Many of us who have school aged children see that for one reason or another, traditional public school education may not be a good fit for our student. Your child may be way ahead of other students in his grade level in some or all subjects, or he may be struggling in some areas.
How can a parent be confident that a non-traditional approach to educating a child is the best path to take? An unbiased view of what homeschooling may do to help your child reach his educational goals could be the start of his scholastic success and excellent preparation for his adult life.
This article is designed to start the mental wheels turning in your thought processes and to get you thinking about whether or not education at home is a good option for your student.
Why should I homeschool my child?
Some children learn better by rote and by repetition, while others learn better by computer lessons. Each student has strengths in areas of learning that can be capitalized upon for scholastic excellence. The different product lines of homeschool curriculum are diverse and many-faceted; they can be used to hone in on your student's areas of strength in learning so that he excels and has a real sense of accomplishment.
Sometimes in a public school setting there is not a variety of teaching techniques that will tap into your child's learning style. In addition, some parents are concerned that the content taught in public schools is non-productive and even contrary to the family values that are consistent with those taught in the home. In a homeschool environment, you have control over what your child is taught, and you know that values that are non-consistent with yours are not forced upon your student.
How do homeschooled children rank academically with those educated in public schools? Because of individual attention and teacher-student ratio, your child will get more personal instruction than he would in say, a class of 30 children. In 1994, researcher Dr. Brian Ray analyzed standardized tests for 16,000 home educated children spanning the grades K-12. He found that they scored higher than 78% of the publicly educated children in reading and 72% higher in language and math.
Almost 80% got scores higher than the national average and 54.7% of them ranked in the top quarter of the entire population. (Reference: Home Schoolers Score Significantly Above National Average, National Center for Home Education Press Release, December 7, 1994.) Individual students vary, of course, but on average, home-educated students do quite well.
Do homeschooled children get enough socialization and integration into society?
There is a myth circulating that says home-educated students somehow survive in a cave and never see other human beings outside their families.
Nothing could be further from the truth! As part of your child's education, you may consider introducing him to a place where he could volunteer his time at a homeless shelter, a school for special needs children, a church, a library or a museum. The list of worthy establishments goes on forever, and it is an enriching way of showing your student areas of society that he would not normally encounter.
There is a vast network of homeschooling families that you can connect with from all over the United States. In fact, if you are just getting started, these established homeschool families can give you valuable information that will help you get on your way with your student's education. Likewise, you may also be able to connect with a network in your area that can share in your scholastic effort by cooperative subject teaching and combined field trip outings.
This interaction with other students is a gold mine of opportunity which helps them develop strong, healthy relationships with other homeschoolers, as well as adults in various areas of the community. Homeschoolers may have even more areas of social interaction because of the rich input of home-education networks.
