The first step to homeschooling is making your decision to home educate your child. It is important to become informed and knowledgeable about some of the main concerns you may have. Explore these areas of our website to learn more about the initial decision to homeschool.
|
| |
| Making Your Decision |
| |
The reasons people decide to educate their children at home are varied and can be unique to each family. Some look towards a better educational experience, others are concerned with moral and social issues, some are concerned with safety, and still others have special needs that they wish to address. Explore these reasons and others that have led families to homeschooling.
|
|
| Advantages of Homeschooling |
| |
Ask anyone who loves homeschooling what the advantages are, and you'll probably hear a long list of the benefits of educating children in the home. Homeschooling is a journey and an adventure, with benefits and rewards for the entire family. Come find out what these advantages are and decide if homeschooling is right for you.
|
|
| Teaching Your Own Children |
| |
Are you qualified to teach your own children? The answer is yes! It is challenging, but rewarding, to educate your children in your home. Find out what these challenges are and how to address them.
|
|
| Socialization |
| |
"But what about socialization?" So the typical question goes to anyone who homeschools. Find out what socialization means to homeschooling families and strategies to engage your children and your entire family in social activities and connections.
|
|
| Research & Statistics |
| |
Learn about current research and statistics involving homeschooling families, the homeschool movement, and the educational system.
|
|
| Public School Issues |
| |
Many parents are basing part of their decision to homeschool on issues with public schooling, from bullying to poor academic performance to problems with governmental control.
|
|
| Community Outreach |
| |
Want to help homeschooling integrate into the community at large? Are you a homeschool group leader who talks with the media or provides information to new and curious homeschoolers? Here are tips to help you present homeschooling to the public and the media.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The 3 Biggest Social Benefits of Homeschooling |
|
Alexandra Martinez |
|
Without fail, telling someone you are homeschooling your children will promptly be followed by the question, "Aren't you worried about socialization?" Here are three social benefits to homeschooling. |
|
|
|
|
Research Shows Benefits of Homeschooling |
|
Dr. Raymond S. Moore |
|
Home education at its best, is seldom well understood by writers and even by many within the homeschool movement. As the one whose research is generally credited for the founding of this fast-growing educational phenomenon, Dr. Moore clarifies a few crucial points about homeschooling.Although it plays a key role among most homeschool families, religion is no longer the overriding reason for it, but rather quality education and family togetherness. |
|
|
|
|
Homeschooling Statistics: Socialization and Sociability |
|
Sara Mcgrath |
|
According to Patrick Basham, author of the Fraser Institute's 2007 examination of homeschooling's growth from extreme to mainstream, "...the academic and socialization outcomes for the average home schooled child are superior to those experienced by the average public school student." When the socialization of homeschoolers is questioned, it's important to clearly define what the critic is asking. For example, how is socialization, an institutional training process, different from extracurricular social interactions, socializing, and sociability? |
|
|
|
|
Socialization: Tackling Homeschooling’s “S” Word |
|
Bridget Bentz Sizer |
|
The mainstream perception of homeschool students is that they are an antisocial bunch, toiling away lonely hours at a kitchen table with only their parents for friends. But homeschoolers themselves will tell you that socialization—the “S-word,” as some call it—is really a nonissue.
|
|
|
|
|
The Case for Authentic Assessment |
|
Grant Wiggins |
|
Assessment is authentic when we directly examine student performance on worthy intellectual tasks. Traditional assessment, by contract, relies on indirect or proxy 'items'--efficient, simplistic substitutes from which we think valid inferences can be made about the student's performance at those valued challenges.
|
|
|
|
|