Do You Homeschool?

Welcome to DoYouHomeSchool.com, where we’d like to simply weigh in on the options available. We discuss the advantages of home schooling, the important question of home schooling vs. public schools, home school curriculm and home schooling for Christians, among other topics.

It’s your time.

Do what you like with it. To home school is to take on a certain amount of responsibility that is not usually found in parents. If you’re educated and ready to put the time and effort, this might be the choice for you. Every child learns differently but spending 100% of teaching time on your child will allow you to learn exactly how he or she learns. This means they’ll obviously be getting more learning in a shorter period of time. There’s no slowing the class down to wait for the slower kids and no going too fast because of the faster kids. We all pick different things up and different speeds. For example, Math may be difficult but Language Arts is easy. You’ll know how fast you can go. In a classroom it’s difficult to judge how quickly a teacher should move through course materials and not enough or too much time is spend on certain subjects. Because of this a lot of homeschooled children find themselves ahead of their peers educationally.

On the other hand, homeschooled children are left out of a lot of experiences. The education system in your area may not be the best, but it does supply the people in our society with a shared experience. Some of the greatest educational experiences may come from knowing that the smelly kid is actually nice, or that the girl that’s a Jehovah Witness is actually really hilarious. It builds a tolerance and understanding of the world and people around us. Later in life your child will have to work with others, and homeschooling may not be the best preparation for this. Then again, it really depends on your child. Kids aren’t robots and you can’t program them to behave. As any parent can tell you that.

Distance Education

Distance Education is where the government education system mails you the course materials for the year. This may make things run a lot smoother without having to take on the issues that come with the territory of home school and all that goes into it. Summit Learning Centre in BC, Canada, is an example. They will mail you everything the kids in the public education system in BC are taught, but you get to teach it. There are several advantages to this system, the first being that your child earns a highschool diploma. If your child ever decides to try college there will be no setbacks. Also, employers sometimes have a hard time understanding the educational qualifications of a homeschooled child. Sometimes you’re lucky and sometimes you’re not. It’s usually just better to have a piece of paper that says, “Hey, I did it.” The drawback is that there is a lack of faith-based materials in the public education system. This is where you’d draw from your own experiences and research what’s out there.

Homeschooling MaterialsIf Distance Education isn’t for you, there are a lot of sources for homeschooling materials out there. It’s become a pretty big industry and the best way to check where to get materials is to do a lot of research. You can google “homeschooling materials” or “homeschool lesson plans” and you’ll be overwhelmed with choice. One of the bigger names out there is Laurel Springs. Going with a larger organization means there have been more people overseeing the development of the materials which is a good thing. Probably the best thing to do is ask around over at home-school.com/forums. There are thousands of people like you trying to work out the same problems. You can purchase used lesson plans if you trust the source.