Homeschooling Children

Posts Tagged ‘education’

I am a homeschool mom and I am considering starting my kids in Classical Conversations. I was wondering if you think this approach works as well as it appears? Boys 9,6,4

Is it really a radical choice for parents to decide to homeschool? Or should we applaud these parents for making the right choice about their children’s education?

Some parents nowadays are thinking-out-of-the-box to make sure that their children don’t have only the best education but possess also the right values, principles and attitude toward life. There is an apparent increase in the number of homeschooled students. According to U.S. Department of Education, there are approximately 1,096,000 students who were educated at home in spring of 2003. It is a big leap (approximately 29% increase) compared to spring of 1999 which has only an estimated 850,000 homeschoolers.

Let us delve as to why more parents are now taking the radical choice of opting for homeschool education for their children.

Away from school bullying. This is one of the primary reasons cited by parents who homeschooled their children. School bullying is very prevalent nowadays. The National Youth Violence Prevention stated that there are over 5.7 million youth who are bullied at school. It is about 30% of total youth population in the United States.

It is a disturbing situation with a negative impact to children being bullied at school. Bullied students live a stressful life as they become fearful with possible bullying incidents again. They are scared to be alone like being in the bathroom or in the hallway. Victims will have less interest in attending school also and even the task of riding a bus becomes a terrifying activity.

This results in depression, low self-esteem, physical illness, loneliness and in worst cases, suicidal thoughts.

Most bullied children also find it difficult to learn at school as they struggle coping with their fear and anxiety. They can hardly focus in the classroom.

Other Safety Concerns. Homeschooler parents are worried about the safety of their children in the traditional school. Safety concerns include drugs, negative peer pressure and accidents. Some isolated cases include children being gunned down or murdered at school. Children’s safety at school is unpredictably at stake.

Some homeschooler parents perceived that homeschooled children are safer compared to children attending a regular school.

Quality Learning. Parents are the primary teacher and models of the children. A ratio of one teacher to two or three students makes a huge difference in the quality of education delivered to a teacher handling 30 to 40 children in a regular classroom.

Also, the fact that it is their children, education is more personalized and the result is far better. Schedules for homeschool are flexible also so children are not forced to wake up early to catch the school bus and options for what the children want to learn for the day are possible.

Better Person. Parents always want to instill good values to their children. It is one of their intention and hope that their children become a better person but when children attend a regular school, parents can no longer control the other factors such friends, schoolmates and school environment. These are external factors that can influence the children either positively or negatively.

Oftentimes children acquire attitudes from their friends at school. Children are vulnerable to adapting certain manners or attitudes which are relative to the kind of friends or clique they mingle and hang out with. On some occasions, they are negatively influence because of peer pressure. For the child to be part of the group or to be labeled ‘cool’ at school, sometimes they do things out of their way.

Parents of homeschoolers prefer to train and raise their children the way they would have wanted them to be. They believe that they are more effective in instilling moral and religious values.

24/7. This is the best advantage of homeschool. Parents are with their children 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Experience parents always encourage new parents to spend as much time as they can with their children especially in their growing years. This is the stage where children are still dependent to their parents. Once they reach puberty, they now prefer to spend time with their peers and once they reach adulthood, they will spend more time with colleagues, friends and at work.

Strong bond. As parents and children spend more time together than the average parents whose children are attending a regular school, the opportunity to develop profound bond and strengthened relationship is inevitable.

Homeschool reinforces the value of family.

Flexibility. There are parents who are always mobile because of work related issue. Some parents find homeschool very convenient because it allows them to travel without much constraint. Travelling can be planned anytime as there are no worries of missing the classes or interrupting school activities.

It indeed gives more flexibility to parents and children to travel.

Without doubt, homeschool education offers many benefits to your children and to you as parents though critics always question the socialization life of the homeschool children. Are they really being deprived of their socialization skills?

Homeschool curriculum nowadays have supplement activities like pottery classes, museum visits, karate classes and so on. There are many institutions also that offer and organize different activities for homeschool children. If you can just do a little research and get connected with the right network or community of homeschoolers, you will be amazed with the available socialization opportunities for homeschool children.

Socialization is not limited at school only. There are so many venues that children can develop their socialization skills.

