Homeschooling Tips and Resources
Homeschooling can quickly become an overwhelming enterprise. There's so much for parents to learn before they can begin to provide education for their child! But like any large and complex goal, breaking it down into easy-to-digest parts makes it possible to swallow each one without stomach upset.
There's no one right starting point for everyone, since parent's skills and experience differ. But, most will be faced early on with doubts about whether homeschooling is best for their child and their family. Only the individual can decide, but homeschooled children, on average, outscore their peers on standardized tests. Within the home parents can provide a safe, learning-friendly environment tailored to their child, something public schools rarely do.
The Law
Learning about any legal requirements and restrictions is a good task to undertake early. The HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association, http://www.hslda.org) can provide you with tons of assistance. They can make it much easier to find out the law in your state. Though homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, the amount of paperwork, local school district involvement and other factors does vary from state to state.
Support Groups
Modern homeschooling has been around now for over 40 years. Hundreds of organizations have been formed in that time, covering every state and almost every area in America. To get a list for yours, you can check out: http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/states/index.php. Or, just use the Internet and search for others.
Books and Magazines
With the growth of the Internet, the resources available to homeschooling parents and students has increased dramatically. Apart from legal issues, advocacy and support groups and the like, there are hundreds of books and thousands of articles available to provide information and guidance.
To read about the originating philosophy of homeschooling, some may want to check out any of John Holt's books, written from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. Teach Your Own (http://www.holtgws.com/), updated in 2003 by Patrick Farenga, remains a widely read book 20 years after Holt's death.
Classical Homeschooling magazine is available at: http://www.classicalhomeschooling.com/. It covers one popular approach to homeschooling. Home Education Magazine is one of the oldest and most popular publications on homeschooling. Details are available at: http://www.homeedmag.com/
Materials and Resources
Many parents choose the School-At-Home method initially. It essentially just takes the materials provided by a local school district and moves them into the home, with the parent becoming the teacher. Many parents quickly find out how much effort is involved, and how poor those materials sometimes are.
Alternative materials and curricula are available from a wide variety of commercial sources. Reading some of the forums can quickly provide parents with better choices. One such is: http://forum.homeschool.com/forum/default.asp. Another popular source can be found on the HEM (Home Education Magazine) site: http://www.homeedmag.com/wlcm_netwrk.html. Still another is: http://www.home-school.com/forums/.
Online Courses and Tutors
There are online courses about virtually everything. The same way, there are online tutors that can help a child with school homework or, in the case of homeschooled children, help the student master a particularly arid concept. You do not need to use online tutors for everything or for ever, just to have additional help when you need it.
Do not forget your local library. Apart from books and the possibility of subscribing to special publications through the library, joining the library will give your children access to special research databases and archives.
All of these will provide parents with helpful tips, suggestions for curriculum design and materials, and much more.
Your preference for an approach may be structured or freewheeling. Your and your child's ultimate goal may be college, or art school, or just a good foundation of knowledge and a keen mind. Whatever your concerns and issues, there's a resource to help you get started and overcome any roadblocks to homeschooling success.
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