Grading In Homeschooling
- 10.19.2008
- Article Number: 4
| Grading in homeschooling is done by the teacher-in-charge. In most
of the cases, this means mom! In this situation, grading can get a
bit sticky because it may be difficult to grade your own
children. There is no benchmark against which you can evaluate your
child's performance. In many cases, you may have no awareness of
how well other children are doing. So, obviously the traditional
method of grading may not be the best method to follow.
When grading children undergoing homeschooling, it is more
important to assess whether the child has understood of the subject
that is being taught. Inherent in this is the fact that if the
child has not understood something, you can go over it again.
This will work in your child's favor in 2 ways. Firstly, your children
know that if he or she fails to catch on, the topic will be
repeated till he or she has mastered it. Secondly, your children also knows that
once the topic has been mastered, he or she will get full credit
for his hard work. Getting full reward for the hard work put in is
a great motivational factor, especially for childern.
When assessing your child's abilities, do not allow emotions to
overcrowd your rationale. Do not yield to the cries and tears of
your child if he or she resists certain topics or subjects. If
mastering these skills is necessary, then you as the teacher (and
not as the parent alone) have to go over the topic over and over
till it sinks in. When dealing with tougher concepts, the child
may get restless and may even show frustration or belligerence.
When the child is still young and unable to understand the
importance of his lessons, it is your responsibility to see to it
that the child develops the skill set necessary for future growth.
In case you belong to a state that requires yearly tests, this
will help you to judge your child's ability vis-à-vis his peers.
Even if it is not mandatory, you may want to test your children every
year. These tests will reveal the variations in the child's
learning pattern. It may show up unexpected areas of strength and
unknown areas of weakness. This enables you to structure
your curriculum to cover the areas that are weak, and build upon the
areas that are strong.
In case your state requires a homeschool report card, keep a
record of the yearly development and scores of your child. Include
pertinent areas like punctuality, discipline etc in the report.
You may also need to keep a record of the number of working days
and attendance schedules.
While grading your children, make sure that you use as many external
tests as possible. There are several websites that deal with the
various age groups, and allow free downloading of question papers.
This is an excellent and cost-effective method to assess your
children. Homeschooling, if done in the properly, will boost the
child's confidence because he or she will be studying to satisfy his
natural curiosity. The scores therefore will reflect his true
intelligence.
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Financing Homeschooling
- 10.19.2008
- Article Number: 3
| When people discuss teaching their children at home in the
absence of any definite or structured homeschooling curriculum, it is perhaps
natural to think that homeschooling is inexpensive. This is far from true. Even though homeschooling does not stick to any particular
text, this is perhaps more of a bane than a boon, when it comes to
finance.
When you want to make sure that your children receives
state-of-the-art education so that they can compete with regular
school goers, expenses will mount. The actual cost of
educating a child at home can be surprisingly high. Course materials textbooks, course materials, a library,
lighting, computing equipment, specially designed furniture all cost money. In some
cases, the cost may be slightly lesser when it comes to
homeschooling the second child. Add to this any additional tuition
cost for tutors for teaching subjects that cannot be handled
by parents, like higher-level science or math. The cost can
be a bit mind boggling.
If you take another important factor into consideration,
homeschooling costs may effective triple. The need for having one
of the parents at the house and fully dedicated to providing
education deprives the family of a second earning member. The
average homeschooling teacher is usually a lady with a college
degree. This means that she can easily bring home a pay of $35,000
or more. It is also interesting to note that most families that
have more than 2 children do not opt for homeschooling at all.
But, there are those who have been successful in carrying out
homeschooling at low rates. This is dependent on the size of the
family, the support group, the type of materials used and the
availability of the material. When successive children can reuse
the materials, cost goes down. Much of the course material can be
got from vendors of homeschooling materials. A membership in a
public library, theater, concerts, ballets and other cultural
events also help in cutting costs. Sometimes, it is even possible
to barter expertise. For instance, the mother of an 8-year old
gives dancing classes, and her daughter receives drawing classes
for free. Support groups allow you to divide the cost of field
trips, science projects and fairs.
