Home Schooling

More and more parents are looking for an alternative form of public education. Many are taking part in an upswinging trend called homeschooling. From the homeschoolers point of view, there are many advantages. Some include one on one instruction tailored to the individual student's needs, more efficient use of instruction time, a safer environment under parental control and, in many cases, religious instruction.

However, there are obstacles standing in the way of successful home schoolers. This ranges from a lack of social contact with peers to lack of expertise in curriculum to actually being able to get into and compete at the college level.

Five basic methods have been recognized for students to receive adequate home school instruction.

1. Unschooling or natural learning has its main focus on allowing the student to determine studies based on their individual interests. Textbooks may or may not be used depending on sources needed.

2. Unit Studies ties a topic together by using different parts of the curriculum to express points of view. A topic may be studied from a science, English, math, history, art, etc. view points.

3. Charlotte Mason educated her students with little to no homework, short, ungraded lessons, free afternoons, discipline, and ideas or culture. Testing was done by the student telling the teacher what they had done or read.

4. The Principle Approach is a philosophy that promotes the belief that all truth is ultimately God's truth. Students are taught to research, reason, relate and record their work on a subject, basically from a Biblical point of view.

5. The Classical Method teaches students to be thinkers. It basically breaks down into teaching three or four different levels of thinking during the student learning years at increasing levels of difficulty.

Home schooling is legal in all 50 states in the USA and most of Europe but laws widely vary. With the use of the Internet, there is no limit to what the home teacher and students can learn and study. Flexible, self paced material is a major drawing point to any home schooling setup.

Options for educational choice provides parents with alternate educational opportunities for their student. One option open to parents is Competent Private Instruction (CPI - the formal instruction to children of compulsory attendance age outside the traditional school setting). Each state has its own rules and laws as to Competent Private Instruction.

There are some areas which cause some concern to the home schooling teacher.

One is math. Most home school teachers do not have the expertise to help their students over the trouble spots, especially in the upper level or college preparatory mathematics. Video tapes and other resource books are helpful, but it still comes down to being able to show the student how to get through the process.

Increased reading speed and comprehension is another area that is a major hurdle. There is plenty of computer software available to help the slow reader overcome some of their problems.

A third area of concern is making sure that the home schooler is prepared adequately for college. Are there any differences in enrolling a home schooler compared to a high school graduate? Does each college have its own set of criteria to admit a home schooled applicant? How does one prepare for an ACT test?

Home schooling can be a very rewarding process, but it is important to set up procedures to meet expected goals. Those aspiring to give their children a home school education must look at the big picture and adjust their teaching methods accordingly.