Costs and Benefits of Home Schooling

Education plays an important role in your child’s life. It will determine how prepared they are for the future and influence the kind of opportunities that they are given. Three different ways to educate your child include public, private and home schooling. This article is designed to give parents an idea of the costs and benefits associated with the home schooling option.

Costs

The costs of home schooling can be broken up into two main categories: time and money.

Time — For most mothers with school-age children, public or private school provides a precious window of time in which they can focus on a career, personal interests, errands or simply relaxing. When parents choose to home school, that large block of time becomes allocated to the task of teaching and supervising. This means, for one parent, that there is less personal time in every day and there is little or no opportunity to hold a full-time job.

Money — Consequently, home schooling may equate to a smaller family income. The cost of one parent staying home to teach and supervise is much higher than any of the materials you will need. Still, a budget should also be made for supplies like pencils, paper, a curriculum and books.

Ways to Defer the Costs

Buying a pre-made curriculum package will save you both time and money just because you won’t have to prepare and gather all the materials yourself. Without a pre-made curriculum, you might spend countless hours just brainstorming all the topics you want to cover, creating lesson plans and looking for the right resources. And, if you do want to add supplementary material, it will be much easier if you have a basic skeleton of subjects to guide you.

The library is another resource that can help you home school economically. As long as you get your books back in time, you will have a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips that is absolutely free and just making the trip is a great way to get out of the house.

Another way to cut the cost of home schooling is to use some common sense. When you do buy materials, make sure that they are needed. Don’t go overboard or try to recreate the wheel. After all, you don’t need to purchase the same kind of resources available at a private or public school to foster a good learning environment in your home. Work with your children at the kitchen counter or the dinner table rather than buying a “home school desk,” use a small dry erase note board rather than buying a huge chalk board and take good care of your resources so that other children can use them as their education moves forward.

Benefits

There are clearly some costs associated with home schooling, but it is important to remember the benefits too. Because of the one-on-one attention that children receive through home schooling, it is a very effective tool for teaching. Parents often find that their children understand subjects better and faster so they can cover more ground than public or private schools.

Home is also a safe environment for learning. Children feel comfortable there and you can be sure that there are no bullies, drugs or alcohol causing damage.

As the teacher, principle, secretary and nurse of your own little home school, you get to decide your child’s schedule too. This means that family events like reunions, vacations, pictures and holidays are much easier to plan because you are very flexible.

And best of all, parents who home school regularly find that they develop strong relationships with their children as they sacrifice their own time to teach them and play with them.

Home schooling does require time, money and sacrifice, but it yields better educations, safer learning environments, stronger relationships and a lot of flexibility. So the next time you ask yourself if you can afford to home school your children, you might want to ask if you can afford not to.

Heritage Home School (http://www.heritagehomeschool.com) can get you started on the home schooling track with a comprehensive and easy to follow curriculum. The author, Art Gib, is a freelance writer.

Practical Homeschooling Tips - Home Schooling Grants For Parents And Guardians

Home schooling families do have access to grants. If you would be interested in knowing more about what kinds of grants are there for you, you would have to undertake a well-searched inquiry. As per general law one cannot approach the United States government for home school grants; the funds are not too large.

Then what is the way to find such grants? Online surfing is the best way to find out. These grants for home schooling do exist though they are not out in the open and therefore are tough to locate. But as said, these grants do exist and we look at ways at finding them.

At places where large corporations give grant is termed, as corporate grants. Large corporations have frequently given grants to charter & traditional schools. A few of these corporate grants also find their way to home schools but to receive a pie of it you need to know which grants you can send applications for.

Multinational behemoth IBM actively supports initiatives in the field of education; but none of these allowances are for home schools. Wal-Mart does give grants for homeschoolers though. All you need to do is get in touch with the company’s education section and put forward your application for grants. These departments are not authoritative so you could end up talking to various people on the same matter to get the desired results.

In the US home schooling grants from the government home schooling do not exist. Those people who are graduates via home schooling and are going to college can be given scholarships & grants, but federal governments have nothing as such for families of home schools. Canadian situation is completely opposite however. For instance in British Columbia $175 worth of grant is allowed for every kid that joins a home school prior to 1st November.

Grants are available to home schools but only from other home schools. Grants for every student in the state of Alaska is there for the textbooks in the shape of an annual grant. An association with some kind of a home school support group is very important. You can easily approach your home school group to inquire if they issue grants.