Whatever the cost, advocates of homeschooling say that the
benefits far outweigh these considerations. When you are able to
decide what knowledge your child receives and when he or she
should be taught and to what extent, it gives you a lot of freedom
and a lot of power. Both the children as well as the parents
benefit from this mutually enriching experience.
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Disadvantages of public schooling
- 10.18.2008
- Article Number: 2
| When we consign our children to public schools, we feel satisfied
that they are receiving 'quality education'. But, are we really
getting our money's worth? More importantly, are the children
gaining anything from this kind of a learning procedure?
Socialization is hailed as one of the greatest advantage of
schools. This is the place where the child picks up the rudiments
of social skills that help him survive. But in truth, a regular
school-going child can interact only with his peers. He or she may bully
younger children or fear older ones. He or she may not know how to
behave with an adult. This is because in the school environment
he interacts only with his peers. A homeschooling environment
brings in a more natural social environment.
A regular school going child cannot read literature. He can not
keep silent or think in depth about any one thing. The artificial
'busy'ness imposed upon him by the school disallows quiet
contemplation. Rowdy and destructive behavior, as seen among
peers, is more noticeable in school-goers.
There is little long-standing knowledge among regular school goers
because most things are learned for the exam. There is no
correlation of facts with life. The child may know a lot, but
understand very little. This is where the homeschoolers beat the
regular school goers. Ultimately, homeschoolers emerge more adept with facing the outside world. |
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Homeschooling Benefits
- 10.18.2008
- Article Number: 1
| The Benefit Of Homeschooling:
Why let Steven and Sandy learn at home then send them off to school? First of all, you will not have to wake them up at 7 every
morning and send them off to school with ump-teen numbers of
instructions, and wait with an anxioulys untill they return.
Homeschooling will gives you more control over the influences that
affect your children. The growth and development of your children
is removed from the realm of the unknown. You alone
can decide what your children need to do or learn. Tailoring
the curriculum to suit the needs and interests of your children
is one of the most obvious benefits of homeschooling
. Individual attention is another prominent benefit of
homeschooling. For instance, if Sangy needs more time to learn English, then she can reduce the time for her
Math lessons. You have no fixed hours of learning per subject. This means
that a child has the advantage of assigning more number of
hours to the subject that seems tough without any additional
pressure. The amount of time needed to learn each subject
will depend on the abilities and interests of your children. Schooling of the children becomes an extended family activity.
Parents get involved in every step of the learning procedure.
Field trips and experiments become family activities. Thus,
the children receive more quality time with his or her parents. The
entire family shares games, chores and projects. Family
closeness becomes the focus here. The children are also free of
any negative peer pressure while making choices and decisions.
Competition is limited when it comes to homeschooling. The
children do not need to prove his ability with regards to other
children. His confidence remains intact. Since parents have a
deep understanding of their children, they can plan the learning
program to pique the child's interest. It is also possible to
intersperse difficult tasks with fun activities. A tough hour
with Algebra may be followed by a trip to the nearest museum.
Learning becomes more fun. Parents can also tailor the curriculum to
suit the learning style of the child. Some children learn through
reading, while others need to write, and still others need to see
objects in action.
Homeschooling allows parents to take control over the moral and
religious learning of the child. Parents have the flexibility to
incorporate their beliefs and ideologies into the child's curriculum.
There is no confusion in the child's mind either because there is
no variation between what is being taught and what is being practiced.
Lastly, more and more parents are getting disillusioned with the
public school system. They believe that their children are being
pushed too hard or too little. Other worrying issues pertaining to
discipline and ethics also make the school system less welcome. Many
repudiate the educational philosophy of grouping children solely on
the basis of their age. Some parents themselves have unhappy memories
of their own public school experience that motivates them to opt for
homeschooling when it comes to their own children.
Homeschooling may be the best way to teach your children if you have the time,
the ability and the interest to follow through with his education. After
all, nobody can understand or appreciate your children more than yourself. |
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