special interests. This allows for a great deal of experimentation, often needed to ensure that by the time the children are in online high school, they are comfortable with their subjects and have more than a compulsory interest in them.

• Homeschool allows the family to spend more time together and strengthens family bonds. This makes it easier for the parents to impart their values to the children. Additionally, the children will be less tempted to indulge in activities that their parents would not approve of and which could be harmful to them.

• When attending a regular school, children spend many unproductive hours just waiting. They sit in a bus waiting to get to school and to get hack home. They wait between classes. They wait for lunch. All this time is saved and can be used more productively when in homeschool.

• And most importantly, regular school teaching is set up for the average student. A slightly slow learner who may need extra time in one subject will suffer, as will a quick learner who has to wait for the rest of the class to catch up with him. In home school, children can learn at their own pace.

There are some disadvantages to distance learning homeshcool, but these are easily overcome:

• Home school requires a lot of time, effort and involvement on the part of the parents. It involves a lifestyle change for them.

• Any economies resulting from distance learning could be offset by one parent having to give up a full time job to look after the education. However, working out of the house can compensate for this to a large extent.

• Group extra curricular activities have to be arranged by the parents with the use of support groups etc.

While these problems cannot be ignored, they are not insurmountable and solutions are easy to find.

To learn more about a quality, distance learning homeschool please visit Laurel Springs School.