Home Schooling – The Best Educational Option

Well, I don’t normally plan on being this longwinded - but this post is exactly why I started this blog, so… Thanks for your indulgence!

Home schooling allows parents to utilize the best teaching and learning practices (such as one-on-one learning instruction) and to implement unique brain strategies. And since you don’t have a classroom of 25 children to manage, you can allow your child to pursue areas of his own interest. This freedom skyrockets motivation!

A home schooled child can have a customized, tailor-made education. How freeing to learn at his own pace, not hurried and frustrated or twiddling thumbs while waiting for others to listen or catch up.

Homeschooling also allows for a breadth and depth of curriculum that isn’t available in the public school. For instance, recent studies show that listening to a foreign language before the age of two gives a child the ability to later learn and speak that language like a native. You don’t have to wait until age 14 to begin Spanish! Many home schooled children learn real-life skills – they can cook, grow their own vegetables, build a house –and they develop musical and artistic talents, too. Some even start their own businesses as early as age 8!

Also, when a person is schooled at home, and there is an emphasis on meaning and understanding. Learning isn’t just a bag of trivial facts, it becomes an entire dimension when you’re home schooling.

Home schooled children are likely to become independent, creative thinkers. They feel free to search for truth and question opinions stated as facts.

Most of a child’s day in the public school is spent trying to fit in, and that interferes with the learning process. Children who don’t have to take the time to develop and use survival mechanisms to keep from being made fun of or bullied, develop strong, confident self-concepts. Moms and Dads are thrilled at their children’s creativity, and at home no one is criticized for having a unique idea.

This relaxed atmosphere allows learning to catapult to heights that just aren’t possible when you have to create ways to survive, and plan ways to belong.

One of the most profound benefits of homeschooling is the strong family relationships that are forged. Respect and manners can be not only taught, but modeled again and again. Service to others just becomes a part of life. Strong families work through their problems together. The companionship and gift of time with our children takes precedence over the frantic pace of the treadmill.

Mae Shell, a homeschooled young lady, is quoted in The Homeschooling Book of Answers (by Linda Dobson). Her words say it better than I ever could. When asked what she’d most remember about being homeschooled, Mae replied, “The first thing that comes to mind is the importance of my family life. And I mean this in every sense you can imagine, not simply loving, but being friends with my family, enjoying their company, supporting them and knowing they support me no matter what happens…

More than being just parents, they are my friends, mentors, teachers, and counselors. I also cherish the friendship of my three younger sisters and older half-brother and sister. I know I will always have these rich, wonderful relationships with my siblings.” Mae goes on to speak of what her family means to her. “I value being a part of this intricate living quilt above everything else.” (pg.222)

Can you put a price tag on this type of family strength and love? It’s worth everything!
Well, that’s a mouthful and a half. I have descended my soap box and promise to have shorter posts on this blog as well!

Take care,
Lisa, http://www.homeschoolevangelist.com/