Home Schooling Three to Five Year Olds and Legal Requirements

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Parents who decide to home school their pre-school children have researched the value of teaching your own children at home. Beginning home school at the pre-school age is an excellent way to get the parent and the child used to the idea of learning at home. This is also a great way to ease into learning how to teach and organize the home school schedule. The child is not used to attending a school; therefore there is no adjustment period. Also, pre-school children are incredibly easy to teach because it is mostly in playing that they learn.

When creating a tailored preschool curriculum, parents provide a safe environment with interactive toys. Believe it or not, the parent is the child’s first teacher. Children at this age imitate everything their parents do by observation, playing, helping, talking, and listening. Reading to children at this age is one of the best ways to develop avid readers. At this age, a standardized curriculum isn’t necessary. Children learn from coloring, cutting, pasting, counting, singing, rhymes, games, playing with clay, playing in the playground, and learning to get along with others. It is important to include some of these activities daily in an unstressed, relaxed manner. Children at this age need your love and attention more than they need academics and structure.

The key to learning at this age is to provide a lot of hands on projects, particularly with arts and crafts. Many children in this age group have play dates where they meet with other children and go to parks, farms, even shopping trips. Pre-schoolers love to be included in everything you do, whether it be emptying the dishwasher, or sorting mail, and especially baking. Even though it may seem that their short attention span doesn’t allow for intense learning, they are learning real life experiences.

Legal Requirements:

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

Five Reasons to Home School From an Educator’s Perspective

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I have yet to delve into the world of home schooling; however, the more I do my research, the more I realize home schooling my girls may be best for them in the long run. I have been a part of the public education community in several capacities over the last fourteen years, and I can honestly say that the public school system continues to leave me looking for alternatives, and quickly.

There are a myriad reasons why parents choose to home school their children, and many public school educators themselves are distancing their children away from the public system to an extremely private one: Home Schooling. If you are looking for reasons to home school your children, please due your homework-yes, pun intended-and make sure this is something you can handle. An education is nothing to mess with.

There are several factors to consider when choosing to delve into unchartered territory. The first and foremost being can you handle being with your children literally twenty-four seven? If you have doubts for any reason, don’t home school. At least your child would get an education, albeit not a very good one if they continue within the public school system.

Here is a list of my top five reasons why Home schooling may be our next move.

Bullying in schools has become more common place than in years gone by. With the advent of social networking sites and texting/cell phones, cyber bullying has displaced face-to-face confrontations and this in turn has caused more unlikely bullies to rear their ugly heads upon society. And since old fashioned bullying still takes place, some kids in school are not safe whether they are in the school building or at home. While many schools claim they are taking a hard stance on bullying, our senate leaders think the bullying stand is too tough for the bullies. According to a recent amendment to SB 3004, school officials will no longer be allowed to use suspension or expulsion as a form of punishment until physical harm takes place, and; then, the bully can only receive three days out and cannot suffer academically because of his or her bullying. I’m starting to think this should be my number one reason.

Socialization is often a strong arguments by idiots against home schooling your child. However, with all of the work schools are cramming into a school day, socialization is severely frowned upon in schools. It is so bad that many schools do not let the students fraternize or talk during lunch. The school claims the kids won’t eat if they talk, but, hey, isn’t that their decision? A couple of missed meals and then struggling through the day may be just what a kid needs to learn how to mix eating and socialization. And what socialization skills do schools really teach beyond kindergarten? Students cannot talk in class. In fact, every time my middle school aged daughter got in trouble at school it was for talking and/or socializing. There, are certain socialization lessons that need to be taught that didn’t exist twenty years ago. Like teaching students how to hold a conversation without having a cell phone glued to their fingertips. Oh wait, I forgot cell phones are banned in most schools.

Curriculum in America’s schools is being overhauled at alarming rates and in a way I believe will hurt far more than it will help. Many schools across the nation, for whatever reason, are buying into Common Core. Yes, common core will help schools meet or exceed their numbers on standardized tests, maybe. But more importantly it is taking creativity away from good teachers and creating little drones who do not, cannot, and will not think or do for themselves. I was recently in a seventh grade classroom in which the students actually expected me to read the story to them so they could answer the study guide questions. Humina what? I’m a former English teacher who loves the classics. However, we do not students of this advanced technological age who can read or understand Shakespeare, Dickens and all the other old authors still being taught in school. Yes, there are valuable lessons in their works. Yes, teachers should use examples of these works when teaching concepts or writing. But to force a kid to read Romeo and Juliet just because the two main characters are about the same age is ridiculous. There is great stuff out there that can teach the same lessons and be more relatable to today’s youth.

