Is Homeschooling For You? by Marty Layne   Homeschooling has gained credibility in recent years, but it’s still not for everyone. How can you tell whether it’s right for you and your children? Listed below are twelve character traits I’ve found to be conducive to homeschooling success. The first one on the list is the only characteristic you need to have before you start; the others can be developed as you go along.     1. Genuinely like your child/children and enjoy his/her/their company. If your child is going to spend most of his/her waking hours in your company, it’s vital to his/her well being that you enjoy the daily interactions between you. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be moments when you need and want peace and quiet and some time to yourself. However, if you are frequently resentful of your child’s need for you and you are constantly irritated by your children’s presence, homeschooling your children will not work for you. 2. Have a sense of humour. It gets you through the rough spots  — and makes lessons more fun, too. 3. Be able to read, write, and do basic math — and be willing to upgrade your skills as necessary. You do not need a college/university degree to teach your child at home. You do need a basic proficiency in reading, writing, and math. There is a wealth of material available to help you homeschool your children: textbooks, guidebooks, and prepackaged curriculums as well as information on the Internet or libraries. 4. Have a commitment to a philosophy that leads you to homeschool. It’s not enough to homeschool because you don’t like what happens in your local public school. You need positive reasons to help you through the rough times you will inevitably have. 5. Be willing to develop communication/listening skills. Communication is the key to any relationship. Learning to listen and speak clearly is vital to successful homeschooling.   6. Be prepared to receive criticism for your decision to homeschool. Unlike many other parenting decisions, the decision to homeschool is very visible and may affect members of your extended family. It might be helpful to prepare your extended family by letting them know why you have made the decision to homeschool. When you give them this information, let them know you are not expecting to persuade them one way or the other, you are just informing them. You might also let them know that while you don’t expect agreement from them about your decision, you do expect their respect and cooperation.               7. Have a support system or network and/or a supportive partner. There are many support systems available for homeschooling parents. For some people, meeting with others in a group on a weekly or monthly basis is a must. For others, it’s enough to have just one or two close friends who can listen. Magazines, chat rooms, and phone calls can also help you feel less alone as you educate your children outside the cultural norm. 8. Be able to learn from mistakes. Making mistakes is a natural part of learning. Everyone makes mistakes when trying something new.  Homeschooling gives parents many opportunities to learn from their mistakes. 9. Be willing to develop limit-setting skills. Because homeschooling children are home nearly  24 hours a day, it is imperative for homeschooling parents to learn how to set limits and boundaries. The ability to set boundaries also helps ensure children’s physical and emotional safety when they are not at home. 10. Be willing to develop patience. Many people say to me, "Oh, I could never teach my children. I don’t have the patience." They comment on my patience and assume that this is a quality that I was born with. It’s certainly true that if you don’t have any interest in learning patience, homeschooling would not be a good idea. However, if you are willing to develop patience, homeschooling provides many opportunities to do so.   11. Be willing to develop observational skills. In order to help a child learn something,  it is vital that you know your child. The more in touch you are with your child’s way of learning, the easier it will be to find material that will match his or her learning style. 12. Be willing to change. All the characteristics I have listed up to now point the way to this last one — a willingness to change, to being flexible and responsive. Children are always growing and changing. As a homeschooling parent you have the opportunity to be an active participant in your child’s growth. As a side effect, you will find yourself growing and changing as well.

