Home Schooling vs. School At Home

Home schooling has become a viable option for many parents seeking to expand and improve their child's educational experience. The public and private school systems are limited, for practical reasons, as to how far they can go to meet a particular child's educational needs. With home schooling, on the other hand, the entire process is geared towards your child in a one-on-one manner. You can create a particular curriculum suited to your child, and teach in a way works best for him or her. It is for these reasons, not to mention the economic benefits when you consider the costs associated with private schools that many parents choose to homeschool their children.

When you decide to homeschool your children, you're going to have to come up with a plan for how the subject matter is going to be taught, and a system to execute that plan. An important distinction you should make yourself aware of is a philosophical one of "home schooling" vs. "school at home." The latter method is overly simplistic, and doesn't take advantage of the benefits that home schooling can truly offer. While every parent is justifiably concerned about creating a disciplined academic environment, if you simply "teach at home" both you and your child will be missing out.

As a teaching philosophy, it's important to think of the process as "home schooling" -- this means that "home" and "school" become one: it's not simply a case of school being conducted in a home environment. So instead of creating regimented lessons at set times - instead of your children sitting stiffly at a table while you give them lessons - be always ready to use the flexibility of home schooling to your advantage. If your child has a question about a particular subject in biology, take him outside and show him nature at work. If he's interested in a certain aspect of history, take him to the museum.

One of the greatest things about home schooling is that it doesn't have to be a regimented system: a day of learning that ends at 4 PM, Monday to Friday. When home schooling is properly implemented, your child is always learning. During a unit on Shakespeare for example, maybe you'll decide to take him to a performance of the play on the weekend. If he's interested in computers, allow him to use his computer for a research project.

Although in some ways you do need a certain regimen when home schooling, realize that your child's education doesn't have to end when you are finished for the day. Incorporating other educational activities into your daily home life will both expand your child's education and make it more engaging.

Most children learn better in settings that they are comfortable in, and what setting is more comfortable then the home? So if your child wants to hear his math lesson while sitting on the couch, let him. If he wants to watch a movie in the evening, direct him to an educational one.

By blurring, as much as possible, the line between "home" and "schooling" when home schooling your children, your children will benefit from a much more valuable educational experience than could be offered from the public or private school systems.

Think "Home Schooling" Not "School-At-Home"

One of the greatest things about home schooling is that you are not in any way limited like you are in a standard academic environment. There is no need for your children need to sit, back-straight, at a table for a strict hour long lesson. Try and think of what you're doing not as "school at home" but "home schooling." There is an important difference between these two ideas, one of philosophies: home schooling is much more than conducting standard lessons and schoolwork at home - the "home" becomes part of the schooling itself.

So let's say you're teaching science, and Galileo's theory that when objects fall they increase their velocity at a standard rate, regardless of mass. That sort of thing might not resonate too well with a child when taught in a classroom, explained on a blackboard while sitting a desk. If you go outside and drop a tennis ball and a rock off the roof, however, your child will no-doubt be astounded when the objects fall at the same speed, and the lesson will stick. In a similar way if you're teaching biology don't hesitate to take the children outside to examine an ant colony or some plants.

By home schooling you open yourself to a world of teaching opportunities that simply aren't practical in a public or private classroom. You can take advantage of the fact that children often learn better in a more comfortable and flexible setting: if your child wants to listen to his math lesson while sitting on the couch, let him. While you want to be careful, of course, to avoid encouraging a lack of discipline in teaching, you want to use "home schooling" to expand the educational experience. Proper home schooling means that the entire home, and all the time spent there, can be incorporated into the educational process, allowing for a more hands on, and in many ways more effective, education.