Home Schooling for children: The basic idea underneath the concept of Homeschooling is a revolution in the world of conventional public and private schooling. When you coin the word Homeschooling before a layman, he at least is able to comprehend what it basically is! It is simply a home turning into a school.

Homeschooling is a movement that gained consensus in the 1970s. This inaugurated a change in the lifestyle of parents who chose to homeschool their younger ones. Parents who opt for this option have to play a dual role in the lives of their children, they need to groom them not only as guardians but as tutors and mentors as well. They need to schedule a child’s academic development as well as his personality development as a part of the family and society.

Why Choose Homeschooling?

The shift from the more dominant private and public schooling to homeschooling is a result of various forces. Some parents felt that their children were being bullied in the schools and had to face constant competition to be the best among a set of maybe dozens of other children. They realized that their child was under peer pressure to prove himself and as a consequence lacked in the areas where he could excel.

Some children need more customized and flexible learning curriculums as compared to children that fall in the same age group. Also in a classroom a teacher no matter how hard he tries and how efficient he is, can never give a personal touch to each one of them or all the time. 

The pace of learning of children in the classroom is so varying that it is practically impossible for a teacher to adjust his lesson plans to suit each one of them. All a classroom teacher can do is manage his curriculum to do justice to an average students’ speed. 

One another reason that makes homeschooling a preferable choice is that parents can impart social and moral values to their child and can keep a better check on his grooming while integrating the scholastic traits with social traits. In schools children often get carried away with the habits and behavior of their friends which can at times be unfortunate. 

Homeschooling- A challenge for Parents

A parent in homeschool has to be a multitasker. Time management is the foremost important skill that as a parent of a homeschooler you have to excel. You need to plan your timetable in such a way that you get ample time to devote to your child’s learning while managing various other roles that you have to play as a parent.

A child in a homeschool spends all his time or most of his time with the parent and this makes it essential for the environment at his home to complement his learning. 

Unlike the conventional schooling system, where the curriculum is predesigned and a child gets to interact at a larger scale with dozens of people, in a homeschool, the parent has to play the role of a facilitator. Although with changing times and growing fondness for Homeschool among new parents, a variety of options are available that ease out the stress of planning a curriculum. 

The increased financial burden is yet another challenge. Exercise budgetary controls and allocate a reasonable amount of your income to various expenditure heads in a way that you never run out of pocket to replenish the learning resources your child needs.

Is Homeschooling a boon or bane?

There is a myth that homeschoolers lack social communication skills. However, this is not true. Although they do not have access to sports programs organized in the outside schools, they interact with a wider range of adults who are especially professionals and are less prone to sedentary lifestyles than their counterparts. 

Homeschooling focuses more on one-to-one, personalized hands-on learning which includes field trips, researches, experts walking in, and this entire process is not spoon-fed. The learning in a homeschool is not just facilitated by a parent all the time, it is a fusion of tutors, experts, field trips, observations, experiments, and the list goes on. 

The way of socialization may be different but it does not result in a child getting unsocial or in any way reducing his affinity wards for society. In fact Fact a child gets to explore more on his own and develops his skills based on his interests and likings. A homeschooler has a sense of self-esteem and is more likely to be self-motivated, as many researchers have proven!

Sometimes learning in four walls is really monotonous and children may have diversified ways to learn a concept or theme. For instance, there can be one child who likes reading books and blogs to get an understanding of a topic say water cycle whereas the other one wants to go around, perform experiments, write his observations, quote several examples and then build his understanding of the very same topic. There can be another child who just wants to draw or maybe create a model and be assessed on the same.

Children not only vary in terms of learning but also when it comes to assessment. This entire concept needs a lot of flexibility which is best offered in a homeschool.

A child gets to learn at his own pace so that he can spend more time focusing on the concepts that are tricky for him while on the other hand, he may quickly gulp concepts that according to him do not require much of his energy. His learning is entirely his, he does not have to make adjustments and this creates a sense of self-esteem for his achievements. 

Homeschooling is never easy!

AlthoughAlthough homeschooling is a challenge for the parents who have to literally excel at the art of time management and manage all the resources, especially financial resources so that so efficiently that their child’s learning is nowhere hampered. This is even more challenging for a single parent! A parent has to keep a lot of patience and love for the younger ones because they may not be experts or ones with educational degrees all the time.

They will have to maintain a balanced relationship with their child and indulge in developing his scholastic and non-scholastic skills with all their warmth and energy. They will have to constantly bring inadequate resources and grow with the understanding of the child. 

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The efficiency and adaptability of a parent are the centers of the entire concept of homeschooling. It can be a little challenging to manage but in the long run, it is very rewarding. With the right resources, time management, identification of interests of the learner, and flexibility in the curriculum, Homeschooling can prove to be a big boom in the dynamic world.   

Keys to a Successful Homeschool! 

It is no secret that a successful Homeschool is the result of a Parents’ long harbored patience and efforts. However, to sum up, a few points should be kept in mind to run a successful homeschool.

• Organised approach and efforts
• Spend time with your child
• Management of resources
• Right choice of curriculum
• Time allocation

Amidst all the challenges and hard work, you put as a facilitator to make your homeschooling a success do not forget that you are a parent first. Have fun with your child, invest time to find what he really likes, go out with him, and play.

The entire essence of schooling, be it a homeschool or a private/public school is to make your child competent and self-reliant. But as a parent, it is your foremost duty to ensure that your child grows organically and does not suppress his emotional requirements. Indulge in fun activities with him that bring him closer to you. 

And, do not compare your homeschooling life with anybody else’s!

For a simple reason, your child is different and unique.

Love the process with patience and the rewards are all yours.