Home Schooling

Home school tips for kids are very important. It is imperative that kids start well in home schooling. They need a good healthy attitude toward homeschooling right from the start. Parents can help new home school students develop a good attitude in several ways. Some of these are:

• Talk with someone famous who was home schooled. Depending upon where you live, the chances are that there is someone famous close by that was home schooled. Most people who are famous and were also home schooled would jump at the chance to talk about their home school experience and what it has done for them. Some quick research and word of mouth from support group to support group and you will have your key note speaker. We cannot stress enough how much this will mean for your student. It will make a huge difference in their attitude to talk to someone famous who was home schooled.
• The Parent should set down and talk with the prospective home schooled student. The parent should have goals written out on paper for the student to see. It is also advised to have drafted a list of all the great things about home schooling for the student to see.
• The parent should have a list outlining several great advantages for homeschooling. Some are:
• Later wakeup call: The student will get to sleep later, much later. This is very exciting a young teenager who is all about the sleep.
• Relaxed atmosphere: Students are usually not required to dress up for class and take the courses in comfortable attire. They can take the courses at the kitchen table, by the pool, in the living room, or even in bed. The students get very excited with the freedom they are allowed while home schooling.
• Clothing: Home schooled students get to wear the clothing they want to when studying. That is not limited to some stupid Kaki outfit. This is important to home schooled students. They resent being told what they can wear while at school.
• The parent should also have a list of long term goals. Students and parents must set down and talk about these long term goals. Be realistic and set goals that are meet able.

The biggest tip for new home school students is discipline. Self discipline is the key to succeeding at home schooling. You must be able to make yourself study instead of watching Television. It is very hard, but you can do it. Keep focused and tell yourself that this truly is the first day of the rest of your life.

One of the very first questions that most parents ask about home schooling is whether it actually works. They are only too well aware of the fact that the public schools have problems, but really wonder whether they can do any better. One natural response for some parents is to try a little harder to see if they can afford private schooling but, even if this were possible, are the private schools faring any better than the public schools?

The simple fact of the matter is that there are many, quality studies which show that, on average, home schooling produces superior students. To an extent of course this is understandable as parents clearly have an effect on education no matter which route they take. A parent who is genuinely interested in the education of his or her children will help to motivate them, producing better results.

But there is certainly more to it that this and there are many cases, in a great enough variety of situations, to take even this into account and still come to the conclusion that home schooling produces better results.

Even the Unites States Department of Education agrees. In one study which they sponsored themselves home schooled students produced exceptionally high test scores. The median scores in every grade were far higher than those of public schools and even higher than those of private school students. The average home schooled student in grades one through four was a grade level above that of public school peers and, by the time home schooled students reached the equivalent of the 8th grade, they were as much as four years ahead of students attending public school.

As if this were not enough, costs were also lower. On average, government schools spent $6,500 per student each year and private schools spent $3,500. By contrast, parents undertaking home schooling spent about $550 per student each year. This figure for home schooling does not of course take into account the time spent by parents on home schooling for which a public school teacher would be paid.

The public school system as we know it today evolved during the second half of the 19th century as one state after another made school attendance compulsory. Perhaps the most interesting question however, and one which rarely seems to be asked, is why, if public schooling offered such superior value, it was necessary for the states to make it compulsory and to force parents to put their children into the public school system.

It could be, and sometimes is, argue that this was due to the ignorance of rural parents who did not see the value of education. However, it is interesting to note that adult illiteracy rates in 1840 Massachusetts were a low 2% and that, by 1995, this figure had risen to 19%, in spite of apparently enormous advances in the intervening years. In 1840 libraries were rare and today they are everywhere as books are both relatively inexpensive and easy to trade.

Today over a million children are home schooled in the United States and thousands of home schooled students have attended colleges and universities, including many of the most prestigious and difficult to get into.

Whatever your own thoughts about home schooling vs public schooling there is no doubt that the results clearly show the advantage of home schooling.

There are several things that you have to remember when you are ready to find a home school teacher. First of all, just because your child is schooled at home, this does not mean that they need to be schooled by you. Many children who are home schooled are done so by other parents, grandparents, or by others who want to be a home school teacher. Sometimes, it is like finding a private tutor. All that is important is that your child is able to learn in this home environment and that they are able to show that they have met all of the standards so that you can keep doing your home school teacher thing.

When you are choosing a teacher for your child, there are several things that you should be sure you are looking for. First of all, you want someone who has experience with children. This should be someone who is ready to work with kids and who has done so before. Preferably, it should be someone who has a bit of education when it comes to how to teach children. They should have had plenty of good experience teaching.

Next, you want to be sure that your home school teacher has experience with home schooling in general. Whether they were home schooled themselves, or if they have been teaching other home schooled students, this is important because it is very different than the world of regular school. Therefore, you want your teacher to have some knowledge of what it is like.

Remember that when you are choosing a teacher you are inviting someone into your home to teach your children. Therefore, they should be unique and interesting and should be someone that you really feel is going to be able to bring a lot of interesting ideas to your table. You always want to be sure that you are able to do this so that your home school teacher can do much more than simply teach your child. They should broaden their horizons.