The New Homeschooler Playbook Personal Use Ebook With Audio & Video

Table of Contents

What is homeschooling? ……. 3
Why homeschool? . 3
What are the benefits and advantages of homeschooling? …………. 5
Is homeschooling legal? (Portfolios, laws, etc.) . 6
What about socialization? …. 6
How much time will homeschooling take each day?……… 7
How to make homeschooling affordable………… 8
Different kinds of homeschooling (classical, religious, etc.) …………. 9
How to find the right curriculum? ….. 11
Options for doing the teaching ………. 11
How will my child learn advanced subjects like calculus? ………….. 12
What if my child is advanced? ……….. 13
What if my child falls behind? ………… 13
Are virtual charter schools homeschooling? …. 14
Can my child participate in sports and special activities? ………….. 15
Will colleges accept homeschooling as valid? .. 15

Sample Content Preview

Why homeschool?

Why do families decide to homeschool? The reasons for homeschooling are as numerous and as varied as the families who take this path. Sometimes the parent(s) will choose to homeschool for financial, or academic, or religious, or safety reasons. Sometimes the student will ask the parent if they can be homeschooled. The recent COVID-19 pandemic and the homebound learning that occurred as a result of it, meant that homeschooling, very loosely interpreted, became a requirement for everyone—even those that did not choose this method of learning. Here’s a closer look at some of the reasons for homeschooling.

One reason a parent may choose to homeschool is because they cannot afford to give their student the quality education they desire to give them. The family may live in an area with a substandard school district, if they are even considering public schooling at all; or they want the type of education for their student that is only offered at private schools that far exceeds their budget. Homeschooling can offer a parent the opportunity to create a rich learning environment for their student, regardless of their financial situation. Great learning does not require unlimited or vast resources; with enough creativity and research, the student’s home learning experience can be just as good as the best private schools in the country.

Another reason a parent may choose to homeschool is for academic reasons. Similar to the discussion of financial reasons for homeschooling, a parent may not have access to quality schools in their area, whether public or private. A parent may even be able to afford to pay the tuition at an expensive private school, but may not have such an option in their local area, and they are not willing to send their student to a boarding school.

A parent may also choose to homeschool for religious reasons. Regardless of the cost, quality or availability of the schools in their area, a parent may desire to educate their student at home to provide the student with a foundation in their faith. All schools, even secular (nonsectarian) schools, frame their curriculum with a particular worldview and agenda, and some parents would prefer their student not learn within the framework of their local schools’ worldview. Parents who homeschool for this reason do not face the challenge that those parents face whose students attend traditional schools—namely, that they disagree with the worldview and agenda of the school that their student attends.

Parents sometimes choose to homeschool for safety reasons. Chances are, a school does not exist anywhere where there is not some degree of bullying that is occurring. Most every student will experience some form of bullying during their traditional school experience, and some bullying will be extreme and can have lifelong aftereffects. Also, by all indications, there is an increase in incidences of drugs, weapons, etc. being brought to school by other students. In extreme cases, mass shooting events have occurred. No parent wants to subject their student to dangerous conditions such as these, just to go to school to get an education. Some parents will teach their student at home, for the sake of providing a safe learning environment for them.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique and rather interesting situation. During the stay-at-home mandate, parents were forced to keep their children at home for schooling. While it may be a stretch to consider this true homeschooling—the school district and not the parent directed the student’s learning and remained in charge of the student’s curriculum—parents did not have the option to send their student to school during this period. So, some parents supervised their students’ learning at home; some utilized their own parents (the students’ grandparents) or other family members; some collaborated with other parents to create group learning environments, shared between many homes; some parents utilized learning centers; the variations and locations were numerous, often dictated by the parents’ work requirements.

In some cases, a student will ask their parent to homeschool them. The reasons for a student to make such a request are varied, and may overlap some of the reasons why a parent may choose to homeschool. Some students who ask to homeschool have been bullied, threatened, and/or harassed, and simply want to learn in a safer environment. Others may ask to be homeschooled because they are astute or mature enough to recognize that they learn best in a controlled home environment, where the learning can be tailored specifically to their needs. Some of these students know they are easily distracted by peers, and can learn best alone, and can therefore choose when and where they interact with their friends. Other students may have particular educational goals they wish to meet, and they are not able to reach those goals in school as easily (i.e., early high school graduation, early college admittance).

What are the benefits and advantages of homeschooling?

There are many benefits for students who are homeschooled. The student can learn in a safer environment; the learning can be tailored to the student’s needs and unique learning style; the schedule and calendar can be adjusted to accommodate the family’s lifestyle and obligations; these are just a few of the advantages.

First, a huge benefit of homeschooling is the safety advantage. In a traditional school environment, the student is more likely to encounter situations where there is some threat to their safety. While the vast majority of students attend school in relative safety, and there is no way that a student’s entire life can be completely safe, there are enough threats to a student’s safety to make it a real consideration. Practically every student will experience some form of bullying during their K-12 years at school. Most, hopefully, will be mild, but some will be severe, prolonged, and may even have long-term, far-reaching effects. Bullying can be verbal, emotional, physical; it can be via social media; it can even involve sexual assault. Most recently, with the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen that a discussion of safety can even involve health threats.

A second advantage of homeschooling is that it enables the parent to create a curriculum and learning environment that best suits the student. Some students are not auditory learners, and as such, do not fare well in a traditional classroom setting. Some students are kinesthetic learners, and most school environments are not equipped to provide unlimited access to hands-on learning opportunities for their students. Some students wish to focus on a particular topic or field, and a traditional school setting is not able to accommodate such a goal. A homeschooled student can not only learn the same material as their peers, but can go beyond that, and at their own rate, and still accommodate their own unique interests.

Other Details

- 1 Ebook (PDF), 15 Pages
- 16 Audios (MP3)
- 16 Videos (FLV, MP4)
- Year Released/Circulated: 2022
- File Size: 177,443 KB

License Details:

For your personal use only. Cannot sell nor give away.