Home schooling

Since the latter part of the 21st century a big number of parents are opting not to send their children to public or private schools, and instead have them go through homeschooling. As opposed to attending classes and taking exams inside an academic facility, the students read and study their lessons at home, and answer tests in a familiar environment.

This type of schooling became a movement when parents and other educators saw the growing detriments of traditional schools systems. They saw that peer pressure, the competition, the propensity for authority abuse, and external factors which affect grading and scores were preventing the schools from giving children the education and the learning experience that they really need for their well being.

Sometimes, children are homeschooled because their physical conditions prevent them from attending normal school, so they still follow a curriculum which is under supervision of the local district school. They saw that when children were studying in a more familiar environment, without experiencing bullying or distraction from classmates or supposedly incompetent teachers, their children were performing better at examinations and becoming more ready for college.

Homeschooling today has so many classifications. The most common style follows a system wherein the children still have to learn under a curriculum which is approved by the state's education department. A more radical alternative is when the children follow a system which does not have grade levels, or even commonly defined subjects such as Math or Science. The parents, or visiting professors and instructors, still facilitate the students' progress and create grades through examinations and papers.

Some people dispute that homeschools take away the socializing experience that is necessary for kids in the usual schooling period. Without having experienced how to mingle among their peer groups, they feared that children who underwent education at home might have a hard time adjusting to meeting so many new people during college.

However, this problem can easily be stemmed by letting the child engage in social activities in their community. Educating a child through a homeschool does not mean that the child will never go out of the house. The fact is that he or she can have more time to engage in worthwhile social and extracurricular activities because there is no grading based on attendance.

This type of schooling could mean fewer expenses for the parents in paying for their children's education. Their allowance would not have to cover daily travel and lunch expenses. There would be no sky-high tuition fees as is the case in private schools. Most materials required for homeschooling can be downloaded and answered online as opposed to buying heavy, bulky textbooks.

Getting into college would not be a problem for children who have underwent homeschooling. Most universities only require a submission of their portfolio and the passing of a standardized entrance test for acceptance. The US military academies and Ivy League schools such as Stanford, Brown, Cornell, Princeton, and Harvard are all accepting students from homeschool backgrounds.

Through the info published above, we show you that it is all a question of selecting the appropriate curriculum for your child.