Quite of few do, but that may be as like study material and writing material, only a few select issue grants in monetary terms. Just incase your group of home school has a 501 (c) 3 standing as per US Tax code then it brightens your possibility of receiving a grant.

Last but certainly not the least, check with your ministry or even the church. These organizations, if incase they do not run a home school of their own would be more than happy to be of some help. They could donate books that have religious learning and material required by the home school. But remember receiving grants is not easy and you may be required to knock on a few more doors than you set out to but if you need them then do keeping looking for all kinds of grants possible.

Find out the best how homeschooling programs for your children and uncover the truth of how custody laws on home schooling may affect you when you visit Internet’s premier homeschooling resource portal at http://www.homeschoolingfordummy.com

What are the Basics of Home Schooling

Home schooling is a concept that allows a child 6 to 16 years of age to be educated by the parents, at home! The concept and practice is not new. In fact, it is a concept adopted to educate children much before the traditional schools were established. The parents are the first teachers of the child. The home schooling method enables the parent-child relationship to flower further and enriches the child with knowledge. Parents need to consider some home schooling basics before they plunge to teach the first lesson to their child.

First, you need to take a firm decision to home schooling your child. It is not a decision to be taken today and re-considered tomorrow. The decision to home school your child is a personal one. There are a number of online resources that could help you to reflect and take the right decision. You also need to know how to act on your decision in the right direction. You could even take the help from the available and accessible home schooling community online and support groups.

Basically, you would need to consider the syllabus, available subject options, the child’s natural aptitude and the resources to acquire material to educate the child. You also need to meet and tie up with a local school board of your choice for the desired certification and final integration. The local home schooling support group is your best bet to start off on the right note. It takes time as a new home schooling parent to identify the journey ahead and the right path. To set a time-table for each subject, to identify the best time frame during the day and subject related activities are all part of home schooling basics.

It pays to conduct extensive research and only then embark on the home schooling exercise. You need to carefully consider the laws and home schooling requirements applicable within your state or region. You need to be a part of a support group for encouragement and help, as you move on from one phase of home schooling to another. Professionals run the support groups, who help you to choose the curriculum, maintain scores and adhere to the state laws. The support groups also help to provide opportunities for great indoor and outdoor activities for the child.

The home schooling basics also include to select unit studies and final curriculum. These have to be in accordance to the grade specific recommendation by the traditional schools. Home schooling also requires some serious record keeping. You cannot treat home schooling as anything of less important. The annual records of the child need to be maintained for him or her to be promoted to the next grade. These records also need to be produced at the time of integrating the child into a college, later.

The records could be simple journal entries or elaborate notebook entries on the computer. You would also need to carefully consider the method and schedule to follow. The advantage of home schooling is that you can work with whatever best suits the family. There are a number of online and offline resources that help you in the endeavor. A little prior research goes a long way to understand the system to follow and to keep in touch with the trends. Once you have your basics right, the application cannot go wrong.

Get a High School Diploma from a fully DETC accredited school. Citizens’ High School offers Homeschooling programs in all 50 United States that can be signed up online. Phone and email support at all level. Sign up for more information on Diploma Programs Here. http://www.citizenshighschool.com/chsinquiry.htm

Home Schooling vs Traditional Schooling

Education grooms students with well-informed knowledge to build their future careers. The methods adopted may be different, but the goal is the same. While traditional schooling allows the child to learn among peers and be influenced within their same age group, home schooling allows the child to learn at his or her own pace. Unfortunately, today most of the traditional schools are blamed that they expect every child to have the same attitude and move at the same pace with others.

Home schooling on the other hand, allows the parent and child to relax in the lap of their own home environment and the child is made to learn at a comfortable pace. There is a growing trend that favors home schooling. Traditional schools work within a fixed time slot, which robs both parent and child with very little time to devote to them everyday. In addition to the timings of the traditional school, their setup of each subject to learn is addressed and limited to a certain time frame, which may or may not be enough for every child to grasp the taught subject.

Home schooling, on the other hand enables the parent to fix a flexible schedule to teach each day. This gives the child the required rest and ample of time to learn and be part of a schedule that is preferred and not imposed. Probably one favorable point in traditional schooling is that it helps the child to get disciplined within the imposed time slot and schedule.

The parent who chooses to home school the child is also at liberty to pick and choose the materials or subjects, in which the child has a natural aptitude and interest. This is not so with traditional schools. The traditional school management imposes everything from the books to the stationery, the syllabus to timetable etc. The home school can be customized. The main element in favor of home schooling is the fact that the parent is able to devote individual attention to the child and bring out the best in him or her.

