Home Schooling

Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Every second of every day passes by unbidden and unstoppable. When a minute has passed, it is gone forever. Whatever was done or not done during that minute is history and--at least as far as we know--unchangeable. For teachers, a minute lost means that less time remains for instruction. For students, there is less time in which to learn. If there was a way to use instructional time more efficiently and effectively, wouldn't you be interested in finding out about it? One of the benefits of home schooling is related to time.

You may be wondering how time could possibly be considered a benefit of home schooling. Doesn't home schooling take loads of extra time? Wouldn't it be more efficient to learn in a school setting?

Obviously, the amount of time that your child spends in a learning situation is not significantly different in home schooling compared to standard educational models. The primary time difference comes into play when you look at the amount of time spent by you, the parent-educator.

When you undertake home schooling, it's pretty much like taking on a full-time job. You will become your child's (or children's) only teacher. Even with a spouse, friend or relative helping out, there's still just the two of you. Compared to the faculty of a typical school, one and two are pretty small numbers.

Home schooling brings with it a great deal of responsibility as well. When you choose to home school, you are reclaiming the responsibility for teaching your child the essential knowledge and skills to succeed in life. You will be putting together a collection of home schooling materials. You will need to decide how to present information and help your child discover new knowledge on his own. Checking for learning and understanding will also be your responsibility. And if the need ever arises for discipline, guess who gets to be the one who sets things right? Yep, you guessed it.

So you can begin to see that the many benefits of home schooling are accompanied by many responsibilities as well. You may wonder if it's worth trading in a career or free time to acquire a better education for your child. It's definitely not a decision for the commitment-shy.

On the flip side, time is also a great benefit of home schooling, enough so that it may sway, or at least balance the equation.

Your child will most likely find that home schooling offers a huge advantage when it comes to time. Home schooling almost always offers a near-perfect learning environment, free from the distractions and politics found in the typical school. Even though you have the responsibility to provide learning materials, since you're only providing for one or a few students, you may be able to acquire materials much better than can be found in the local classroom. The bottom line is that most children in a home schooling situation are able to learn in a few hours what might take a day in the "normal" classroom.

Think of the possibilities! If your child is learning more in less time, not only will they be guaranteed to get the essentials to succeed in higher education and later in life, they will also have time to learn additional enriching knowledge and skills.

While it's true that home schooling can require a large time commitment on the part of the parents, the education gained by your child will be of incomparable quality. Plus, who's to say that parents will escape evening instructional time even if they do send their kids to public or private school? Any investment you make in the future of your children will certainly pay dividends many times over. And you will always cherish the memories of the quality time you spent together.