So, is it really a radical or right choice to homeschool? Parents know their children better than anyone else and so does the answer to this question.

Statistics Resources: www.safeyouth.org, www.ed.gov

The idea of a homeschool program is hardly new. It’s been around long and has been acknowledged as a source of some of the brightest people in the country including celebrated names like Thomas Edison.

Homeschooling emerged when parents believed that their local academic programs didn’t offer the class and rigor that they desired for their children. Thus they would merely pull the plug on going to a formal education, and instead be tutored by mentors, home teachers, and members of their communities.

What marks many homeschooled children is the independence in terms of selecting what they want to learn. By following a homeschooling program that not only provides a well-balanced foundation in the arts and sciences, but to essentially concentrate in whatever field of interest that they are passionate about, produces genuinely intelligent students who go on to excel vis a vis students in similar formal class programs.

As technology infrastructure expands and as the overseas workforce evolves, Home education presents a further respected option for those who want a dynamic education both in terms of theory and in practice.

Many reasons are cited for opting for Home education. They include but are not limited to religious purposes, disagreements with the local learning environment curricula, feeling of poor grade of instruction in the schools, fear that peer influence will have unfavorable affect on their child’s development, and for others it’s because of disabilities which require broader avenues for achieving an education.

As you can tell by now, home school program selections are certainly something that can be considered, even though not considered mainstream. It’s important to sit down carefully with your child (as his or her choice should be factored into the decision), as well as local school counselors and anyone other families that may have been involved with home schooling programs to some extent.

Home Sweet Home-School: A Survivor’s Guide to Giving Your Kids a Quality Education

Homeschooling is a special type of education, a do it yourself education, if you will. So, if it is a do it yourself education, just who is the “you?” Parents have hectic lives with work and other pursuits that benefit their children and family. It is somewhat of a challenge for many parents, particularly single parents, to find the time to devote to giving their children a full time education. So, what is the answer?

There I good news. Parents have a wide variety of homeschooling options. More than a million children are home schooled every year so it is obvious that parents are finding ways to make it work for them and their families. Those ways are as diverse as the parents themselves.

Often, in the case of a traditional, two parent family, they have an arrangement where one parent works outside of the home and the other works in the home. The one who works in the home also assumes the primary responsibility for homeschooling the children.

Many parents choose homeschooling for their children because they are dissatisfied with the quality of education as well as the values that are taught, implicitly or otherwise, in public schools.

However such traditional arrangements, one parent, usually the man, works, the other, usually the woman, cares for the home, is not the only option and certainly not the only choice that parents can make. The options have expanded exponentially since the 1960s. With the introduction of role reversals, same sex couples, extended families and many other less conventional families are emerging; alternatives in homeschooling education are presenting many more choices.

Many families, regardless of family structure, are making creative choices in selecting someone to educate their children. Some may invite an older relative or a friend into the home. This is an arrangement that actually goes back to a much older tradition. Whether it is an older aunt or uncle, a grandparent or a friend, that person can bring to the table valuable experiences and can often be exceptional homeschool education providers.

As the homeschooling movement has come to a point where second generation education is possible, children who were homeschooled are often homeschooling their own children. They are also often the best choices in providing homeschool education.

On the other hand, those who endured public school education also have many valuable contributions. They have many valuable life lessons to impart but they should take care to avoid falling back on public school methods.

Neighbors can provide homeschooling as can stay at home moms. These moms provide childcare services as well as incorporating homeschooling. Another option is to find a family who is already homeschooling their own children and have them take on your children as well.

Busy parents also have a somewhat newer facet to homeschooling but is centuries old and that is finding a tutor. In many other countries, tutors are often the primary education giver. In fact, the public school system which is modeled after the Prussian system of the 1800s is a relatively recent endeavor which has, for the most part, failed.

Tutors come is all varieties with a wide range of backgrounds. Some may specialize in a certain area such as music or languages while others have a broad background. Some are even former public or private school teachers who were unhappy with the system, yet love teaching.

Parents often mistakenly believe that they can not afford a private tutor to homeschool their children. However, they soon realize after research that this is simply not so. The cost of a tutor is somewhat nominal when the quality of the education is considered. They may even elect to start a home based business so that they can still be a part of their children’s lives while the tutor carries the bulk of the educational load.

