Do It Yourself Education through Homeschooling!

If you’re looking to get your child into a do-it-yourself education, then here’s the most important question you need to ask yourself: WHO exactly is the ‘you’ in ‘yourself’? Most parents cannot afford to sit at home to teach their kids. They have to go out and earn to support their families. Thus, having the time to teach the kids at home is a luxury most cannot afford, especially single parents. Now what?

Luckily, parents today have a lot of alternatives when it comes to providing quality education via homeschooling to their kids. According to a statistical study done on this, more than one million kids are home schooled, due to different parents identifying different ways to make this work!

Having a two parent family makes homeschooling an easier choice, where one parent goes to work outside, while the other becomes a work-at-home career individual and takes on the main responsibility for the homeschooling. Most parents who opt for homeschooling do so because they do not agree with the principles being taught in public schools, intentionally or otherwise. Other parents do not believe that public schools are safe for their kids, with all the bullying and more sinister threats that one sees in the papers all the time.

However, the conventional arrangement of dad earning and mum staying at home is almost over and done with, especially in the west. The sixties came, and they conquered! Today, we have same sex couples, role reversals, extended families and so on- The options have increased, and the mix is quite eclectic now. Thus, these changes have ended up providing more options for homeschooling, since the person who is best suited for the job gets it.

Quite a lot of families today prefer to invite one of their older relatives or friends to stay with them. This is an understanding that goes back a long way. History repeating itself! It could be anyone: grandparent, older aunts or uncles, friends who need somewhere to live. These people make perfect homeschool education providers, since they have a lot of precious experience of life and are able to judge wisely what the student needs.

In today’s world, a homeschooled child can even get a secondary education, with the support of education laws. A person who has been homeschooled himself is the best person to homeschool another. However, even a person who has been to public school is ideal for this post, since he or she will know what to do and what not to do. But then again, anyone who has studied in a public school may not know any better, and might go back to the methods used on them.

Another option is to look for a quality neighbor who is already providing childcare facilities. They can be persuaded to do more than the essential babysitting, however. Of these neighbors, a few integrate homeschooling too.

Alexander the Great was tutored by Aristotle. You can have your child tutored too! This is newer than the concept of homeschooling. If you’re busy, having a tutor is a viable option to fall back on, and isn’t very expensive these days.

Tutors have been used in many countries and many eras, as the basic provider of primary education. The public school system is the new element in the scenario, reproduced from the Prussian system of the nineteenth century, and is considered to be a failure of great proportions!

A parent can get a tutor from any background, teaching any subject that they wish their child to learn. Some tutors specialize in music, others in languages, and yet others in sciences and so on. Some are ex-public school teachers who have rebelled against the system!

Most parents will initially doubt that they can manage to pay for a tutor to homeschool their kids. After doing the research, they may decide to use their time in running a business at home, which keeps them involved with their kids, and get a tutor for the homeschooling needs.

If your children are self-motivated and exuberant about learning, then homeschooling could be less of a task than you thought. In this case, you can give your kids the materials and resources, so that they do it themselves. A bit of guidance wouldn’t go astray, however! Such kids will be at the top of any classes they attend later, since they’re learning through self-motivation!

It’s a wise idea to do some research and learn all about the different options available for homeschooling before you decide to give up!