Child Education

Describes on what is home schooling to know about home schooling and its advantage.

What is home schooling

Home schooling is when  parents decide to educate their child in the comfort of their home, free of charge. Home schooling is also considered as a method of distance learning where parents don’t have to pay school fees or admission fees.

The decision to home school a child is taken by the parent or guardian. Home schooling is practiced worldwide. However, some parents decide that they should send their children to an up market, trendy and prestigious private school to give their child a good sound education.

Public and Private schools capitalize on their advertising budgets and promote their schools and make the whole education system commercialized. Not all schools are guilty of this but certain schools do this to fight off competition and to lure new students to their schools for commercial purpose even though they may not have the quality education or facilities.

Parents fall into the well manipulated trap. What these parents don’t understand is that you don’t have to go to a prestigious school, its up to the child to develop his/her learning skills with the availability of the right resources. Home schooling does just that, parents can identify their child’s capabilities and nurture him/her with individual attention.

Home schooling has many pros and cons.

Various demographic, social and economic factors have contributed to the existence of home schooling. Home schooling was in existence since the early days when there were no schools, and it was only a group of children gathering at one place and a teacher teaching them. There was no set curriculum at the time.

Home schooling is the sole responsibility of the parent. As the parent, you decide how and what to teach the child and what methods to use to stimulate the child’s mind and bring out his/her hidden potential. Home schooling creates a less formal environment for the child to learn, making the child having a willingness to learn.

Home schooling is increasingly popular in Europe, UK and the US. It’s a mammoth step in every parents decision making process, to decide to home school their children. As the watchful eye of those public school parents are ready to criticize the home schooling decision.

Many think that home schooled children do not develop interpersonal and social skills as opposed to their peers, educated in a school environment. Home schooled children in most cases posses the same or maybe even superior intellectual skills when compared to their class room educated peers. Home schooled students don’t have any problems with applying for Colleges or Universities.

Lara B Tyle in her very comprehensive book for first graders titled Making the Grade, outlines very simple to-do exercises with the first grader, the book covers a range of subjects such as math, writing, reading and science at six to seven half year olds level.

However, home schooling a toddler is a very daunting task the parent. For toddlers, its best that home schooling is kept basic and simple, like learning to feed themselves, change their clothes, talk and facial expression are just to name a few. For older children a complex curriculum should be introduced. Various other resources are available for home schoolers, both on the web and at the local libraries.

Parents tend to refer the internet to read and research new and innovative methods to enhance and sharpen their home schooling skills.

Home schooling can be combined with extra curricular activities and sports so that you do give your child a wholesome education enriched with the curriculum of a usual school with the only difference being that your child is in a homely atmosphere. These extra curricular activities can be organized during the day according to your child’s day. This way it’s so flexible especially with younger children who are sticklers for routine.

As per the Home schooling hall of fame U S presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson the only US president with a PhD were home schooled. Also world famous authors Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and George Bernard Shaw are just a few great names that benefited and obviously excelled by home schooling.

However, before you make a decision on whether to home school your child you should first weigh the advantages and disadvantages.
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