Home School Resources
or Where Do You Get the Books?
Homeschool resources can be found by thousands of vendors selling everything from books to software to pencils. Knowing your state laws may help you narrow down which kind of resources you need. Resources are also available in many areas of learning and teaching styles.
With the technology available today, home school parents have an advantage to teach their children in ways traditional schools can't. In many instances, a home school parent can teach even more than the traditional school. There are many educational resources that the home school family can use.
Types of Home School Resources
Educational software is gaining more and more exposure every day. Not only do parents seek this type of software, but kids actually seek it too. Software developers and designers have created an atmosphere full of creativity and fun that teaches children. Educational software such as the products created by Knowledge Adventure has developed such titles as Jumpstart Advanced Preschool, Jumpstart Reading with Karaoke and the Math Blaster Series.
Of course, there are literally thousands of other titles out there that teach and reinforce basic skills and help to develop others as well. These products can be used as wonderful teaching tools in the home school environment or as supplements to a traditional curriculum.
There are also a number of home school teaching packages that can be obtained as curriculum for parents who choose to educate their children in a home school environment. The internet, too, offers a wide array of free or fee sources ranging from dictionaries, virtual museums, encyclopedia collections and virtual libraries to educational video games.
State Law Home School Requirements
Each state has a particular set of laws and standards for the home school environment and this can affect your choices of which home school resources you will choose. Different states have various expectations regarding attendance, curriculum, and standards. This is why it is vital to be familiar with your state’s mandated home school laws.
Different states have different laws; the following outlines some examples of laws that may apply to the home school environment:
1. Children who are enrolled in a home school curriculum and are in the primary grades are required to be taught particular subjects and review certain things within each subject. Primary level is normally taught Physical Education, Art, English, Geography, Reading, Math, Writing, Spelling, Civics, History, Social Studies, Music, and Health.
2. Certain qualifications may or may not need to be met. School officials may review the qualifications of the parents and/or tutor to instruct the children in a home school environment. More than likely, parents and/or tutors will not need any special certification or schooling to educate the child in a home school environment.
3. The State Laws regarding home schools may or may not mandate the school year length, set the particular hours to each subject and demand that certain subjects and/or topics be taught. However, they cannot mandate the approach that the parent uses in teaching these subjects. Parents can set the standard on how they should effectively implement the topics with an individualized approach to each subject. In addition to this, there should be not particulars on “set” hours in a home school environment. In a traditional school setting, most schools have the set hours of 9:00am – 3:00pm. In the home school environment, parents do not have to “set” a standard of hours. Home school parents understand that teaching and learning happen around the clock, at any time, and on any day, although some states may require the child be taught a certain number of hours per year.
Once again, not all the possible laws are listed here, but the above simply states some that may come up. While the traditional school system may impose certain rules and regulations on the home school program, each parent must know and understand that they have plenty of freedom to personalize their unique curriculum and expectations for their child’s education.
Determining Individual Ability and Style
In the home school environment, it is particularly important to recognize the student’s learning ability. The parent and/or tutor should understand how the child learns, what methods he learns best from and what particular type of setting suits the student’s academic success. Once these things have been established, a home school curriculum can be set up to tailor the findings of the student evaluation.
In the home school setting, parents and/or tutors that focus on the student as an individual and not as a cog in a machine. This is very beneficial to the student because they can focus on their strengths and improve on their weaknesses in a learning approach that is personal to them. In a typical classroom setting, there is usually one teacher per 26 students. Sometimes, seeing children as individual in this type of setting is difficult and there is not enough attention given to individual details. With a home school system in place, however, one may focus on the student as an individual person. This knowledge, too, will help you determine which resources will work best for your child.