Posts Tagged ‘homeschooling’

Homeschooling and the Family

Friday, June 12th, 2009

If a survey by the National Center For Education Statistics is to be believed, almost 1.1 million children took home schooling in 2005 alone. That’s a lot of children. Not so long ago, homeschooling used to be a radical statement – something like a declaration of independence.

It was the (right-wing|conservative Christians who advocated homeschooling in the ’80s and legalized it in every State. But the typical homeschooler of today is not religiously motivated.

Later surveys indicate that parents are actually fed up with the public school system where a lot of the learning is superficial and compulsory. They are also concerned about the negative environment in school, ranging from drugs and abuse to negative peer pressure.

As a result, we have a surprising mix of people who form the homeschooling world of today. They cut across all religious creeds and all regional borders. Their main aim is providing meaningful and productive education through a method that strengthens the bond between the various members of the family.

All these families have one main thing in common – a long standing commitment to the sanctity of childhood. The children of these families are accorded a primary position. Many believe, and, probably, rightly so, that home schooling allows parents to bring up their kids in a more natural and nurturing environment.

Public schools can make a child nervous, diffident and downright mean. Children who get their education at home are protected from these damaging, negative influences until they reach an age where they can deal with them.

Home-schooling draws the whole family into the quasi religious task of teaching. Everyone is put to work. Both the parents together form a bond with the children. Any experience can be turned into an educational experience. Both the parents are aware of exactly what is going into their child’s education.

Parents also have a greater control over the type of religious and moral values that the child is learning. Even watching a movie together can become a learning experience. Trips to the libraries, zoos, museums and other places become educational as well as recreational.

A home-schooling family is usually dependent on the income of one earning member. That means that often outgoings have to be curtailed and proper planning of expenditure is necessary. This helps to bring the family members together and everybody gets involved in the task of saving money.

Merely having a parent at home to look after, to nurture and to care for the children brings with it a great deal of love and caring. Even the husband chips in and there is just no room for complacency.

Yes, problems still do crop up, and there will be many misgivings in your mind, but when you know that your children can always count on you, and your kids know it too, then homeschooling becomes a very rewarding experience.

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The Advantages of Speed Reading

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

What have you been reading lately? At a meeting, you can tell who the wide readers are. Wide readers often think and speak well. They win the admiration, respect, and good opinion of others. After all, reading expands the mind. In fact, many people consider it one of the most satisfying pleasures of mankind, combining, as it does, mental agility and physical relaxation way above the scale of television.

The act of reading is primarily a mental activity, as you read with your mind and use your imagination to paint the setting of the detective thriller you are reading. You use your mind to imagine the pleasure that the main characters in the story are experiencing as the plot unfolds; or you contemplate the different arguments and ideas introduced by the author of that self-help book you are studying.

Being able to read effectively helps you to develop (an extensive|a wide vocabulary through reading different styles of books. A skillful reader recognizes a wide range of vocabulary. The reader may not know exactly what every word means, but he/she will have a good idea of what the sentence means.

The act of reading makes you more aware and more interested in hitherto unknown words. Some readers even develop ‘the dictionary habit’, which means that whenever they come across a strange word, they try to figure out what it possibly means by the context. If they cannot do this, they refer to a dictionary.

In the same way, reading develops intellectual curiosity by exposing you to a variety of subjects. You learn to read by reading books of increasing difficulty and variety. Just as in other kinds of education, you are learning by actually doing and while you are reading you are automatically learning about the subject matter of the book too – like free by-product!

Basically, reading trains you to have an active and open mind. Only grasping the writers point of view is not really good enough, you have to have a reply to what you have read. Be an active, not a passive, reader. Try to develop the habit of drawing your own conclusions, the habit of active thinking, of agreeing or disagreeing with the author. Always keep your mind open; understand and consider the ideas that you have read. A practical part of active reading is the development of one’s own opinions.

Now let me introduce you to the concept known as speed reading. All of the above applies three, four, eight, nine, even ten times over, because speed readers can read that much faster than the average reader! Imagine that … being able to read, comprehend and remember all those books. You would certainly become well-read in your subject far more quickly than others. Just think how that could help you at work or in school or college …

Allow me to share four basic rules for effective reading and better comprehension:

1) Try to read more and more every month. Remember that practice makes perfect. 2) Learn the habit of reading the main ideas, ie look for the subject and predicate – the principal ideas 3) Learn to read with focus and concentration. Good readers read with understanding. 4) Learn to budget your time. Experiment with your reading time. Try to read faster. Give yourself a time limit on the specific piece that you are reading.

Reading is a wonderfully stimulating mental activity. It expands your reality and capability. You have so much to gain in discovering the joys of reading. So, go ahead and get down a book right now.

