Homeschooling Benefit

Benefits of Homeschooling
By Pamela Connolly

A wise man once said, "We can teach our children to have courage, faith, and endurance and show them how to learn, and they can teach us to laugh, to sing, and to love." In other words, each family member has valuable lessons to teach the family.


Photo: promocionhumana.org

When a family homeschools, this reciprocal relationship is magnified. Homeschooling participants are affected by more than just the person who sit at the homeschool table. All generations create and reinforce the bond between family members. Home schooling families spend their time laughing, learning, playing and living with each other 24/7.

You can choose the best curriculum to promote an intrinsic love of lifelong learning. The homeschool curriculum is flexible. The parameters are determined by the best teachers available, the parents, who know and love their children.

Learning never stops in the homeschool environment. The parents are not just lecturers or observers. They are active participants who expand, explain and encourage their children to be inquisitive and explore the specific areas that interest them without the constraints of arbitrary rules set up by an outside source.

Another benefit to homeschooling is that the parents model and reinforce valuable behavior and deemphasize undesirable behavior in a natural manner.

Historically several generations lived in the same home. Everyone benefited from this multi-generational living arrangement, coming away with valuable lessons that cannot be taught in a book. Plus most of the time there was the added advantage of the multi-grade/level schoolhouse for the formal education.

Presently we often put the older generation in nursing homes when they get too bothersome (only to visit them on holidays), and we settle for a failing public school system that has been tasked with being everything to everyone but alienates most participants.

Homeschooling is the best of both worlds. It's good for both the family and for your children's education.

The benefits of home schooling are limitless. As a parent who homeschooled three children, I feel that homeschooling is the greatest gift a parent can give their child. Try it. You’ll like it!

Pam Connolly is a professional educator with the San Diego School District. She has been teaching kids how to type for over 11 years. To teach your child typing, visit http://www.1stoplearntotype.com/

HomeSchooling Family

Is Your Family Ready for HomeSchooling?
By Cheryl Dixon

More parents are deciding to homeschool their children each year. As early as the late 1960's homeschooling increased from 10,000 to 15,000 children. In 1999 the number of homeschooled children had risen to 850,000, and by 2003 the number jumped to 1.1 million children which represents a 29 percent relative increase over the 4-year period.



Photo: onenewsnow.com

Students are considered to be homeschooled if their parents reported them as being schooled at home instead of at a public or private school for at least part of their education and if their part-time enrollment in public or private schools did not exceed 25 hours a week. Students who were schooled at home only because of a temporary illness were not included as homeschoolers.

Most Important Reasons for Homeschooling

Thirty-one percent of homeschoolers had parents who said the most important reason for homeschooling was concern about the environment of other schools.

Thirty percent said the most important reason was to provide religious or moral instruction.

Sixteen percent of homeschooled students had parents who said dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools was their most important reason for homeschooling.

Families that elect to educate their children at home come from all major ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds, and all income levels. However, homeschoolers are more likely to be religious, conservative, white, better educated, and part of a two-parent family, compared with the average American family. Homeschooling families tend to have more children and be middle-class.

Parents who homeschool their children are more likely to vote, contribute money to political causes, contact elected officials about their views, attend public meetings or rallies, or join community and volunteer associations. This holds true even when researchers compare only families with similar characteristics, including education, income, age, race, family structure, geographic region, and number of hours worked per week.

What Resources Do Homeschooling Families Use?

Parents are, of course, the primary resource. Typically, the mother takes the lead, though fathers usually pitch in. Perhaps as many as one out of ten fathers takes the primary responsibility.

How Well Do Homeschoolers Perform Academically and Socially?

Researchers cannot tell whether the same children would perform better or worse academically in a classroom or at home. State testing data does not necessarily reflect all homeschoolers because not all comply with the testing requirement. Other testing efforts rely on volunteers.

Keeping that caveat in mind, where testing data is available, homeschoolers do well. For example, in Alaska, the state's Alyeska Central School has tested its homeschooling children for several decades. As a group they usually score above average in any subject area and at all grade levels. The largest study to date, commissioned by the Home School Legal Defense Association, involved 12,000 students tested through the Bob Jones University testing services. The homeschooled children placed in the 62nd to the 91st percentile of national norms, depending on grade level and subject area.

At least one intriguing study suggests that student achievement for homeschoolers is not related to the educational attainment of the parent. This is consistent with tutoring studies that suggest the education level of a tutor has little to do with achievement of a tutored child.

College admission also may suggest success. Homeschoolers have reported admission to over 1,000 different U.S. colleges and universities.

People disagree about whether homeschooling helps or hinders a child's social development. Homeschooling children spend less time with peers and more time with people of different ages. Most participate in scouting, church groups, and other associations. Many volunteer in their communities. Some operate a business. There is no conclusive research suggesting that additional time with same-aged peers is preferable to more time with individuals of varying ages.

What Is the Legal Status of Homeschooling?

Today homeschooling is legal in all states. State law generally requires homeschooling parents to file basic information with either the state or local education agency. Over half the states require some kind of evaluation under some or all of the homeschooling options available under state law. Usually, this evaluation involves testing of students, but some states accept portfolio evaluations or a teacher evaluation. Much less frequently, states have education or testing requirements for parents. Some states require submission of a curricular plan. Parents do not need teaching certificates.

