Home School Options For Your Child

Are you thinking about home schooling your child? If so, keep reading to discover some of the best home school options being used today.

Many parents turn to homeschooling because they want to give their children a better education than public schools offer, help their child learn at their own pace or help them overcome issues due to their special needs or learning struggles.

Following are some of the top reasons that parents have mentioned for homeschooling their children. See if any of them resonate with you.

- Give your children a better education than available in public schools
- Instill your own religious beliefs and values in your children

Have more opportunities to bond with your children
Let your children learn at their own pace
Give a more individualized learning experience to your children
Teach your children how to learn as opposed to rote learning
Remove your children from bullying or a negative environment in a public school
Help your children who may have special needs or learning struggles
Help your child become a confident learner
Help your child with character development
Keep your child safer from drugs, bad influences and violence

If you agree with just a couple of these reasons, then that may be your confirmation that you should get serious about looking for home school options as well.

Whatever the reason(s) you may be thinking about for homeschooling, now is a great time to help your children learn at home. There is an abundance of materials and online learning resources to assist you with that.

In this article I’m going to go over five of the biggest considerations that parents need to think through before making a decision about home school options for their children.

I’ll give you some of the pros and cons, and then I’ll offer some resources to help you homeschool your children if you decide to go forward.

Your homeschooling adventure begins here and now.

This post contains some affiliate links. You can see my disclosure about affiliate links here.

Table Of Contents hide

1 The Pros And Cons Of Homeschooling

2 Types Of Home School Options

3 The Cost Of Home School Options

4 Socialization Issues For Homeschooled Children

5 Home School Option Resources

6 Conclusion – Home School Options

The Pros And Cons Of Homeschooling

Homeschooling isn’t for everyone, but there is a growing number of parents who are getting on board with it. Here are some things to think about when making your decision.

Pros

Safe environment for the child
Good way to build confidence in a child’s learning ability
Unique learning experiences for the child
Children can learn at their own pace
Parents have more time and opportunities to bond with their children
Parents get to instill their values in their child
More freedom in what and how to learn
Children get a better education
More flexibility within a daily schedule for parents and children
Parents can learn alongside their children

Cons

Homeschooling can be expensive
Some children sense a stigma with being homeschooled as if it’s not normal
Sometimes it can make parents and/or children feel a bit isolated
Parents can feel they don’t have enough time to spend with adult friends
Parents may sense they get judged by those who don’t homeschool their children
It can sometimes be draining for a parent to be both teacher and parent
Parents may feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of educating their children
Some homeschooling parents don’t feel like they get the support they need
It can be difficult for parents to find time for themselves

Types Of Home School Options

Homeschooling is not a one-size-fits-all proposition, and it offers a lot of flexibility.

Parents will make their decisions based on a variety of criteria including the results they are trying to achieve, their personal preferences and their particular circumstances.

Following are some of the more popular approaches for you to consider. I’m going to give you a brief description of each to show you how much flexibility you do have.

Charlotte Mason Homeschooling
Emphasis on using quality narrative literature for teaching children. This approach includes spending time exploring nature and the outdoors, appreciation for art and music and the use of journaling, narration and dictation.

Classical Homeschooling
This approach has the goal of teaching children how to think for themselves using the three-part process to train the mind, called trivium. The focus is on the grammar stage, the logic stage and the rhetoric stage.

Eclectic Homeschooling
This is an individualized education method that mixes and matches many different homeschooling resources. It’s a very personalized approach that gives the child opportunities based on their interests, learning style and their strengths.

Unit Studies
The objective here is to let students get deep into a given topic so they can master it. Unit studies often use multisensory learning in order to help students get a thorough understanding of a topic or theme.

Montessori Homeschooling
This approach looks at each child as a unique person and encourages creativity and curiosity to help them seek knowledge for themselves. A key goal is to help a child self-regulate their conduct as appropriate for each individual situation they encounter.

Traditional Homeschooling
This approach uses similar methods that are used in public schools; just using them in the home environment. One reason the traditional homeschooling approach is popular is because it’s the one most parents are familiar with.

Unschooling
Instead of following a defined curriculum, unschooling is driven more by following the individual students’ own interests. So, the choices for the learning path taken here is based on what each child wants to learn, their learning style and their personality.

Waldorf Homeschooling
For this approach you will focus on three distinct stages that each span about seven years. Early childhood focuses on creative play and hands-on learning. Elementary education starts to incorporate academics. Secondary education brings in critical thinking, empathy and community service.

If none of the above appeal to you or your child there are other approaches you can find through an online search.

The Cost Of Home School Options

It’s difficult to pinpoint the average costs per year because there are so many variables where homeschooling is concerned.

Anecdotal evidence shows a wide range of costs going from $300-$500 on the low side up to $3,000, or more, per year.

Following is a list of some of the things you may need to factor in to come up with a cost for your specific situation.

The curriculum you choose
Computer equipment you may need
Textbooks, learning materials and supplies
Field trips (where you take your children and how often you take field trips)
Costs for any extracurricular activities
Fees for homeschooling groups/associations
State assessment fees (if required)
Any tutoring expenses, if needed
Lost income if a parent needs to quit a job or cut back on hours

Socialization Issues For Homeschooled Children

One of the reasons cited as a negative for homeschooling children in the past was that they would miss out on socialization they would get in public and private schools.

You won’t hear that argument much these days because it’s a myth that’s been debunked. Also, with the issues of bullying and negative influences in public schools reported widely these days, it would seem that homeschooling would be a safer choice for your child.

However, if you’re wondering how you could keep your child engaged socially, following are some ideas for you.

Get your child involved with your local church
Join local clubs or take classes centered around hobbies
Sign up for local sports teams like baseball, soccer, basketball or another sport
Get involved with activities offered by your local library, museum or zoo
Enroll your child in summer camps based on activities or themes they enjoy
Get involved in local community events
Get connected to other homeschooling parents (homeschooling co-ops) and coordinate activities with them
Get creative… find something that your child likes and look for ways to help them connect with other children with similar interests

Home School Option Resources

Let’s start with some free resources to help you on your way and then we’ll take a look at some paid resources. Chances are you’ll use a mix of the two.

Reading Programs

Reading Head Start

This is a complete curriculum of guided reading lessons that includes hundreds of lessons, activities, workbooks, games and movies.

Reading Head Start is a time-tested, and proven, reading program to help you teach your child how to read or improve their skills.

Click here to watch a video and learn more about Reading Head Start.

Children Learning Reading

Another top program for adults who want to teach children how to read. Children Learning Reading was developed by a long-time reading teacher who now shows parents a proven formula to help children read well.

Click here to watch a video and learn more about Children Learning Reading.

Conclusion – Home School Options

So, now you should have a good idea of the pros and cons of homeschooling, the different types of homeschooling approaches and a ballpark for how much it will cost you.

You’ve also seen that socialization is not an issue to stop you from homeschooling and you have plenty of home school option resources to get you started.

Now it’s up to you. The next move is yours.

Do you homeschool your children or send them to public or private schools.

Let me know what you think, and please feel free to offer your thoughts, opinions and any insights you may have in the comments below.

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