Many people are deciding to homeschool their kids. It can be a hard decision to make at first, as there are many variables to consider and many schooling options for children. In the end, however, there are a lot of people that do not have much confidence in the safety and security of public schools and are starting to doubt the level of education that comes out of them. Homeschooling your child may be an option you want to look into if you have ever doubted public schools.

One of the first things you’ll want to do when you considering homeschooling is to read and find out as much information about it as possible. You can probably find books on the topic in your public library, so start reading and learn as much as you can about homeschooling, as well as how it works in your particular part of the world. Many people operate homeschooling websites online, so email some of those sites and ask for catalogs and other pieces of information.

The second thing you should do is take the time to learn from others who have homeschooled their kids. Talk to parents and get some of their advice on the matter. You can also find homeschooling support groups in your part of the world or online, so feel free to join up and find out what you can from people that have been there before. You’ll want to arm yourself with information from a variety of sources, both books and people, before you begin to homeschool your child.

The third thing you’ll need to do in order to homeschool your child is to learn about the law in your area. Check out your state’s laws. Homeschooling is legal in many locations, but you should look into the legalities of the specifics. You’ll want to know what you’ll have to do in order to fulfill the state requirements to turn out a successful student from homeschooling.

The fourth thing you need is to design a schooling method. Try turning one part of your home into the classroom so that your child can make that particular area designated for school only. This will allow you to have an environment with your child so that you can teach your child correctly and so that the child can concentrate on his or her work. Check out kids’ furniture stores for desks or other pieces of furniture that could make an area of your home look more like a classroom. Part of a good homeschooling routine is setting up a comfortable environment in which to learn.

You can start teaching your child in a number of ways, but it is important to find out how your child learns best. Include him or her in the process and discover learning together. Allow your child to experience learning in a safe, educational, and responsible environment.

Homeschooling your child can be a great way to bond and teach your child important skills for life. Having an area designed for homeschooling, with kids’ furniture and some nice decoration options, can make the experience even better. Include your child in the process, from start to finish, and give him or her learning experience that will last a lifetime.



Thanks to Lily Morgan for contributing this article to our Homeschooling blog:

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Can you answer Linda J’s question about Homeschooling?:

Can anyone out there tell me about home education for children who are taken out of high school? How many hours per week and what subjects do they need? who would teach the child?(would it be the parents or would it be a tutor) how expansive is it?How should someone who doesn’t have a CLUE about home education go about organizing it?Who do thay need to contact? How do they know exactly how to arrange it? Is it possible for a parent whodoesn’t have a CLUE about home education or how it should be structured/what materials are needed(basically doesn’t know ANYTHING about it) to learn how it should be structured/howthe child should be educated? can ordinary parents home educate their child? even those with not a broad education?
how can they learn how home education is structured?
Is home educating very complicated?and if someone wanted to home educate 2 children…how could they go about this?
How many hours per day should the child be taught for? how does the child keep up with their peers?and how are subjects such as music or P.E organized?(since they are quite social activities and require other people in order to do properly)??

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Can you answer Jennifer R’s question about Homeschooling?:

I am a successful work at home mom of 4 kids. I have been checking into different homeschool curriculums but was looking for some testimonials of ones that have worked for other parents.

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Can you answer Kelly J’s question about Homeschooling?:

My ex lives in Canada and wants to be able to take our kids for a month or more at a time. My parents say only teachers should teach children and are very negative about the whole idea. I also want to homeschool to instill values, morals and spiritual beliefs in my children they wont necessarily learn at a public school.

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When I first heard about the notion of unschooling, I agreed with much of it in principle. I knew that my kids learned an awful lot of stuff without any help from me. Babies learn to crawl, toddlers learn to walk and potty train and talk. These are things you can’t really teach a child how to do. I also knew how much kids loved to learn, especially if they aren’t hamstrung from fear of performing. They learn for the joy of it and to satisfy their own curiosity and craving to understand the world.

At the same time, I worried that by unschooling I was being a lazy parent. Is that true? First, I’ll define what unschooling is.

Hmm. That’s challenging, in part because unschooling looks so different for every family! There are “radical” unschoolers who reject workbooks and curriculum and “doing school”, there are unschoolers who do some curriculum in a flexible manner, and everything in between. Some unschooling families think TV and video games are ok, others reject them totally. And again, there is every thing inbetween.

What unschoolers have in common is their trust of children. They believe that children can lead their own education. They believe that parents are facilitators, not taskmasters. Unschoolers think that kids should learn what they want, in the way they want, where and when they want. To unschoolers, learning is something as natural as breathing.

That scares some people. But when you get right down to it, this is what young kids who are not in school and adults who are out of school do. To learn is to be human. We all love to learn, unless we’ve developed a hatred of reading and studying because of our school experiences. Love and fear can’t reside in the same space. You can’t love to learn if you fear someone’s criticism or harsh judgment. Unschoolers remove the fear. The fear of bad grades, the fear of being called “slow”, “stupid” or “special”. They remove the fear of having to be bored to tears by something that’s totally irrelevant to your life.

Is there any research behind the philosophy of unschooling? People who believe in learning styles and multiple intelligences would point to the evidence that school doesn’t appeal to people with kinesthetic intelligence, and that audio-visual learners also have a difficult time in school. In his book Punished by Rewards, Alfie Kohn points to hundreds of studies that conclude that rewards are not effective in the long term and discourage the behavior, meaning that the way schools and classic curriculum are set up are counterproductive to learning. Kohn said that intrinsic motivation is what we should be after, and unschooling makes that possible. Edward Deci, Howard Gardner and Thomas Armstrong have also written about research that supports an unschooling philosophy.

What about the thinking that unschoolers are lazy parents? I’ve learned that too is a fallacy. Unschoolers may have to work even harder to keep their children stimulated, because unschooled kids are always wanting to learn something of their own choosing. Sometimes an unschooling parent has to exhaust outside resources such as other people, institutions, books, libraries, etc. An unschooling parent is a facilitator, and a busy one! For unschooling families, life is learning and everything is a learning opportunity.

Unschooling helps kids understand that people are unique. While one 7 year old who is unschooling may not read as well as another 7 year old unschooler, it makes little difference. The one who isn’t reading as well may be a better musician. And that’s ok. When people are allowed to choose how they will work, they can become more competent. They can really hone their skills, work on their strengths, instead of trying to be squeezed into another’s mold.



Thanks to Carrie Lauth for contributing this article to our Homeschooling blog:

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