Home Schooling

Home schooling is not a new concept, it has been around for many centuries. The process of schooling in fact began in the home, and then moved into the outside brick and mortar model schools. A home school is where children are taught by a parent or parents without the outside influence or interference of the school system. There are various dissimilarities on a home school but all follow basic rule of no interference from outside. But, getting started in home schooling will need the parent to do some research ahead of time, so they know exactly what they need to do, to get the curriculum on track.

Everyone has a different reason for home schooling their children. Some have their reasons as being able to provide religious studies and building strong family bonds. A few parents look at the quality of home school and feel that they have more control over the curriculum and content of the materials studied in addition to knowing that their children are much safer at home. Many a time it is the factor of flexibility that makes some families go for home schooling their kids. Flexibility here doesn’t merely implies the time, but methods as well.

But, getting started with home schooling requires quite a bit of research before your home school even begins. The more you research, study and talk to others about your home school the more you will be able to learn how to avoid common problems that may come up when you will be working with your home school.

Home schooling is not just confined to teaching a child at home by parents rather it is a broad term. There are many techniques that are used widely for proper functioning of home schooling. There are a lot of different styles of home schooling that can be brought in can. The list below describes the most common types of home schooling:

• Structured:  This type of home school works just like a public school, in that, it follows a predefined schedule throughout the day. For instance, math lessons would be done at a certain time, English at another, music and dance in the evening, Science lessons at 11 am and so on.
• Interest-initiated: This approach of home schooling is based on what is happening at the time. For instance, if it is raining, you may choose to revolve the day’s curriculum around rain and rainbows. This can be both unstructured and structured depending on your choices and present situations in the family.
• Learning-style:  This method is based on each child's learning style. If your child has more interest in arts you can choose to focus most upon arts lessons or if your child loves singing and dancing you can opt for that and set the curriculum accordingly.
• Philosophical: Using educational philosophies and studies to mold a curriculum is the basis for this method. For instance, if your child is most into reading and learning literature you can set his curriculum to cover most of the literature and language.
• Accommodating: This approach is most suitable for the families with children with special needs. For example, if the child is blind or handicapped the parents can set his curriculum accordingly, as in the case of a blind child one cannot opt for art lessons, and similarly for a handicap child dance classes cannot be done.

These are just some basic methods used in home schooling. Few parents may find a mixture of these to work best for them. Home schooling is all about tailoring the process of learning according to the child’s need.