Recent years witnessed the spread of homeschooling all over the world precisely in Europe and the USA. For instance, the percentage of homeschoolers is 6-7% in the USA.
This method is one of the most prominent types of modern education that interest many parents for several reasons related to drawbacks of traditional education, safety, and different values of parents.
One of the factors behind the growing number of homeschooled students is the pandemic of Covid 19 that prompted parents to homeschool their kids for their safety.
For example, at the beginning of 2021, 90% of parents had to homeschool their children.
Here we will learn the following:
Online School is different from homeschooling, as online schooling requires using E-learning platforms and learning with professional tutors.
However, both of them are types of modern education. But how is homeschooling different from traditional school? Let’s figure out its meaning in this article.
What Is Homeschooling?
Homeschooling or home education is a type of distance learning that emerged outside the traditional school’s limits, in which parents do the mission of teachers in educating their children at home. It gained popularity after Covid 19. In this case, parents don’t send their kids to school, whether it’s a public or private school. This type of distance education is accredited in many countries as the United States.
Parents start their role of educating their children after removing them from their public or private school. They should be qualified enough to teach their kids at home. Many of them join educational groups online to boost their knowledge of education.
Homeschooling fits all the educational stages, as students can start learning from the kindergarten stage till the high school stage.
History Of Homeschool
John Holt was the founder of the homeschool movement in the 1970s. He was an educational theorist, as well as he played a vital role in school reform. He encouraged parents to apply the method of homeschooling and remove their children from formal schools.
Moreover, John Holt worked on spreading his concept by launching a newsletter called “Growing Without Schooling” in 1977. He also criticized formal schools that follow a system that only focuses on the rote method.
In 1982, several states started to legalize homeschooling by passing laws. Until 1993, the number of states that passed laws was more than 30.
In 2012, there was noteworthy growth in homeschoolers numbers, they were 1.77 million students in the USA, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) report.
What Are The Requirements For Homeschooling?
In some countries, there are requirements that parents should full fill such as
- Evaluation test.
- Homeschool’s name.
- Letter of homeschooling decision sent to the school superintendent.
- Regular attendance to comply with attendance law.
How Does Homeschooling Work?
Many parents who are interested in homeschooling need to know how this system works. Here are the basic steps of the homeschooling process:
- The first step you should take as a parent to homeschool your children is to inform the Department of Education of this decision.
- After the first step, you need to visit the Department of Education’s website to comply with the laws.
- The next step is to select the home school curriculum that fits your children’s cognitive abilities. There are several curriculum options to choose the best of them.
How Much Does Homeschooling Cost?
The annual cost of homeschooling per student ranges from $700 to $1,800.
The homeschooling’s cost covers the expenses of school supplies, curriculum, extra materials, testing, and extracurricular activities.
Methods Of Homeschooling
Parents who homeschooled their children use several methods as:
- Classical Education: It contains three phases. They are Grammer-school-aged for retaining the info, Middle-school-aged for analytical thinking, and High-School-aged for discussing facts.
- Structured Homeschooling: Parents in this method use a curriculum similar to materials in public schools. It includes a guide for both teacher and student.
- Montessori Method: The child in this method takes the role of teacher besides his role as a student. Parents provide them with an interactive environment.
Sahlah has many programs:
- Accredited Online Elementary School Programs
- Online Middle School Programs
- Accredited Online High School Programs
2. Online Homeschooling:
- Learn Arabic Online For kids (K 12)
- Islamic Studies Courses (K 12)
Learn More About Sahlah from here.
What Do You Need To Homeschool Your Child?
Before you start homeschooling, you should make sure that you have all the requirements that qualify you to educate your children as:
- Homeschool curriculum that is suitable for your children. You can get help from other homeschooling parents to identify the best type of curriculum.
- Materials that support a child’s education, such as math manipulatives and flashcards.
- School supplies include fundamental tools such as notebooks, folders, markers, crayons, erasers, and pencils.
- Computer or tablet provided with a strong internet connection.
- Screen breaks over homeschool time to avoid sitting in front of a PC or any digital device’s screen for a long time.
- A homeschooling schedule to manage the time of learning at home is better for parents to set a flexible time daily.
What are the Advantages Of Homeschooling?
Many benefits make parents decide to homeschool their children, so find out why do people choose it:
- Flexible time, as parents have the freedom of setting schedule learning at any time. Unlike traditional education make students are committed to a particular time.
- Customized education gives students enough time to study and comprehend challenging subjects.
- A better solution for students with mental disorders struggling with learning in traditional education, like ADHD.
- Consistent education depends on the Mum, Dad, or personal teacher that teaches the child each year. This benefit helps to improve the student’s academic level.
- Suitable education for families with different cultures, ideologies, and religious beliefs. It guarantees them an education that fits their principles.
- Accredited homeschool programs equal international education that isn’t available in several communities.
- Face-to-face education helps students to be more focused and comprehended than in traditional schools.
- Saved-time education as parents doesn’t pay expenses of transportation unlike traditional schools. Also, students don’t waste time in other school routines like queues.
- Safe environment for students, as homeschooling protects them from many problems that happen in schools as bullying and violence.
- Education with less pressure, as parents don’t find a high load on them while helping their children with homework, tests, projects, and assignments.
- Education for all stages. From K12 homeschool to high school homeschool.
- Golden opportunity for kids to focus on developing their talents and skills. Unlike traditional schools that only focus on academic learning.
- An education with a warm environment for children, as they learn at home with parents. It fits introverted students, as they can ask about anything related to subjects without Shyness.
- Modern education helps students to be qualified for college and work.
- Homeschoolers have the flexibility to choose the learning style that fits them.
The earlier advantages make homeschooling an effective education that could meet the requirements of success and development.
What are the Disadvantages of Homeschooling?
Before you decide to follow homeschooling, you should figure out the drawbacks of this type of education to determine whether it is the best for your child or not. These disadvantages include:
- The lack of social communication makes the children more isolated, as there isn’t a chance for them to communicate with other peers.
- Homeschoolers are less likely to concentrate over time. Also, they have a lack of determination and will to learn.
- Homeschooling adds more expenses to pay, due to additional materials besides the basic materials of subjects, in addition to extracurricular programs. So many parents can’t afford these expenses.
- Lack of equipment at home, it’s not easy for parents to equip it for chemistry and physics experiments.
- The lack of sports activities at home, as at traditional schools, students play sports at the playgrounds. Parents can’t provide these activities at home.
- The slow pace of learning, unlike traditional classrooms, as the personal teacher isn’t professional enough to explain the difficult topics to the children.
- Homeschoolers of children are less likely to improve their skills and get advanced outcomes of it.
Eventually, homeschooling is not an easy decision if you’re looking forward to developing your children’s skills and abilities, as you have to get enough knowledge of its pros and cons, in addition to identifying the purposes and goals of converting to distance learning.
Conclusion
In conclusion, homeschooling has become an increasingly popular choice for parents seeking to provide their children with a personalized and tailored education. The flexibility, individual attention, and customizable curriculum offered by homeschooling can benefit children academically, socially, and emotionally. However, homeschooling requires dedication, commitment, and careful planning to ensure that children receive a well-rounded education.
It is important for parents considering homeschooling to research and understand their state’s homeschooling laws, and to connect with homeschooling communities and resources to create a successful and fulfilling homeschooling experience. Ultimately, homeschooling can be a viable and rewarding educational option for families who prioritize their children’s learning and well-being.
