How Many Children are Home Schooled?
There are about 2 million children reported to be home schooled in the United States. In many states, however, the parents of these children do not report to the governement that they home school their children. Why would a parent not report this to the governement many (including myself) would ask? The answer is simple... many of the parents do not want the government getting involved in what they want to teach there childlren. Many of the parents like the freedom of being able to figuring out their child's lesson plan and what exactly their student is learning and at what rate their child is learning the material at.
Why do Parents Choose to Home School?
There are several reasons why parents chose to home school their children. The main reason why parents chose to home educate their children is because they feel that their children will learn more then they would siting in a classroom. Parents know their child best and it is easier for a parent to focus in on their child and help them learn. Parent know whether their child is a hands on , visual, or an audio learner. They do not need to accomidate to the greater number of learners in a classroom, they accomidate the needs of their individual child.
While talking to a parent who home schools, she described how her child learns math. He goes at his own pace while she gives him real life example of things that she knows he is interested in to keep him focused. When he does not understand a section she moves on and plans to come back to at a few weeks later. The child had not spent too much time getting frustrated over a topic that he did not understand at the time. This did not lower her child's self esteem and her child just needed the extra time to learn the specific subject. Home schooling allows a parent the freedom to work the subject matters around how their children learn.
Other parents choose to home school for religious or moral purposes. We've all seen it.... the second mommy's little angel steps foot on the school bus they return home with a list of brand new words. More times than not these words are said from a child younger than 10 years old. I can imagine it would be hard to see there 7 year old son get off the school bus after their first day of school and drop an "f-bomb". A school setting is survival of the fittest. School is the first place that children learn that what and how much they have makes them how important they are. They get peer pressured into having new expensive items very often to compete with the other kids at school. Being in an environment without all this competion and being in a possitive environment allows children to grow and become comfortable with themselves and who they are. This makes children less likely to give into peer pressure as they get older in life.
How Do Home Schooled Children Learn Social Skills?
It is really up to the parents to get their children involved in other child interaction. There are plenty of opprotunites, the parent just needs to take advantage of them. Most parents allow there children to take part in sports and other activities where they meet new people and develop new friendships. There are also home schooling co-ops where children actually sign up for different classes, as they would in school only they are taught by volunteering parents. The children get an "in the classroom" experience with other children. This is a great experience for children to get a chance to respect another adult other than their own parent.It also allows the children to interact with the other children in their classes as they would if they went to a public or private school. At these co-ops the children are offered many different classes including art classes, science classes, and different languages; classes that their parent might not know how to teach. It allows all the other parents to come together and make use out of all of their talents and share their knowledge with each others children.
What Does a Child Do During an Average Day?
The average day varies, again depending on what the parent chooses to do. Most parents that choose to home school, home school year round so the child is constantly learning new material even during the summer. Most parents make a schedule that works best for them and their children. Generally, children will wake up and work on their daily lessons and assignments. Most children finish their lessons much faster than children in public or private schools because they do not have the distractions of other children and they do not have to wait for an entire class of 30 kids to move on to a new lesson. Most kids finish their lessons in a few short hours giving them more time to visit museums, historical land marks, and have fun and be kids!!
What Are the Over All Benefits of Home Schooling?
Most may not realize, but the all year round schooling really gets children ahead of most kids who are in the public or private schools. These children get to work at a pace that works for them. They get to learn subjects that might not be offered in schools.This gives children a wider range of subjects that they could possibly be interested in. In a school setting the children are more limited to the material that they have to learn. Most home schooled children actually score higher on the SATs than those who went through the public school system. Most even attend college at a much younger age than the average person because they are so much farther ahead. The children also get to know who they are and can focus on themselves rather than what is the next object that they should by to try to fit in with the right crowd. Parents also get to monitor what their children are learning based on the child's maturity.
What else?
Overall home schooling is what you make of it. It can be a great knowledgeable experience as long as the parents take advantage of the opprotunity. Some parents unfortunately abuse this opprunity and the children can suffer from it. It is a great way to have a foot in what your children are learning and help show them different ways of learning. It is not for every body, but one persons wrong could be another persons right. Just because home schooling may not work for one child, it could for another. It is clear that some children might not respond well to their parent's authority... those children may do better in a school setting. Some children might have a different way of learning that isn't always used in schools... those children may do better in a home schooled setting. Education is a wonderful tool no matter how a person chooses to go about doing so.
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A special thanks to the friends and families apart of the Greenspring Home Schooling Co-op! :-)