Send Factor

Many parents are nervous about sending their children to school, whether it is public or private.  Bringing firearms to school was completely unheard of twenty years ago, but today it is alarmingly probable.  Therefore, parents are afraid to send their children to school where there is violence, bullying, teasing, and possible physical abuse taking place.  Girls are being raped in school; boys are getting beaten up, and this happens more often than you think.  No wonder more children are being educated at home, there is about a 15 percent increase each year.

Another reason parents decide to home school their children is due to religious affiliations.  Many parents want to encourage religious beliefs and morals on a daily basis.  Other parents want to keep their children from being exposed to inappropriate behaviors, such as kissing, hitting, or even sex.  Most parents that home school monitor the types and amount of television and/or movies that their children watch.  This ensures that the child is being exposed to only positive, valuable lessons in life.

Children who home school bond with their parents and siblings and spend plenty of time together.  They build strong relationships that carry on through the rest of their lives.  Learning together each day is fun when you home school with your parents.  There are no bullies and no one who teases just because a math problem is difficult to understand.  There are plenty of real life field trips to the post office, grocery store, or dry cleaners.  Life skills are being taught daily through cooking, gardening and possibly balancing checkbooks.  Home school children have more time to devote to extra curricular activities because time is saved at home.  There is no commute and no waiting for the teacher to answer a question or discipline a misbehaved child.

Most parents would agree that home school provides a strong academic foundation that cannot be achieved in a school, where individualization is not possible.  At home, parents can address their child’s specific learning needs, abilities, and pace.  An interest driven curriculum can be assigned at home, so that the child has a desire to learn what they want.  In a structured school setting, all children follow the same textbook curriculum at the same pace, even if some children are behind or ahead of the class. The individualized education children receive from their parents allows them to reach their full learning potential with educational achievement and personal fulfillment.

Each child has a unique way of learning.  The three learning modalities are the sensory channels we use to obtain and process information.  Visual learners process information best with pictures and diagrams; these children learn best seeing things.  Auditory learners learn best by listening and discussing things.  Kinesthetic learners learn best with a hands on approach.  Most children learn through all three learning modalities.

Temperament theory states that all people differ in their interests, attitudes, judgments, and perceptions.  This greatly affects how we want to learn, what we want to learn, and the way we learn.  When a parent learns what their child temperament style is, they can plan out how to effectively teach their child.  There are four temperament styles:  where the attention is focused, how information is acquired, how decisions are made, and work habits and lifestyle.  The child is either extroverted or introverted, which means either focusing on outside objects, people events or inner world of ideas.  The child is either sensing, which means the child acquires information from the senses (concrete and present) or intuition, which focuses on insight, inspiration, future, and possibility.  The child either makes decisions based on logical analysis and cause and effect (thinking) or on personal values and the affect on the self (feeling).   Lastly, the child prefers their life to be orderly and structured (judging) or spontaneous and flexible (perceiving).

Howard Gardner, originator of multiple intelligences, defines seven kinds of intelligence.  Most children have strengths in two or three of them and need work on the rest.  One kind of intelligence is verbal/linguistic, which is speaking and reading.  Another type of intelligence is logical/mathematical, which is concepts and abstract patterns.  Another kind of intelligence is visual/special which is thinking in images, pictures, shapes, and colors.  Another kind of intelligence is musical, such as rhythm, pitch, melody and harmony.  Another type of intelligence is bodily/kinesthetic, which is touch, making, and doing.  And yet another type of intelligence is interpersonal, which is relating and cooperating with people.  Last but not least is intrapersonal, which is independence and self-motivation.

Learning how your child perceives the world around him/her and learns will allow you to maximize their intellectual strengths and teach them effectively.

Parents who home school do not have to have an advanced degree.  There are a few qualifications of successful home school parents:  love for their children, understanding of their children, desire to keep learning and growing, desire to spend time with their children.  Although it may seem awkward at first, especially if your child has been in a public or private school, teaching will eventually become second hand.  Parents need to learn flexibility and also organization at the same time.  Open communication and a strong bond between parent and child is key to successful home schooling.

Home schooling is legal in every state in the United States.  Each state has its own guidelines for home schooling.  There are also plenty of support groups for parents who home school.  Some private schools offer home school support and/or curriculum.  After school group activities, such as sports, or science are also offered by several different programs.  Friends and family can also help with home education.  Sometimes there are co-op home school groups, where one person teaches math and another parent teaches history.

There are also support groups for parents of home schoolers who feel burned out or frustrated.  There is guidance on teaching and teaching classes parents can take.  Continued education helps a parent feel confident in their teaching skills.  But keep in mind that every parent in a teacher at some point, it is unavoidable when you are a parent.

Parents document the progress of their home schooled children with testing, some are annual, and some are alternative assessments.  Keeping records of your child’s daily activities and learning is essential to monitoring the child’s progress. When parents find it difficult to teach a certain subject, they turn to private tutors, online classes, CD tutorials or community college classes to supplement their studies.