Public programs are growing. Alaska sponsors the Alyeska Central School, where teachers in Juneau work with students all over the state via mail, the Internet, telephone, and occasional home visits. In California, children can enroll in a public school's independent-study program. Washington and Iowa laws require public schools to admit students part-time. Some public schools offer specialized homeschooling centers where families may obtain resources and instructional support, or where children may take classes. An estimated 18 percent of children who are homeschooled enroll in school part-time; 5 percent enroll for 9 or more hours per week

Local and state support groups offer advice and assistance. Sometimes, several families will share instructional duties. Local support groups form readily if there are a sufficient number of homeschooling families in an area. There is at least one state-level homeschooling association in every state, and in some states there are a dozen or more regional associations. Often, parents may examine instructional materials at a book fair or association meeting.

Other popular resources include libraries, museums, colleges, parks departments, churches, local businesses, and schools. Many large and small publishers offer curricular packages, books, periodicals, and other materials for use in home instruction.

Cheryl Dixon has recently published an in-depth report on home schooling, you can read an overview here: http://www.millmarkbiz.com/hhs.htm and is the publisher of the Goal Mine Gazette weekly newsletter, you can subscribe here: http://www.millmarkbiz.com/sub.htm

Homeschool Behavior

Children And Homeschool Behavior Management
By Mary Joyce

Children come in all shapes, sizes, personalities, and behavior traits. As a homeschooling parent you are more acutely aware of all of these traits in your child than anyone. Teaching your child is a tremendous challenge. Aside from the books, the alphabet, the numbers and such, there is a certain amount of behavior management that you must employ to successfully teach your child at home.



Photo: acetutoringofusa.com

Each child is different and motivates differently, some maintain their attention quite easily while there are some that do not. Some children may be strapped with actual behavior challenges.
If the behavior becomes disruptive enough and constant enough that typical behavioral management techniques fail to produce change, it could be time to seek additional resources and testing for your child. This is generally true when managing the child’s behavior becomes the focus of the day and actual learning is taking a back seat. This can be an additional burden if the disruptive child begins to affect your other children if you are indeed engaged homeschooling more than one of your kids at a time.

If indeed a learning disability such as Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder is determined then preventative measures can begin early on in your behavior management strategy.

With many children perceived behavior problems can actually stem from a lack of success in whatever tasks you may have them attempting to learn. In other words the child initially struggles to learn what is presented or cannot perform the task well enough to perceive success and this results in the child not wanting to do the task or stay focused on the learning event because they feel they have little chance of success. Frustration builds, and so does the “attitude”. Success begets success and motivation will run higher making your behavior management a much smaller part of your day if you do your best to ensure successes with your child’s tasks then celebrate each of those accomplishments. As the successes rise behavior and discipline issues will decline.

No one set of rules applies to all children. But barring the diagnosis of any of the more serious learning issues, reaching lofty goals and achieving high standards is accomplished by one small success at a time.

Mary Joyce is a former educator, successful homeschool parent, and has written many articles on teaching your child at home for the Homeschool-Curriculum-4u website. Please visit (http://www.homeschool-curriculum-4u.com/ for more of Mary's articles, resources on homeschool, homeschooling ideas, and curriculum information. Also tips guides and how-to's to help you successfully teach your child at home.

Piano Club for Homeschoolers

Start a Piano Club for Homeschoolers
By Cynthia VanLandingham

Many parents are taking advantage of homeschooling opportunities to give their young children a solid academic foundation. Learning piano has so many benefits for children that homeschool parents want to give their kids this important musical foundation as well. If this is you, however, you may not realize how easy this is to do right in your own home. You don't even need to hire a piano teacher, but you can if you want to.




Just as children need their parents to read to them and teach the alphabet, parents can also teach their young children the foundational "music Language" skills for piano or keyboard. If you can teach your child the alphabet, you can also give them an important foundation at home for learning to read music and understand keyboard theory. Even if your young children are already taking piano lessons, piano teachers don't have time in a 30 minute weekly lesson to give kids the complete foundation they need to read music easily. But parents can. There are so many resources available online for parents who homeschool their children, and piano lessons are no exception. And you don't have to do it alone. Enlist the help of your homeschool friends.

By starting a piano club you can invite your friends' children to share this wonderful opportunity. Even if they're already taking piano lessons they'll have a great time together, and learn even more. A small-group experience is a valuable way to learn because it models a family. I recommend two to five children. Each child can come to club meetings with their own portable keyboard. Here's what else you'll need.

1. A room large enough for each child to set up their keyboard.
2. Portable keyboard stands and benches.
3. A table with chairs for children to play theory games.
4. A computer with speakers.
5. A printer

For teaching materials there are many resources available that you can download with easy to follow parent's guides. They include stories, games, videos, music and piano lessons. These materials will be great for your piano club, because they're very affordable. Plus you can print them for each child in your group to use and take home with them. Basic keyboard theory is not hard to teach or understand. With the right tools and resources, anyone can start an awesome piano club in their own home. So don't wait to give your children the gift of music!

To learn the best way to share the gift of music with children visit Amazon.com for my Piano Bears Musical Stories for Children The exciting Piano Bears Musical Stories for children ages 5 to 11 feature the loveable characters, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Children love following along with Albeart to Mrs. Treble Beary's piano studio in Musical Acres Forest. Here they learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand and appreciate! Piano students laugh and giggle while reading "Little Bear's Musical Garden" and "Little Bear's Piano Goals."

For a wealth of free information and piano music online visit Piano Bears Music Education Resources Don't Wait to Share the Gift of Music!