Home School Online

I live in Florida. And I just voted early.  You should vote.  Either way.  Our country and we as a people are better off with our citizens being involved. Get out and vote.  Thoughtfully.

I’ve been watching an interesting thread in the Time4Learning Parent’s Forum this week.  The thread is called “Accidental Homeschooler,” and the parents involved in the thread have been venting about the dilemma they are faced with.

It seems that the school system their children have been enrolled in has failed them in one way or another.  Either their child wasn’t learning enough, had special needs that the school system wasn’t adequately addressing, or had grades so low it was affecting the child’s self esteem.

As a parent whose hard-earned tax-dollars are funding the schools, this can be an incredibly frustrating experience.  No one expects perfection out of the public school system, but they do expect that their child will be adequately prepared and educated.  They expect teachers and resource workers to be adaptive to children’s particular learning needs.  And they expect that when a child is failing, that every effort will be made to bring him or her back up to grade level.

When these expectations aren’t met, some parents consider a whole other alternative – - homeschooling.  These “accidental homeschoolers” had not started out with a plan to homeschool, but because of the failures of the school system,  decided to see if homeschooling would be a better choice for their child.

The parents in the forum thread I’ve been following have decided to try out the Time4learning online homeschool curriculum for their child because it better meets their child’s learning needs.  Time4Learning is:

• Standards-based
• Engaging and Interactive
• Affordable
• Easy-To-Use (especially for first time homeschoolers)
• Adaptable for use with both special needs and gifted learners

If your child’s school system is not meeting his or her needs, and you are thinking of schooling your child at home, then click here to download our free Welcome to Homeschooling guide for new homeschoolers. Who knows…maybe YOU will be the next person to join the forum thread to tell the story of how you became an “accidental homeschooler.”

- thanks to Topsy who writes the Time4Learning homeschooling blog for this post.

A decade ago, homeschooling was a pionering movement. It was far from the mainstream and the visionary few who perservered against the mainstream had many obstacles to work against including social and family pressure. Most homeschoolers found that they were dealing with a world that was mostly suspicious of them.  Isolation was the common feeling. While some flourished (and sometimes think of it as the good old days), it made homeschooling a road for the unusually hardy and independent.

On the practical side, it was hard to find other homeschoolers (this was pre internet days). It was hard to buy curriculum from most publishers.  Most publishers had policies against selling teacher guides except to school systems.  And even for text books, they charged ridiculous rates to individuals.

Today, homeschooling has become a recognized alternative to public and private schools.  Many publishing companies actively sell and service homeschoolers.  And most importantly, the Internet has removed any sense of isolation.  And when learning today, children find online learning more stimulating than sitting in stiltifying rule-bound classrooms.

 Do homeschool parents like to chat?  Read this blog post about homeschool parents and their chattiness and blogs.  It’s clear that they have plenty to say and plenty of people to say it to.

Most homeschoolers use the Internet for shopping. And they use it for a sense of community.  Homeschool forums abound on the web. The web is constantly used as a research course.  And there are fantastic online courses such as these writing classes. 

And there are the interactive online homeschool curriculum. Time4Learning, the leader in student paced online learning services, teaches middle, elementary, and preschool to homeschool students online. They feature language arts and math.  It’s amazing new stuff, take a look….   Try their two week risk-free trial.  You can try it and if you don’t like it, you can take your money back.

If you do like it, you can still quit at any time.   They have no contract commitments.  What sweeties…

 And to return to the original point of this post. Yes, homeschooling has gotten so much easier. Nevertheless, the heart of homeschooling, a few kids and a lot to learn and many long days and some friction and frustration and impatience and tolerance….Well, the heart of it is still the same.  Even though today you have better tools and plenty of people for company.

 Recommendations: Time4Learning’s online homeschooling curriculum and Time4Writing’s online writing courses.