What every home educator has in common, regardless
of their reason for home schooling, is taking ownership of their
child’s education.
Families choose home schooling for a variety of
reasons. Many sources credit religious and family values as being the
mainstream of the home school movement. However, there are many other
reasons, such as medical and health issues which leave some families
few choices, or a troubled student who has fallen behind and needs
help getting back on track. It could be a job that requires a family
to move frequently, or a talented child that will someday be the
world’s next Olympic champion.
Overall, most parents deciding to home school do so
as a means to step out and help their children excel in various areas
of their lives at a pace the public and private schools can’t match.
For whatever reason you have decided to provide
your children with a home education, taking ownership of their
instruction comes with much responsibility; responsibilities that more
and more parents are willing to take. Teaching certain subjects and
maintaining educational records, as required by the state, are some
important responsibilities the parent will assume.
When choosing curriculum, the parent/teacher will
need to consider each student’s individual needs, keeping up with
state requirements, tools that are available for the teacher, and the
overall costs of the program.
When considering the costs, a general rule of thumb
for choosing curriculum is, the less money you spend, the more work
will be placed upon the teacher, and the more you spend, the less work
will be required from the teacher. See the following table for
example:
|
Labor Intensity |
Description |
|
Heavy |
Designing your curriculum from
scratch. |
|
Moderate to Heavy |
Constructing a program using
curricula from multiple vendors. |
|
Moderate |
Purchasing a pre-packaged curriculum
without teacher’s guides. |
|
Light to Moderate |
Purchasing a pre-packaged curriculum
with teacher’s guides. |
|
Light |
Purchasing a pre-packaged curriculum
with additional services such as instruction through satellite
or Internet, counseling services, testing services, maintaining
educational records, etc. |
Whether you’re deciding to take on the task of
designing your own curriculum from scratch, or you are planning to
install the latest satellite technology for your high school program,
we highly recommend having a set of guide lines to compare your
student’s goals against.
Having educational
goals set in place as early as possible will be an advantage for both
the parent/teacher and child/student. Waiting until the last minute
can become costly. In some cases there will be programs and/or
benefits which may be lost.
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