Homeschooling Resources

When people think of home schooling resources, they may be thinking only about the instruments of teaching such as curriculums, books, study guides, desk space, computer access, etc. But there are other home schooling resources that go beyond the home school classroom. You may think that the time and energy you save over taking your student to a public school, making lunches, helping with homework and of course, the dreaded fund raisers and parent teacher meetings will help even out your schedule. The truth of the matter is that as an old proverb goes, “It takes a village to raise a child,” you may find yourself needing help to get other chores and errands done.

I know the first year that we home schooled our 6th grader, we were amazed at how much we had relied on the public education system to take care of our child for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. All of a sudden we realized there were choices to be made about how to take the car in for repairs, do the grocery shopping, play taxi service for our other child and still be in the home school classroom for our sixth grader.

In the following article by Donald Saunders, you will see some examples of the types of resources you may not have thought about and some good tips on employing these resources early.

Home Schooling – The Ins And Outs Of Do It Yourself Education

Many people describe home schooling as ‘do it yourself education’ and most parents immediately assume that they are the ‘you’ in ‘yourself’. As a result, many parents with busy lives earning a living or pursuing other important activities, and particularly single parents, tend to dismiss any thoughts of home schooling out of hand. But are they right to do so?

Home schooling has been around for a long time now and involves more than one million children in the US alone and experience means that are many options open to parents today. Indeed, it is perhaps no surprise to find that parents in just about every situation you can imagine have found the solution to home schooling their children.

We are all of course familiar with the traditional two parent family with dad out at work and mum looking after the home and this situation makes home schooling a relatively simple option. Since the 1960s however society has changed a great deal and today there are a whole spectrum of family situations including role reversal, single parents, same-sex couples, extended families and much more.

Each situation brings with it both problems and advantages for home schooling and it is a matter of examining both and then looking for ways to overcome the one and enhance the other.

For example, many families turn to their wider family or friends for help and invite family or friends into their home to help. This is nothing new of course and, for many years, it was common for families to offer a friend or an older family member like an uncle, aunt or grandparent accommodation in exchange for helping with the care and education of the children.

Neighbors can also often provide assistance. A number of ’stay-at-home’ moms are already providing day care facilities for children and, as home schooling continues to spread, babysitting services are increasingly being extended to include home schooling.

In many cases families are also getting together to provide home schooling on a ‘group’ basis with parents pooling their resources and time.

Another popular option is to employ a tutor. Tutors today come from a wide range of different backgrounds and in all age groups and include both specialists, such as those teaching languages or music, as well as general tutors. In fact, it is quite common to find ex-public or private school teachers who have become dissatisfied with the ’system’ turning to tutoring because of their fundamental love of teaching.

Most parents think that private tutoring is simply beyond their financial reach but, after some careful research, they are often surprised to learn that the cost of hiring a tutor can indeed be within their reach.

One other important consideration is the children themselves. It is surprising how well motivated children are by the independent nature of home schooling and many parents find that teaching a child at home can take considerably less time than you might think.

If you find yourself tempted by the advantages of home schooling over the present poor public school system then do not fall into the common pitfall of dismissing the idea out-of-hand. Take the time to explore the options open to you and you may well be surprised to find that it is not as difficult as you think.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 at 1:29 am and is filed under Homeschooling Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.