In a traditional school, the ratio of teacher to students is 1:30, 40 or 50. This prevents the teacher to address the difficulty of each child within the thirty or forty minute time slot allotted to each subject. In the case of home schooling, if you are teaching the child a particular topic, like quadratic equations in math, and the child cannot grasp the examples and application very easily, you could restructure the time slot from half an hour of learning to one hour.

In home schooling, to impart teaching can be handled by both parents, even while on a family outing. To educate becomes an extended family activity in this way. However, in the case of traditional schools, there is no time for family bonding during school hours. While in home schooling, the child is monitored and kept away from negative peer influences. It is not possible to do so in a traditional school.

Home schooling environment makes the child confident to learn easily, besides possessing talent and knowledge. There is no competition and hence no fear, as may be the case with many children, who drop out of traditional schools. In the traditional schools, to make comparisons among children are not ruled out. However, one can argue to favor traditional schools, since children are helped to cope up early in life to face competition and pressures in the traditional school environment.

To home school your child or not is a personal choice, but the way you guide should give direction to the growth of the child both in education and health. It is not so much the matter of convenience, a parent should look into. All the above matter would help you to make a decision to choose home schooling or traditional schooling.

Get a High School Diploma from a fully DETC accredited school. Citizens’ High School offers Homeschooling programs in all 50 United States that can be signed up online. Phone and email support at all level. Sign up for more information on Diploma Programs Here. http://www.citizenshighschool.com/chsinquiry.htm

What are the Benefits Of Home Schooling

Home schooling is not a new concept. It has been around for years and once again is making rounds as the favored choice of many parents. The concept involves an interaction between the parent and the child. The traditional brick and mortar school building is replaced by the comfort of the home and the teacher is the parent. There are a number of children, who learn better this way.

The choice of home schooling your son or daughter has many benefits. Even though the number of educational institutions have increased world wide, the pre-school, primary and secondary public schools are not the only options available for education. Home schooling enables the parent to give the child personal attention. The child also gets the opportunity to pursue his or her understanding of a particular subject at a pace that he or she is comfortable with. Home schooling requires regular monitoring and addressing of the application of shared values and morals.

The methodology adopted is highly interactive. The parent is able to ensure that the child holds to certain standards that mean a lot to the family values and traditions. Home schooling is a great way to take the mother-child or father-child relationship to another level. The lessons, time frame and environment are all conducive to learn within a comfort zone. Education imbibed this way stays longer. The parents get the opportunity to play larger role in the learning process, beyond getting the snack ready or buying the books.

The educational system the world over is now beginning to realize and acknowledge that children are able to get proper, sound education at home too. The task is not easy though, but very fulfilling. When you choose to home school your child, you have to consider the paperwork involved and decide on the right curriculum, depending on the child’s aptitude and interest in certain subjects over others. You would also need to take time off to really convince the school committee from where you wish your child to be certified. Nevertheless, the experience is a great one, both for parent and the child.

When you choose home schooling over traditional school-bound learning, you get to spend quality time with the child. You also, as a parent, have more control over the subjects, system and education to impart. In fact, in your teaching, you enjoy the ‘back to school’ experience and get educated yourself too! Home schooling enables you to give the child individual and due attention needed for him or her to grasp a concept. However, you do have to comply with the policies for home schooling set by the law in your region, state or country.

The basic requirement anywhere, for Home Schooling a child, is that the child should be at least 6 years of age. This age requirement enables the child to make the most of the formative years. Home schooled students graduate and go on to college just like their peers, who attend the traditional schools. Today, there are a number of online and offline resources that are dedicated to endeavor and make valuable information available at a single click!

Governments and educational institutions all over the world now recognize this form of teaching and integrate the children who are home schooled, when and as the requirement arises. The ability of the home-schooled child to learn at a comfortable pace and homely environment is probably the best benefit of home schooling.

Get a High School Diploma from a fully DETC accredited school. Citizens’ High School offers Homeschooling programs in all 50 United States that can be signed up online. Phone and email support at all level. Sign up for more information on Diploma Programs Here. http://www.citizenshighschool.com/chsinquiry.htm

Which Religious Home School Program Do You Prefer Abeka or Seton

 

A lot of parents are weighing the choice of home schooling due to the worries about the education their kids are getting in either public or private schools. As time passes home school programs are a seemingly much better choice. There are other manners of home schooling and the selection you choose will decide your curriculum.

