Is Home Schooling Right for Your Family?

If you are considering home schooling your children, but still have not made up your mind yet, here are some points you may want to consider before making a final decision.

You have to be committed to making preparations for the lessons, any experiments, or different projects, or field trips and other outings. You won’t be able to put a book in front of your child and expect them to be content to just read all the time. There’s also the fact that you will need to grade the papers and other homework as well.

You need to also consider the fact that you and your child will be together most of the time, and you may want to plan for a break now and then. Or you may find yourself overwhelmed.

A very important issue is your finances. Home schooling will require that you be home and not work at a job outside the home. Can your family afford to live off a single income? Home schooling won’t be a financial burden, but your other bills still have to be paid.

Your child should also have some social interaction, so you may want to plan that time into your schedule as well.

Remember that just because you are home, it doesn’t mean that your housework and laundry will get done right away. It may have to wait until after school like a lot of your other chores will. You may have to leave some little messes sitting around until then as well.

Home schooling will go much better if both of the parents are in agreement to do it. A child will learn a lot easier if he or she knows that both parents are going to be in agreement on the home schooling issue.

Talk to your child. Is he or she willing to be home schooled? Be prepared for some good challenges if they really don’t want to be there. Figure out ahead of time how you will need to handle an unwilling participant.

You will learn as you go. Don’t expect things to go perfect the first year, especially. You’re not going to know everything, nor should you be expected to. It will take a while for both you and your child to find that certain niche.

You are going to need to admit when you need help. If a certain subject is too hard for you, find a way for your child to get help learning. The internet and other home school parents can be a great source of information if you only ask. There are message boards on the internet that deal strictly with home schooling. As was stated earlier, keep your mind open to the fact that you will learn along with your child. And, that’s a good thing. Good luck to everyone!!