Getting Started: Welcome to Homeschooling
By Mimi Rothschild
Parents make the decision to homeschool their children for a wide variety of reasons. Many people choose homeschooling because it allows them to have a more active role in choosing the subjects and the manner in which their children will be taught. Some opt to homeschool because they live in remote areas. Religious beliefs may also guide a family's choice to educate their children at home. Whatever the factors that lead to homeschooling, the choice is generally heartfelt and long considered.
No matter how long a family has thought about making the move to homeschool, the first few months may be filled with second thoughts. At first, parents may not be comfortable with disciplining their children while also trying to teach them. The children may also use these early weeks to test the limits that their parents must set in order to maintain the proper homeschool environment. Therefore, it is important during the initial days of homeschool that definite parameters be established concerning the behavior expected from the children who have now also become students.
Subject matter is another area that may present difficulties for families who are new to homeschool. All people have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to teaching. There are also multiple styles of teaching and methods of learning. Both the parents and the children in a homeschool will have to be patient with one another as they discover the ways in which they best relate to each other. One of the many exciting parts of homeschool is the amount of individual attention a parent/teacher can give to the child/student. The one-on-one interaction between parent and child will allow them to develop strategies that may make the homeschool experience more successful than that of public school.
During the period when families are becoming acquainted with homeschool, they may find it helpful to talk with other families who homeschool. Discussing problems with veteran homeschool families will let those who are new to homeschooling know that every family confronts challenges at the beginning of the process. It can also be valuable to speak with others who have just started the homeschool journey. Not only are these conversations useful for allaying the doubts and fears that homeschool parents may have, they will also highlight the many moments of joy a parent will have only after making the leap to homeschool.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, children's rights activist, author, and Founder and C.E.O. of online education company Learning by Grace, Inc. Rothschild and her husband of twenty-eight years reside in suburban Philadelphia with their eight children.
Feeling that “our current system of education has broken its promise,” Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. to provide families with Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children all over the world.
In addition to her twenty years of experience as a homeschool mother, Rothschild has written a number of books dealing with education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education Websites Blog consists of helpful online content and activities for Christian homeschooling families.
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