Home Schooling

How long, how often, and when? These are the normal questions of parents who choose to home school their children. One of the main reasons behind home schooling is to have flexibility in scheduling. This flexibility applies to not only the curriculum but also the amount of hours spent in face to face instruction. Many parents often make the mistake of thinking that kids who are home schooled should stay in their books for the entire part of the day when they would be in public school. This is especially true for parents who have just started home schooling. This is not only wrong, it could even be counter-productive.

The main drawbacks in the public school, is the amount of time and energy that are wasted. There are class periods that are just wasted away so public school children probably have no more than 1 - 3 hours of actual learning everyday. Aside from the time when no instruction is taking place, there are the days that the instruction is just too intense for the child to grasp the concept and another day has to be spent on the same concept to assure that the student has grasped the idea.

The first thing you should do when you begin home schooling is to figure out your agenda. It is important to keep the same hours everyday. It is simpler for your child to learn if he has a daily routine. It lets the students know that their parents are serious about learning and lets him free his mind from distractions and focus on the material. He will know that a certain time is set aside for learning.

You will determine how many actual instruction hours you will need based on your child's needs. The learning style of your child will be a factor in deciding this along with the subject matter that is being taught. If you are teaching a complicated subject such as algebra, you may want to sit with you child for a longer period of time than you would for a much simpler lesson such as, spelling.

Home schooling doesn't necessarily mean your child will sit in front of his books and read printed material all day long. He will learn through things such as watching documentaries, field trips, visiting libraries and factories. These activities will make up a very significant part of the home school process. It makes sense to use these types of activities to make sure that learning is fun for your child. You may want to use a couple of hours for textbook learning in the morning and then take the afternoon to do these kinds of activities with your child.

Far too many public school hours are wasted with meaningless activities that range from talking to extra curricular activities. These activities do not let public schools dictate their hours you will need to spend instructing your child at home. Keep in mind that he will be receiving high quality one on one instruction. About 1-3 hours of book study is plenty especially in the early grades. However, it is true, the more hours you set aside for learning, the more learning that will take place. These are the main reasons that children who are home schooled in a quality setting are more advanced than children who attend public school.