Homeschooling: is it an option?

According to the National Home Education Research Institute, an estimated 1.9 to 2.4 million children were home educated during 2005-2006. For many parents, it’s a religious decision while others focus on academic success – numerous studies suggest that homeschooled children outperform their peers in standardized tests, and that the gap that often exists between minority children in public schools is much reduced among homeschooled children. Other parents feel their younger children simply aren’t ready for the formal, regimented learning environment that exists in schools.

Homeschooling is legal in the US but the states have different laws – ask at your state education department or local homeschooling support group (check online or at your local library) to find out what these are.

Your child’s first teacher

You are your child’s first teacher, and she has been learning from you since the day she was born: it’s likely you who taught her her colors, the abc and 123, where her head, shoulders, knees and toes are, helped her learn and read her first words. Your child is a born learner and any parent with a reasonable level of education who still has the same thirst for knowledge that their child has can be their child’s first proper teacher too. There are all sorts of different curriculums you can follow and the internet is a great resource for learning materials, printables and support.

Is homeschooling for you?

Before making the decision to homeschool your child, there are some things you should think about. Homeschooling requires a large time commitment from you, particularly if you have more than one child and will be teaching at different levels using different materials. It isn’t just sitting down with a book – the point of homeschooling is that it should be very much hands-on, and that means field trips, experiments and projects.

Be aware that it isn’t something that can be done alongside you working from home to maintain your income – you will need to be involved with your child’s learning, not just supervising from a distance while you get on with your own work (or even with household chores). Your child will still need a scheduled ‘school day’ although you can break this up however you like. Your involvement also means you will have to forgo one income if you decide to homeschool. And while homeschooling doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive, there will be supplies to purchase, there may be times when you will need to buy books that aren’t available from your local library and your child will need a computer with a broadband internet connection. So think about your finances before you make the decision.

Another important point to remember is that homeschooling your child means you will be together 24-7. This makes it vitally important that you are able to stay calm when you might feel you want to explode because she isn’t ‘paying attention’, and able to separate learning time with teacher from quality time spent with mom or dad. Remember too that school is an inbuilt social network that your homeschooled child will miss out on. Enroll her for as many local social activities as you can so that she gets the chance to interact with other children her age. A homeschool support group can be great for this – and also will give you the chance to pick the brains of other parents who have made the decision to homeschool.

Choosing a homechooling curriculum

There are many formal curriculums you can follow for homeschooling, some of which – Montessori, Waldorf – are used by schools themselves. The internet is a wonderful source of packaged unit studies on popular subjects and individual topics – for example, the Little House books – along with materials for teaching concepts such as patience and trust. Alternately you might choose to purchase the textbooks your child would use if she were attending the local elementary school, and follow the same curriculum she would there.

Classical homeschooling emphasizes five -tools of learning – reason, record, research, relate, and rhetoric. Younger children begin by learning basic reading, writing, and arithmetic before progressing to grammar and then serious reading, study, and research. Another approach is called ‘unschooling’ and doesn’t follow a formal curriculum, instead being led by your child and her interests. Many children succeed very well with this approach and are able to use it to specialize in a specific area of interest – for example, science – very early on, but the disadvantage is that they tend to do less well in formal testing.

Whatever curriculum you choose can be boosted by online learning via distance learning schools and homeshool support academies. It’s also important that you accept your limitations – because if you are very keen to homeschool your child these can be worked around. If math is not your strong point, ask your local school to recommend a tutor or arrange for your child to attend sessions at a local learning center.

The information in this feature is intended for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your health, the health of your child or the health of someone you know, please consult with a doctor or other healthcare professional.

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Last Modified: 30/08/2009

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