The Academic Benefits of Homeschool 

 This is a sequel to my social benefits of homeschooling AC article. Everyone is an individual, each mind functions differently, and children are brilliant and some require a little extra time and attention, so where does this put public schools? Public education is a great thing for the parents who just want their child to go to school and get an education, trouble free... if that is possible. The public education system works like this, 30 kids in a classroom, with 1 teacher. The subjects are taught, and while a few brilliant children run right through the subject and are hungry and waiting for more, they must put their minds on hold and wait for 50% of the rest of the class, the "Average" students, to catch up with them. If you take a close examination of this system, in reality there may be as few as 2 or 3 students to whom the progression and teaching of the class is really the right speed for them, all the rest either struggle at home to figure it out, or they get left behind. The brilliant students on the other hand are not reaching their potential, not even by a long shot. 

Many of these brilliant kids get left behind, not because they cannot keep up with it, but because they lose interest all together because it no longer keeps them challenged. Add to this, one teacher trying to assist 30 kids in a subject. How many times I remember sitting in class and kids raising their hands to ask questions, and about half get answered then the teacher says, "Let's move on", and the other half of the kids don't get their questions answered. Then of course you have the students who are shy and don't want to ask their questions, (especially in the younger age groups), or the others who are afraid their question is going to sound stupid, or maybe the teacher already answered their question and they weren't listening, so they don't even ask their question. According to the HSLDA homeschooled children who have been homeschooled for 2 years or more score on average 28 to 30 percentile higher than their public schooled counterparts on the national standardized tests. There is a very good reason for this. Colleges are beginning to recognize and even give preference to homeschooled children because homeschooled children have to learn how to learn, they are not spoon fed their education. There is a reason for all this too. Homeschooled children get an education that is tailored to their abilities, not the abilities of a handful of kids that are mingled in with the rest of the 30. A child in homeschool has many advantages. If they quickly grasp the concept of fractions, variables, and how numbers numbers interact with each other, then instead of waiting for boredom to strike, they just move on and learn how to take these numerical interactions to the next level. By the same token, the child who does not readily grasp these concepts will not be left sitting in their chair wondering what everyone else is doing to get their answers as they move forward into algebraic and geometric theory. 

They remain on that subject until they grasp it. With homeschool the child's questions do not go unanswered, they are not too embarrassed to ask questions, they've been asking mom and dad questions ever since they were two years old and wondering why the grass is green. A homeschool environment is as good as having a one on one tutor to assist in guiding through the learning process. Some remedial children who get left behind in public school have been known to not only keep up with their peers in homeschool, some have even exceeded their public school counter parts. 

Homeschool curriculums are also something to consider. Many are not well written and hard for a child to understand. We've gone through many of these, we've tried the booklet curriculums that come each subject in a different box, we've tried the network software programs where the parents can access the child's work on their computer. What is worse is you pay for all these programs up front, and some cost hundreds of dollars and sometimes it turns out to be wasted money. Last year we tried yet another program that started with a 14 day money back guarantee and the kids picked up on it right away. Once they start the program it is like $20 for the first student per month and $15 for each additional student, no contracts, if it didn't work we could quit the program, so we tried it. Our 9 year old son, (8 at the time), went from a weak third grader through the fourth grade, and right on into the fifth grade in one year. Needless to say, we are sticking with this program for a second year in a row, and that is a first. Unless you are one of the lucky 10% to whom the public school is geared to, and even if they are, our homeschooled children in this country are getting a better grasp and understanding of the subjects than your public schooled counterparts.Read more info of the difference between criminal law & civil law

The homeschool curriculum we found is called Time4Learning, they are an online based curriculum. They have Pre-K through 8th grade curriculums, special needs children, Autistic and Aspergers children, as well as a gifted child's program. With the progress we've seen in our 9 year old boy over the last year, and he loves it so much it is the first thing he does in the morning, we are sold on it. We recommend everyone give it a try, if you don't like it within 14 days, cancel and get your one month fee back. For more information check our homeschool website and join our homeschool forum.