Often parents will discover that children who are fairly motivated and independent thrive well in a homeschooling environment and the time required for schooling is actually less than anticipated. When a parent or tutor provides a child with guidance and resources the children largely teach themselves. This in itself makes tutoring far less expensive. One of the greatest benefits of homeschooling is that homeschooled children are usually at the top of their classes in college because their love for learning is self generated.

Before discounting homeschooling as a venture that will not work for you, take some time to explore all of your options.

As California’s financial debt, overcrowding and budget cuts eat away at the quality of education being given to students in California, and as the number of families grow who feel they can give their children a better education than is given in public schools, and without the influence of bullies and other disruptive elements in their children’s lives, there is now a significant number of children being homeschooled in California. California education lawyers and education attorneys throughout the State of California have been aware of this large segment for some time now in California.

From Palm Springs to Palm Desert, San Diego to Orange County, from El Cajon and Chula Vista to Anaheim, Irvine, Newport Beach, Santa Ana and Anaheim, from Santa Barbara, Ventura, Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo to Yorba Linda, Rancho Cucamonga, Moreno Valley, Ontario, Fontana and Fullerton, from Riverside and San Bernardino to La Quinta, Indio and Coachella, the number of children being homeschooled has created a significant number of households in California.

Therefore, when in February 2008, a California court ruled that unless one of the parents of a homeschooled child had a credentialed teaching degree, their children being taught at home were truant, it shocked the families of these homeschooled children.

This ruling was thought to affect 200,000 kids in the State of California. Protests were raised from parents of these children to the Governor of the State.

On rehearing, the same judges made an equally stunning reversal of their opinion. Judge H. Walter Croskey, of the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles wrote that so long as parents declare their home to be a private school, they can continue to homeschool their children, even without credentials.

Parents, especially Christian parents of homeschool children and homeschooling associations hailed the decision. Governor Schwarzenegger perhaps naively expressed his hope that this might settle the issue once and for all.

However, in his decision on the issue, Judge Croskey noted that while California impliedly allows parents to homeschool, California currently has no enforcement mechanism. He said, given the State’s compelling interest in educating its children, and the absence of an express statutory and regulatory framework for homeschooling in California, additional clarity would be helpful.

Parents of homeschooled children should realize that Judge Croskey’s opinion is an invitation to legislators to create statutes and regulations in this area as well as a mechanism to enforce the rules they set for homeschooling.A

s a lawyer who must constantly read new laws, parents should know too that wherever there are legislators, they are busy creating new regulations.

Governor Schwarzenegger’s hope notwithstanding, the court’s ruling did anything but abdicate the right to make further rulings. After first holding against homeschooling and then completely reversing course and admitting that it did so simply on an implied allowance by the State to allow it, the next court to review the subject could very well rule completely differently.

For the moment, however, parents teaching their children at home can breathe a sigh of relief. How long that relaxed atmosphere will last, however, will yet be up to the courts and the state legislature. 

If you have an education legal matter of any kind, we have the knowledge and resources to be your Moreno Valley Education Lawyers, and Chula Vista Education Attorneys. For this reason, be sure to hire a California law firm with education lawyers who can represent you from Palm Springs, Rancho Cucamonga, Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, Corona del Mar, Anaheim, Irvine, La Jolla, El Cajon, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Temecula, Palm Desert, Yorba Linda, Carlsbad, San Diego, Costa Mesa, Westminster, and Murrieta, to Indian Wells and La Quinta.

If you have an education legal matter of any kind, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com  and learn how we can assist you. You can also call us to speak directly to Sebastian Gibson on the phone about your legal matter.

• ISBN13: 9780805444544
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description
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Product Description
As we survey the educational ruins around us, classical and Christian education appears to be an idea whose time has come again. More and more Christian parents are seeing the failures of modern education, and they are hungering for a substantive alternative, one that has been tested before and found to be good. Classical and Christian education presents them with just such an alternative…. More >>

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• ISBN13: 9780966972740
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description
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The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book: Fun & Easy-To-Use Games & Activities To Help You Teach Your Children Fitness, Movement & Sport Skills