Choosing A Homeschooling Method

For many people, homeschooling may call to mind the picture of two or three children sitting at a table and writing feverishly in their workbooks, while mom or dad stands nearby. This is the not entirely true. There are different methods of homeschooling, and the method you choose will decide the curriculum and your style of teaching. Given below are some of the most influential and popular homeschooling methods.

The Charlotte Mason method: Charlotte Mason is known as the founder of the homeschooling movement. A homeschooler herself, she was passionate in her zeal to lay out the foundations for an effective a complete homeschooling program that is fun and educational at the same time. This method focuses on all the core subjects with emphasis placed on classical literature, poetry, fine arts, classical music and craft. Mason used a variety of books from classical literature, which she called 'Living Books'.

Since this method encourages a passionate awareness of literature, the child is read to daily from the 'Living Books'. After this, the child is asked to narrate what she has heard. This process begins at the age of six, and by ten the child is expected to write her narrations in her book. Mason also advocated the use of 'Nature Diaries'. After each short and interesting lesson, the child is asked to go to Nature and draw observations from Nature. Thus the child also gains a sense of respect for her environment. Mason believed that development of good character and behavior was essential to the complete development of the child's personality.

The Eclectic Homeschooling: This is a mixture of various homeschooling techniques. Here, the innovative parents trust their own judgment and pick out the topics that make the best curriculum for their child. Such parents continuously look out for the best products that will meet the needs of their homeschoolers. Most Eclectic homeschooling curriculums are improvised. This means that the basic curriculum is ready-made. The parents then make changes in the curriculum to accommodate the individual needs and interests of their children. The child's gifts, temperament, learning style and interests dictate the curriculum. Eclectic programs include visits to the museum, libraries and factories.

Unschooling: A Boston public educator name John Holt laid the beginnings of the unschooling method. He believed that children learned best when they are free to learn at their own pace and when they are guided by their own interests. His message was to 'unschool' the child. This method is a hands-on approach to learning, where the parent takes definite cues from the children. There is no definite curriculum, schedules or materials. This method is the most unstructured of the various homeschooling techniques.

The Montessori Method: This method began in Italy, when it was observed that children have acute sensitive periods, during which they undergo periods of intense concentration. During such phases, a child will repeat an activity till he gains a measure of self-satisfaction. The Montessori method depends on a prepared environment to facilitate learning. All the materials used in this method are designed to satisfy the inner desire for spiritual development of the child. The materials used progress from simple to complex, and are rather expensive.

These are just a few of the methods of homeschooling. Whatever the method, the underlying factor is flexibility and a keen interest in the desires of the child. The secret is to use the child's desire for knowledge to further his education.

Financing Homeschooling

When people talk about teaching their children from home in the absence of any definite or structured curriculum, it is perhaps natural to think that homeschooling is cheap. But this is far from the truth. Although homeschooling does not stick to any particular text, this is perhaps more of a bane than a boon, when it comes to finance.

When you need to make sure that your children receives state-of-the-art education so that they can compete with regular school goers, expenses will naturally mount. The actual cost of educating a child at home is surprisingly high. Up-to-date textbooks, course materials, a library, computing equipment, lighting, specially designed furniture all cost money. In this case, the cost may be slightly lesser when it comes to homeschooling the second child. Add to this any additional tuition cost for tutors who come to teach subjects that cannot be handled by parents, like higher-level math or science. The total cost can be a bit mind boggling.

If you take another important factor into consideration, homeschooling costs may effective triple. The need for having one of the parents tied to the house and fully dedicated to providing education deprives the family of a second earning member. The average homeschooling teacher is usually a lady with a college degree. This means that she can easily bring home a pay of $35,000 or more. It is also interesting to note that most families that have more than 2 children do not opt for homeschooling at all.

But, there are those who have been successful in carrying out homeschooling at low rates. This is dependent on the size of the family, the support group, the type of materials used and the availability of the material. When successive children can reuse the materials, cost goes down. Much of the course material can be got from vendors of homeschooling materials.

A membership in a public library, theatre, concerts, ballets and other cultural events also help in cutting costs. Sometimes, it is even possible to barter expertise. For instance, the mother of an 8-year old gives dancing classes, and her daughter receives drawing classes for free. Support groups allow you to divide the cost of field trips, science projects and fairs.

Whatever the cost, advocates of homeschooling say that the benefits far outweigh these considerations. When you are able to decide what knowledge your child receives and when he or she should be taught and to what extent, it gives you a lot of freedom and a lot of power. Both the children as well as the parents benefit from this mutually enriching experience.

Preparing For Your Children's College Education

You should have money set aside for emergencies, because as your children get older and you establish your home, the unexpected expenses will come more frequently. If you don't have emergency funds set aside, those expenses can cause major stress in your marriage.

You also want to continue funding retirement and savings plans. This is the ideal time of life to begin setting aside money for your children's college education. For example, if at a child's birth you started depositing $100 per month in a savings account for his or her education, you would have deposited $21,600 by the time the child turns eighteen. However, through the magic of compounding, if that money had earned an average of 12 percent per year (which is not unrealistic), you would have accumulated $75,786 toward that college education (before taxes). That would pay for four years at almost any college in America today. (It may not in eighteen years, but it would today.) If you made a one-time deposit of $5,000 at birth and it grew at 12 percent compounded annually, the fund would be worth $42,893 (before taxes) at the end of eighteen years.

There are many ways to save regularly for college education. Mutual funds offer investment programs in which your bank account can be drafted each month for a certain amount - as low as $50, depending on the fund. If you start early and have an eighteen-year perspective, you'll be able to weather the ups and downs of market cycles, and many funds have exceeded 12 percent annual return over a long time period.

Company savings plans and whole life insurance policies bought for the child at birth can also be good alternatives for college savings. The real issue is not so much the investment vehicle as it is the discipline of saving. You won't give up today's desires for future benefits unless you have a long-term perspective.

By making these recommendations, we're not saying that every child has to go to college or that you should pay for 100 percent of your children's college education. What we are saying is that if you want your children to go to college and you want to pay for that, starting early is the easiest way to do it. Waiting until kids are college age is extremely difficult.

The above advice steps from great experience of families all over the country. There are hundreds of thousands of couples who have put four and even five or more of their children through college by properly planning. To wait until your children are in college to begin saving for that education might ease financial pressures in the short term, but it will definitely compound the pressure in the long term