Getting Started: A Beginner's Guide to Homeschooling - Q & A
Q. What is homeschool?
It might be easier to describe what homeschool is not. Homeschool is not a classroom in your living room. It is not a rigid schedule. It does not follow a specified curriculum, nor does it place equal importance upon raising your hand as it does learning your times tables. Homeschool is different at every home and with every child.
Q. What is a typical homeschool day like?
There's nothing typical about homeschool days. On any given day homeschool could be a community class in art or Spanish, a homeschool group meeting and presentation, or science in the backyard.
Homeschool may not even take place at home at all. For example, it could be a trip to a museum or to an historic battlefield site or to a homeschool convention. Every day is different and that's one of the best things about homeschool.
Q. Is homeschool an anti-public school?
No. Most homeschool parents pay taxes that support their local public schools, and they don't mind a bit. It is not anti-public to enroll your child in private school and neither is it anti-public to homeschool your child. Homeschool is a choice and each family chooses it for different reasons. Some of the reasons include faith, values, academic scholarship, schedule flexibility, child behavior issues, and more. Few choose homeschool simply because they hate public school or had bad experiences in school themselves.
Q. Is homeschool your children's choice or yours?
Both - and what a strange question this can be. How often are you asked if your choice to vacation in the mountains instead of the beach is your choice or your children's? Is your choice to live in a subdivision as opposed to the country compatible with your kids' views? Children are all raised according to their parents' beliefs no matter how open minded or hands-off the parent. Those who choose homeschool just choose to be more involved in the learning activities of their children. You would be hard pressed to find a child who didn't enjoy going to museums and exploring the world in their own time and at their own pace.
Q. What about standardized tests?
What about them? They are available for homeschool students to take if they wish. Standardized tests, often called “barometers of learning,” have long been debated as a positive and accurate learning tool. If a child is indeed learning in school, no standardized test is necessary to prove it. If a child is not learning, that too will be apparent without any kind of test.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children's rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because "our current system of education has broken its promise..." Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.
Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education.
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