Giving Homeschooling a Try

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Friday, October 12th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

You need not dive in to homeschooling once and for all and feel if you fail in your attempt, your child can never go back to school again. The ideal way to introduce homeschooling to your child, and yourself, is to give a trial run during the summer as that is when you can see if both parties are cut out for this kind of instruction. Homeschooling is no longer a ‘hippie’ or strange thing as more and more families in the US are opting to educate their children themselves where they have better control of what they are learning.

The major complaint that parents have is that children waste a lot of time going and coming from school, lining up, going for recess, unwinding upon return, etc. that they really just get a few hours of instruction in a whole day of school. This is especially disturbing for parents whose children are above or below the standards for that class. If you are the proud parents of an exceptionally bright child or if your child has a developmental disability, then homeschooling is a good bet as you can tailor your curriculum and not rely on state funded schools that have too few teachers and resources to cater to anyone that does not fall in the average bandwidth of academics.

Do You Like It?

When you give homeschooling a try, you will have to accept the fact that there will be little or no time left for yourself. In addition to the academic side of homeschooling, you will also have to help your child or children meet their social needs and hence join home schooling groups and other park district type of activities so that they can get a well rounded education including music, art, sports etc.

Many parents like giving home schooling a try in the summer when the days are longer, the children more relaxed and a lot to do outdoors as hands on activities. It also gives them a real experience of what materials and resources they would need to run a school at home. In addition to the books and materials, you also need to find options for child care for younger siblings during home schooling instruction hours as well as extra help perhaps with household chores like cooking and laundry which you used to tackle while the kids were at school.

Does Your Child Like It?

Trying out home schooling for size is also a good way to judge how accepting your child is to being taught one on one as opposed to in a class of 20 kids. Some children love it, whereas others miss their friends and all the antics they get up to when in school. You can also judge if you have the stamina to teach your child or if you lose your patience quickly and all he is doing is plopping himself in front of the TV. Homeschooling is a great option for many families, but it is not for everyone. Try before you buy.

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