Homeschooling And The Problems Of Do It Yourself Education

A number of people describe homeschooling as 'do it yourself education' and most parents immediately see themselves as the 'you' in 'yourself'. As a result, many parents with busy lives earning a living or undertaking other important activities, and especially single parents, dismiss any thoughts of schooling their children at home out of hand. But are they correct to do so?

Homeschooling has been with us for an extremely long time now and involves in excess of one million kids in the US alone and experience means that are many options open to parents nowadays. Indeed, it is not surprising to find that parents in just about every situation you can imagine have found a solution to homeschooling their kids.

We are all of course familiar with the two parent family with dad out at work and mum looking after the home and this model makes homeschooling a quite simple option. Since the 1960s society has changed considerably and nowadays there are a wide range of family situations including, role reversal, extended families, single parents, same-sex couples and much more.

Each situation carries with it both advantages and problems for homeschooling and it is a matter of examining both and then looking for ways to overcome the obstacles and enhance the advantages.

For example, a number of parents turn to their wider family or to friends for help and invite family or friends into their home to help. This is not new of course and, for many years, it was common for families to offer a friend or an older family member like an uncle accommodation in exchange for helping with the care and education of the children.

Assistance can also frequently come from neighbors. A number of 'stay-at-home' moms are already providing day care for children and, as homeschooling continues to spread, babysitting services are increasingly being extended to include homeschooling.

In a lot of cases families are also combining their resources to provide homeschooling on a 'group' basis.

Another increasingly popular option is that of employing a tutor. Nowadays tutors come from a wide range of different backgrounds, in all age groups and include both specialists, like those teaching music or languages, as well as general tutors. Indeed, it is not uncommon to find ex-public or private school teachers who are dissatisfied with the 'system' turning to tutoring because of their basic love of teaching.

A good many parents think that private tutoring is quite simply out of their reach financially but, after some careful research, they are frequently surprised to find that the cost of tutoring is not beyond their means.

Yet another very important consideration is the children themselves. It is often surprising just how well motivated kids are by the independent nature of homeschooling and a lot of parents discover that educating a child at home can take much less time than you might think.

Should you find yourself tempted by the advantages of homeschooling over the present poor public school system then do not fall into the common pitfall of dismissing the idea out-of-hand. Instead take the time to examine the choices open to you and you could well be surprised to discover that it is not as difficult as you think.