Many of the parents that consider home schooling check into home school programs that practice a more spiritual curriculum. There are various home school programs that are grounded in religious belief, nonetheless the two most in demand are Abeka and Seton. Though both programs are spiritual based they are fairly different.

Originated by Doctor Anne Carroll in 1980, The Seton home school program is a highly popular form of Catholic home schooling. Doctor Mary Kay Clark became the director of Seton In 1985 and Seton carried on it’s growth and presently has an enrollment of more than ten thousand students. Students that are enrolled in the Seton program and graduate from Seton’s high school program get a diploma unlike other home school programs. Seton is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Seton provides a Catholic curriculum for grades kindergarten through twelve and thinks that the home schoolers of today are the leaders of tomorrow. Seton requires that enrolled students have tests every quarter and assignments must be sent in for grading. Items graded by parents also constitute a portion of the student’s grade. Upon enrolling with Seton a you will get day-to-day lesson plans along with testing and academic guidance.

Looking at the Abeka home school curriculum we see that it is essentially Christian grounded and is the most popular home school program around. Families who are really organized or want a highly structured curriculum will enjoy Abeka very much. The Christian religion is the subject matter you will find in all of Abeka’s texts. If you’re seeking an accelerated and advanced type of home schooling, then Abeka is what you’re seeking. With Abeka, you’ll know just what has to be done every day. You’re told just what to do and say. You’ll be able to purchase lesson plans, teacher's manuals, textbooks and tests. You can opt to get the DVD versions of Abeka home schooling where you’ll get a full year of schooling including assessments, textbooks and DVD classroom lessons.

Another choice of Abeka beside the DVD and textbook is the Abeka Academy Traditional Parent-Directed selection. It’s a fully accredited college prep curriculum. Abeka gives you teacher manuals that show just how to follow and teach the program. Abeka will keep the records for you from the material you teach. You send in all the tests and work, Abeka grades them and supply's a report card. You will get progress reports and an academic calendar.

Abeka is among the pricier programs. Due to the heavy amount of material to read and do many students burn out on Abeka. However if you desire a curriculum that specify a firm structure during the formative years and continues to challenge students through high school Abeka is for you.

Finally, your child is sure to get an effective home-schooled education grounded in a religious belief whether you select the Abeka or Seton home school programs.

Get more information about the Abeka and Seton home school programs as well as other home school information at About Home School Programs.

Did you know you could also make money from your home schooling? Head over to Home School And Make Money and learn how.

Earn Money Three Ways From Home Schooling

 

An increasing number of parents these days are electing home schooling as a way of schooling their children. A lot of these parents find that their children are not acquiring the aid they need for a suitable education because of the flood of students in public schools. A few likewise concerned about the escalating violence and feel like bad habits are easily acquired in public schools.

 

While a few parents entertaining the thought of home schooling may think their children may get a better education in private schools, they also believe that private schools are far to costly. Taking for granted all of the downfalls of public and private schools, home schooling seems to be the logical choice to educate a child. Yet, electing to home school also has costs associated with it. It’s possibly even a lot more costly then you might imagine. Textbooks, lessons, the home school curriculum and additional material are costs you must think about. In addition think about the parent doing the home schooling isn’t earning any money because of the home schooling responsibilities, which makes home schooling still more costly.

 

All the same, there are ways of making home schooling worthwhile and profitable. Methods home schooling parents can do so they can home school and bring in money at the same time. Here are some ideas.

 

Home Schooling Lessons For Other Parents

As an experienced home schooling parent you can show other parents who would like to home school their children but don’t have the know how to get going and bill them for it. You’re offering a service and you should be compensated for it.

 

Make Information Products From Your Home Schooling Lessons And Sell Them

Turn the lesson you are teaching to your children into information products and sell them on the net. A lot of parents would find Information from your experience can be very useful.

 

Home School Other Parents Kids For Pay

While you're home schooling your children why not offer to home school other parent’s kids for a price. Some parents may prefer to have their kids home schooled but just don't have the time or the know how to do it themselves. Naturally you will have to learn what the laws are concerning this in your area. Likewise you don't want to have a bunch of kids. You want to be able to give some individual attention where needed.

 

With these few ideas under your belt maybe you can come up with some other ideas on how to make money home schooling.

Amy Bass has built a home based business that makes $100 plus a day by selling information products that she makes from her home schooling lessons. Go toHome School And Make Money to find out how you can too.

For more resources and information on home schooling in general visit About Home School Programs.