Money is another giant issue when it comes to home schooling your children, and I wish this reason was really as simple as just saving some money. Let’s face, education has become all about money. More money is being pumped in to feed kids. More money is being spent on discipline issues. More money is being stopped, suspended, or cut altogether. Money is the only reason the school cares if your kid is absent or not. The students know they’ll get their homework and get time to complete it they are absent, and how much would they really miss by being absent for a day or two? Why does the school need to make sure your kid is there and why are there attendance rules? The school needs to fill its maximum number of students daily to receive the maximum number of funds daily, which many schools don’t get in a timely fashion to begin with. Now, distance yourself from all that drama and you just may be able to some amazing things with your finances once you home school. No more registration fees. No more fund raising expenditures. No more athletic fees. No more lunch money. No after school or before school daycare. No more summer daycare.

Common Core is teaching students how to think alike so they can pass a useless test. And, that’s if they are being taught to think at all. I’ve been to the ACT test prep sessions and I’ve taught them. Our main goal was to teach them tricks for adding one or two points to their test. Tricks became the focus. For instance, we taught them which answer to choose based on statistics. Like the majority of the time the right choice is the third option. Students are discouraged from adding their opinions or sharing their beliefs because it’s not relevant to the lesson at hand, which was designed by the ACT people, and taught by your schools with no room for independent creativity and thought.

The decision to home school is totally up to you, but I seriously hope your do the work necessary to make sure your child will get a quality education from you. But above all, if your child continues through the journey of the public school system, make sure you teach them how to think, solve problems, make education decisions and to becom

The Great Home Schooling Debate

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Home schooling has been around for quite some time now. The debate about it’s overall effectiveness has been going on for just as long. Recently however, home schooling has been gaining more and more advocates in support of it.

For the longest time, home schooling has been viewed with a somewhat contemptuous attitude by many. They’re under the misguided notion that home schooling is for weirdoes and social misfits.

People these days are much more open minded about the idea of home schooling. Lots more parents are choosing to put their kids in some kind of home schooling program.

So what are the possible reasons for parents to home school their kids? What are the advantages and disadvantages of home schooling? Is it right for your child and what must be taken into consideration when choosing to home school your child?

Home schooling has traditionally been for those children who suffer from some kind of condition or whose current circumstances don’t allow them to attend regular school. However, more and more parents are choosing to home school their children because they believe it to be a more beneficial alternative to traditional schools.

There are a lot of advantages to be taken from home schooling.

Home schooling allows a child be taught in a more individualized way. The child will not have to compete with several other students for the time and attention of the teacher. Their parent is their teacher and the one-on-one teaching that the child receives will increase the quality of learning.

The nature of home schooling allows for an incredible amount of flexibility and freedom in regards to learning. The lessons and curriculum to be undertaken can be custom made to suit the particular educational needs of the child.

The child can also learn at their own pace, seeing as there’s no set schedule that must be followed. A child can take as much time as they need to learn something without being pressured, or they can go as quickly as they can, learning things that would normally take a much longer time to cover in a classroom.

In many cases home schooling will enforce an inherent love of learning and will strengthen the child abilities to learn on their own. These skill will become a valuable asset throughout their lives.

Many parents home school their kids in order to instill moral values that can’t be sufficiently achieved in traditional schools. This is especially true if they feel that the child is easily influenced and the schools in the area are a particularly bad influence.

Home schooling helps to cultivate family ties. The time that the family spend together teaching and learning helps to strengthen family bonds.

Thanks to more advanced technology and in particular the internet, home schooling has become even more effective. The internet is a vast source of knowledge and you can find a plethora of home schooling resources like sample curriculums, lesson plans, and all sorts of guides.

The greatest criticism aimed at home schooling is that it might hamper the child’s social growth. Home schooled kids tend to be more isolated and many feel that this is harmful.

This isn’t necessarily the case though, as studies have shown that many home schooled adults have excellent social skills and are living happy, meaningful lives.

These studies also show that home schooled individuals tend to do better academically than traditionally schooled individuals.

Despite the seemingly many benefits of home schooling, it isn’t for everyone. Parents should take in mind several considerations before taking the plunge.

Home schooling takes a tremendous amount of time and effort on the part of the parents.

Teaching will take up most of the teaching parent’s day, so this means that the they will most likely not have the time to work. The family must be able to cope with this situation. This is especially difficult for single parents.

Also, the parent must be sure that they will be able teach their child properly and handle all the possible problems and responsibilities that come with the home schooling their child.

Home schooling, when done right can have very positive results. However, getting it wrong can result in absolute disaster. Ultimately, it’s up to the parents to assess their child and decide if home schooling is the right choice for them.

Lee Dobbins writes for [http://homeschooling.biz-review.com] where you can learn mo