Home schooling or homeschooling, if you want (in deed, you even see it hyphenated, as in home-schooling) has been around for about 30 years now, although, of course it was all pupils had before state involvement in education. Out of the way sparcely-populated places in huge countries like the USA, Canada and Australia still have to rely on home schooling to a large extent, although it is easier now with the popularization of radio, television and the Internet. Video packages also have an important role, as do books still.
However, home schooling has become very much in demand in the cities as an alternative to inner city public schools, which are frequently seen as hotbeds of upheaval, anger and narcotics, especially by the middle classes and not without some due reason, to be honest. Nonetheless, there are also other good reasons for deciding on home schooling, which we will go into at a later stage.
First, it ought to be pointed out that the decision to opt for home schooling must be a family one. This is because it will toss "normal family life" on its head and place an added financial strain on the household budget. For instance, one parent will need to stop working. This cannot be allowed to be a source of bad feeling, or both parents could take part-time jobs and share the children's educational time. Whichever way you go, you will not have two full-time incomes any longer. Working at home on the Internet could be a partial solution here.
Home schooling will also upset everyone's social life. So, the parents' social life is restricted by not seeing work colleagues every day, but so is little Johnny's, particularly if he has already spent some time in a conventional classroom. He won't see his pals from class as much and they may drift away from him or even be angry with him.
On the plus side is that the family will become much more solid as a unit by working together at home schooling. Both parents will have a thorough understanding of what their child is learning and will be learning. While following a broad-spectrum education, you may nonetheless opt to focus on aspects of, say, history or science, that especially interest your child. It gives you the freedom to match your child's education to his or her own interests, something that state education cannot do well with large classes. Your child will also come less under the influence of the bawdier elements in school and be able to concentrate more on studying.
A note of caution may be useful at this juncture. Do not be tempted to compel your child to progress too rapidly. It is tempting for a non-professional teacher-cum-proud parent in home schooling to push the child much harder than he can go. Don't forget that most people are just average. You ought to be on look out for signs of burn-out and stress at all times.
Once you decide to opt for home schooling, you will have to choose a basic curriculum, run through it yourself to familiarize yourself with it, purchase or locate in the library any additional books, videos and software, write a lot of notes and stock up on pens and paper, folders, binders and filing cabinets and you'll be ready for your first term at home schooling.