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How to Avoid Burnout in Home Schooling

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

It does not matter whether you are learning in a traditional school or in a home schooling environment, there will come a time when you will experience burnout. This is something that you have to avoid so that your learning progress is not adversely affected.

Here are a few useful tips that you can make use of to prevent possible home schooling burnout:

Understand your limitations. From the very start, you should already know your limitations and your child’s limitations. You must be capable of taking things slowly sometimes, especially if your child is still young since you have to bear in mind your child’s learning capacity. Most students are average learners, obviously, so you have to take the lessons based on your child’s learning pace. Never expect your small child to read complicated reading selections nor your teen to ace SAT exams.

Don’t adopt rigid schedules, as this can put undue pressure on your child. You should just set an interesting routine for your child to follow. Children spend most of their time doing routine activities like getting up, eating hearty breakfasts, reading books, practising writing, doing light jobs about the place, etc. You must ensure that they finish their routine activities before they can play outside or with the computer. Even these routine activities change from day to day, but you must make sure that your child follows these routine activities. You can add in occasional incentives or fun activities if they finish their routine tasks early.

You should try to enjoy home schooling with your child. This is a good method of developing a strong relationship with your child and if you and your child can relate to each other, you will find it very much easier to handle curriculum struggles and motivation issues later on. Aside from motivating and guiding your child, you can also follow some of your own hobbies like gardening or cooking. If your child sees you pursuing your own interests, then he or she will also be inclined to do the same.

As your child is in a home schooling program, you should not try to copy a traditional schools environment. Try to use unusual ways when teaching your child. Home schooling is also about flexibility and creativity, and if you can create a light-hearted but firm atmosphere, you can probably avoid burnout.

Always try to remember that with home schooling, you don’t have to structure your teaching methods in the traditional way. You can just do things in a fun way especially with very young children so that they learn easily. Just ensure you keep the day in the right perspective to avoid burnout. Although your children may forget some of the day’s lessons, that’s all right too because somehow they grow in intelligence as well as in physique.

For sure, your children will always look back on your moments together and remember fondly how well you treated them. The old song goes: “… there’s no place like home” and for little pupils, home is the best place to learn the first lessons of life. If your teenagers are already in high school or in college, they can still pursue home schooling if they want to. That would also a good decision because you’d get to monitor your offsprings’ performance.

Parents always try to look after their children’s best interests, so, if after careful thought, you still think that home schooling is the right option for your family, then run with it. Just follow the advice stated above in order to avoid burnout. Make time for enjoyable activities from time to time in order to avoid monotony, which may lead to burnout.

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Home Schooling and the Family

Monday, April 27th, 2009

According to the National Center For Education Statistics, almost 1.1 million children underwent home schooling in 2005 alone. That’s a lot of children. Once upon a time, homeschooling used to be a radical statement – something like a declaration of independence.

It was the (right-wing|conservative Christians who pushed for homeschooling in the ’80s and legalized it in every State. But the typical homeschooler of today is not religiously motivated.

More recent surveys show that parents are actually fed up with the public school system where a lot of the learning is superficial and compulsory. They are also concerned about the negative environment in school, which ranges from drugs and abuse to negative peer pressure.

Because of this, we have a surprising mix of people who make up the homeschooling world of today. They cut across all religious creeds and all regional borders. Their main aim is providing meaningful and productive learning through a method that strengthens the bond between the various members of the family.

These families all have one major thing in common – a long enduring commitment to the sanctity of childhood. The children of these families are given a primary position. Many believe, and, probably, rightly so, that home schooling allows parents to bring up their kids in a more natural and nurturing environment.

Public schools can make a child nervous, diffident and thoroughly nasty. Children who receive their education at home are protected from these damaging, negative influences until they attain an age where they can withstand them.

Home-schooling draws the whole family into the almost religious task of teaching. Everyone has a role to play. The parents together form a bond with the children. Any experience can be turned into an learning experience. Both the parents are aware of exactly what is going into their child’s head.

Parents also have a greater say over the kind of religious and moral values that the child is learning. Even watching a film together can become a learning experience. Visits to the libraries, zoos, museums and other places become educational experiences as well as recreational ones.

A home-schooling family is usually dependent on the income of one earning member. That means that often outgoings have to be curtailed and proper planning of expenditure is necessary. This helps to bring the family members together and everybody becomes involved in the task of saving money.

Just having a parent at home to supervise, to nurture and to care for the children brings with it a lot of love and caring. Even the husband takes part and there is just no room for complacency.

Yes, problems still do crop up, and there will be many misgivings in your mind, but when you know that your kids can always count on you, and your kids know it too, then homeschooling becomes a very rewarding experience.

About the Author: