Homeschooling is a great educational option for children. Some of the benefits are a one-on-one, tailored education with interest driven and hands-on learning opportunities, real-life, balanced socialization, and quality family time. In order to get started on the right foot, consider the following important homeschool basics.
Is it legal? Homeschooling is legal in every state. Each state has its own requirements, so find out what is required in your state. Talk to other homeschoolers in your area (see listings of state-by-state parent groups on p. 112); check your local library or homeschool resources such as www.hslda.org or www.homefires.com for details.
By Bailey Vincent Clark Freelance Writer, Health Columnist, and Student for Life
“You were homeschooled?” On any given day, this is the response heard most often from flabbergasted friends and strangers, upon hearing of my seemingly surprising education. Perhaps the fact that I’m not donned in bonnet and pigtails reenacting a scene from Little House on the Prairie (I always preferred Little Women), or speaking in alien tongues from inside my vacuum sealed bubble (alien interests aside), might throw the average Joe for a loop. Nevertheless, I am more often than not met with shock and astonishment when revealing my unusual upbringing. Yes, the bubbly, loud, personable (and I’d like to think fashionable) blonde before them was, in fact…taught from home.
The Children Are Watching, [Modeling Parent Behavior]
by Richard J. Prystowsky
“Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.”
-- Robert Fulghum
In The Altruistic Personality, a landmark study of rescuer behavior during the Holocaust, authors Samuel and Pearl Oliner demonstrate that parental modeling of caring behavior was a key differentiating factor between rescuers, on the one hand, and perpetrators and bystanders, on the other. I thought about this observation a number of years ago when I interviewed Irene Opdyke, a Christian rescuer from Poland who saved the lives of Jews during the Holocaust. During this interview, Irene related the story of her mother’s taking into their house and caring for a sick, so-called, Gypsy woman -- that is, someone who, according to social custom, should have been avoided. But for Irene’s mother, the sick woman’s heritage was irrelevant; what mattered was that the woman was sick, that she needed help, and that Irene’s mother could help her.
The following is an essay taken from the 1955 edition of the Great Books Primer, published by the Great Books Foundation. I found the Primer at a "Friends of the Library" sale for a quarter! As a homeschooling father, I am constantly striving to increase my knowledge and intellectual understanding. I feel I owe it to my son to make the attempt, even if I fail on occasion. Many homeschooling parents feel the same way and my question is: "Why shouldn’t everyone?"
More than thirty years ago, as a college student, I worked as an aide at Carl Harvey School for the Orthopedically Handicapped in Orange County, California. During two summers working with severely handicapped children, I learned that "experts" can help and advise, but that the very best results come only with the efforts of dedicated parents who are willing to spend limitless hours with their handicapped children. Conversely, I learned that any parent who gives a school or therapist all the responsibility for educating or training his child, physically or mentally, had better seriously lower his expectations. One would think that this kind of information was a given for most homeschoolers. Most of us are homeschooling at least in part because we have rejected the "experts" and decided that we can do a better job ourselves. It is clear, however, to anyone watching the homeschool movement today that the "experts" are moving back in and therein lies the danger.
