Reviews a carefully done study that uses a matched-pair design. This research shows that students in structured homeschooling academically outperform conventional-school students, and there is no evidence that the difference is simply due to the family’s income or the mother’s educational attainment.
Margaret is a homeschool veteran who explains why traditional schooling was never an option for her children. Margaret’s narrative documents the complexity of being a single Black mother and choosing to live in a low-income housing community, and not working full-time in order to fulfill her rights as a mother to do what she determined would be best for her children. Her account also demonstrates the role of faith, spirituality, and the complexity of building a curriculum to meet her children’s needs.
More and more American parents are choosing to educate their children at home. What accounts for this trend? Reasons include faith preferences, the individual approach to education, and a desire for a stronger family unit.
When you have a special needs child, no public school will ever be able to fully cater to their needs. Private schools do exist for many types of special needs, but they can be expensive and often still not fully adapted to your child’s specific situation. Therefore, you might find yourself wondering how to get your child the education that they deserve in a format that works for them. Homeschooling a special needs child is a very advantageous choice for many parents who can afford the time and resources to do so. A homeschool program will allow children with special needs to have their specific needs addressed and also avoid many obstacles that they would face in a traditional classroom. When it comes to children with learning disabilities or other severe impairments, sometimes a parent who understands their special needs is the only one who can teach the child.
Many parents choose to teach their children at home, instead of enrolling them and making them study within the formal settings of public or private schools. With homeschooling, the parents take full responsibility of their children’s education. It is intense parenting, as parents spend more time with their children, doing the hard work and having the patience to educate their kids. Mitchell Stevens, a Stanford professor who wrote Kingdom of Children, a history of homeschooling, reveals that homeschooling, which was used to be popular in rural areas, is now being practiced widely in America’s cities as well, with children of secular, highly educated professionals as students. Advances in digital learning and availability of resources over the internet also make homeschooling easier and more effective than ever.
Most people who have never met a homeschooling family imagine that the kids are socially isolated. But some new research by Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute suggests otherwise. Indeed, Ray's research helps to explain why the number of homeschoolers in America continues to grow. Ray reports the typical homeschooled child is involved in 5.2 social activities outside the home each week. These activities include afternoon and weekend programs with conventionally schooled kids, such as ballet classes, Little League teams, Scout troops, church groups and neighborhood play. They include midday field trips and cooperative learning programs organized by groups of homeschooling families. For example, some Washington, D.C., families run a homeschool drama troupe that performs at a local dinner theater. So, what most distinguishes a homeschooler's social life from that of a conventionally schooled child? Ray says homeschooled children tend to interact more with people of different ages.
A slightly 'tongue in cheek' view of why someone might choose to homeschool.
A list of the advantages and benefits of homeschooling for children, parents, and families.
This academic paper exposes the expansion of information gathering and dissemination via the United States public school system and facilitates parental choices on how best to educate their children if privacy issues are a concern. Privacy is fundamentally the omission of outside interference; therefore, in attempting to demonstrate the privacy advantages of homeschooling, this work, for the most part, proves a negative by comparatively cataloging how much privacy is denied, or potentially denied, when students attend public schools. It then compares and contrasts students’ legal requirements regarding the types of information students must provide to government educational institutions and the information public schools and homeschools must or may gather or release. Finally, it examines homeschooling’s legal foundations and regulatory issues. and postulates challenges facing the future of homeschooling’s privacy advantages.
This Canadian study has confirmed what has been known for over two decades, much to the chagrin of public school officials: Homeschoolers perform better than public school students in the crucial core academic disciplines of reading and math. The study, published in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, compared the standardized test scores of 37 homeschooled students between the ages of five and 10 to those of 37 public school counterparts, finding that while public school students typically tested at or slightly above their grade level, homeschooled kids performed about a half grade higher in math and 2.2 grades higher in reading.
Homeschooling has been on the rise in the United States over the last ten years. According to the U.S. government and education researchers, the number of students being homeschooled has doubled in the last decade. So, why do parents choose to homeschool their children? Through and anecdotal evidence, Calvert Education has put together the top five reasons why parents decide to homeschool their kids: avoiding a negative school environment, getting a higher quality education, improving social interactions, supporting a learning disabled child, and educating during family times of change.
Homeschooling is becoming more popular every day, with a growth rate of 7 to 15 percent per year. There are about two million children currently learning at home. Homeschooled kids do well on standardized tests, are welcome at colleges and universities, and as adults, have a reputation for being self-directed learners and reliable employees. To help other parents who are considering homeschooling, here is a new list of pros and cons.
This work looks at contemporary Black homeschooling as a form of resistance among single Black mothers, exploring each mother's experience and perspective in deciding to homeschool and developing their practice. It faces the many issues that plague the education of Black children in America, including discipline disproportionality, frequent special education referrals, low expectations in the classroom, and the marginalization of Black parents. Most importantly, this work challenges stereotypical characterizations of who homeschools and why.
Families have various reasons for homeschooling. By examining your own reasons, your relationship with God, and your goals for your children, you'll will find your direction. Reasons for homeschooling include faith reasons, educational reasons, and relational reasons.
Homeschoolers are often asked about why they homeschool. This veteran homeschoolers has come up with her top ten reasons for homeschooling: education, freedom, family and love, morals and values, independence, socialization, health, passion, creativity and imagination, and play.