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  Homeschooling Your Children And The Problems Of DIY EducationA number of people describe homeschooling very much as 'do it yourself education' and the majority of parents assume that they are the 'you' in 'yourself'. As a result, many parents who have busy lives making a living or undertaking other important activities, and particularly loan parents, tend to dismiss any ideas of teaching their children at home out of hand. But are they correct to take this course of action?Homeschooling has been with us for a long time now and involves more than 1,000,000 children in the US alone and experience demonstrates that are a wide range of options available to parents today. Indeed, it is not surprising to find that parents in just about any situation you can imagine have found a solution to homeschooling their children. We are all of course familiar with the traditional two parent family with dad out at work and mum looking after the home and this situation makes homeschooling a fairly simple option. Since the 1960s however our society has changed considerably and nowadays there are a whole spectrum of family situations including, extended families, role reversal, same-sex couples, single parents and much more. Every situation carries with it both problems and advantages for homeschooling and it is a matter of examining both and then looking for ways to overcome the difficulties and enhance the advantages. For example, many parents turn to their wider family or to friends for help and ask family or friends into their home to help. This is nothing new of course and, for a very long time, it was not uncommon for families to offer a friend or an older family member such as an uncle accommodation in exchange for helping with the education and care of a child. Assistance can also often come from neighbors. A number of 'stay-at-home' moms already provide day care facilities for children and, as homeschooling continues to spread, babysitting services are increasingly being extended to include homeschooling. In more and more cases families are also combining their resources to provide homeschooling on a 'group' basis. Yet another increasingly popular option is that of employing a tutor. Tutors today 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 of course general tutors. In fact, it is not unusual to find ex-public or private school teachers who are dissatisfied with the 'system' turning to tutoring because of their basic love of teaching. Most parents believe that tutoring is quite simply beyond their financial reach but, after some careful research, they are frequently surprised to find that the cost of tutoring is not beyond their means. One other very important consideration is the children themselves. It is often surprising just how well motivated children are by the independent nature of homeschooling and a lot of parents discover that educating a child at home can take considerably less time than you might imagine. If you find yourself tempted by the advantages of homeschooling over the poor quality of the public school system then do not fall into the common pitfall of dismissing the idea out-of-hand. Take time to examine the choices open to you and you could well be surprised to learn that it is easier than you think. Free Article Source: http://www.za77.org About The Author: Parenting4Dummies.com provides a comprehensive and growing resource of information, advice and articles on many aspects of parenting including parenting teenagers and also provides comprehensive advice for choosing a homeschooling program |