55 Reasons To Homeschool 1. Spend more time together as a family. 2. Spend more time with children when they are rested and fresh rather than tired and cranky from school. 3. Avoid having to struggle to get children to do the tedious busywork that is so often sent home as homework. 4. Allow children time to learn subjects not usually taught in their school. 5. Allow children to have time for more in-depth study than what is allowed in school. 6. Allow children to learn at their own pace, not too slow or too fast. 7. Allow children to work at a level that is appropriate to their own developmental stage. Skills and concepts can be introduced at the right time for that child. 8. Provide long, uninterrupted blocks of time for writing, reading, playing or thinking so that the child is able to engage in sophisticated, complex activities & thought processes. 9. Encourage concentration and focus - which are discouraged in crowded classrooms with too many distractions. 10. Encourage the child to develop the ability to pace her/himself - this is prevented in a classroom where the schedule is designed to keep every child busy all the time. 11. Spend a lot of time out-of-doors. This is more healthy than spending most weekdays indoors in a crowded, and often overheated, classroom. 12. Spending more time out-of-doors results in feeling more in touch with the changing of the seasons and with the small and often overlooked miracles of nature. 13. Children learn to help more with household chores, developing a sense of personal responsibility. 14. Children learn life skills, such as cooking, in a natural way, by spending time with adults who are engaged in those activities. 15. More time spent on household responsibilities strengthens family bonds because people become more committed to things they have invested in. 16. Time is available for more non-academic pursuits such as art or music. This leads to a richer, happier life. 17. Children will not feel like passive recipients of subject matter selected by their teachers. They will learn to design their own education and take responsibility for it. 18. Children will realize that learning can take place in a large variety of ways. 19. Children will learn to seek out assistance from many alternative sources, rather than relying on a classroom teacher to provide all the answers. 20. A more relaxed, less hectic lifestyle is possible when families do not feel the necessity to supplement school during after-school and week-end hours. 21. Busywork can be avoided. 22. Learning can be more efficient since methods can be used that suit a child's particular learning style. 23. Children will avoid being forced to work in "cooperative learning groups" which include children who have very uncooperative attitudes. 24. Children can learn to work for internal satisfaction rather than for external rewards. 25. Children will not be motivated to "take the easy way out" by doing just enough work to satisfy their teacher. They will learn to be their own judge of the quality of their own work. 26. Children will be more willing to take risks and be creative since they do not have to worry about being embarrassed in front of peers. 27. Children will be more confident since they are not subject to constant fear of criticism from teachers. 28. Peer pressure will be reduced. There will be less pressure to grow up as quickly in terms of clothing styles, music, language, interest in the opposite sex. 29. Social interactions will be by choice and based on common interests. 30. Friends can be more varied, not just with the child's chronological age peer group who happen to go to the same school. 31. Field trips can be taken on a much more frequent basis. 32. Field trips can be much more enjoyable & more productive when not done with a school group which usually involves moving too quickly & dealing with too many distractions. 33. Field trips can be directly tied into the child's own curriculum. 34. Volunteer service activities can be included in the family's regular schedule. 35. Community service can be of tremendous importance in a child's development and can be a great learning experience. 35. Scheduling can be flexible, allowing travel during less expensive and less crowded off-peak times.  36. Children will be less likely to compare their own knowledge or intelligence with other children and will be less likely to become either conceited or feel inferior. 37. Religious and special family days can be planned and celebrated. 38. More time will be spent with people (friends and family) who really love and care about the children. Children will bond more with siblings and parents since they will spend more time together playing, working, and helping each other. 39. Feedback on children's work will be immediate and appropriate. They won't have to wait for a teacher to grade & return work later to find out if they understood it. 40. Feedback can be much more useful than just marking answers incorrect or giving grades. 41. Testing is optional. Time doesn't have to be spent on testing or preparing for testing unless the parent and/or child desires it. 42. Observation and discussion are ongoing at home & additional assessment methods are often redundant. 43. Grading is usually unnecessary - understanding & knowledge are the rewards for studying, rather than grades (or stickers or teacher's approval, etc.). 44. Children can be consistently guided in a family's values and can learn them by seeing and participating in parents' daily lives. 45. Children will learn to devote their energy and time to activities that THEY think are worthwhile. 46. Children will be able to learn about their ethnicities in a manner that will not demean & will be able to understand multiculturalism in its true sense and not from the pseudo-multicultural materials presented in schools which tend to depict others from a dominant culture perspective. 47. Children will not learn to "fit into society," but will, instead, value morality and love more than status and money. 48. Children do not have to wait until they are grown to begin to seriously explore their passions; they can start living now. 49. Children's education can be more complete than what schools offer. 50. Children who are "different" in any way can avoid being subjected to the constant and merciless teasing, taunting, and bullying which so often occurs in school. 51. Children with special needs will be encouraged to reach their full potential and not be limited by the use of "cookie cutter" educational methods used in schools. 52. Low standards or expectations of school personnel will not influence or limit children's ability to learn and excel. 53. Children will be safer from gangs, drugs, and guns.  54. Parents will decide what is important for the children to learn, rather than a government bureaucracy. 55. Family will not be forced to work within school's traditional hours if it does not fit well with their job schedules and sleep needs.

One Mother’s Reason To Home-School - in no particular order, certainly not all-inclusive: 1. Because I think schools damage a child's self-image, ability to make unassisted decisions, motivation, trust in him/herself. 2. Because I think I am more intelligent and more capable than any teacher my child might have in a school.  3. Because I think schools short-change girls in science and math education and encourage violence in boys. 4. Because I do not value traditional measures of success. 5. Because my school experiences were miserably boring and useless. 6. Because I don't trust people who don't love my children to have their best interests at heart. 7. Because I don't want my children's socialization to be hampered by being stuck with a random group of 25 same-age mates for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. 8. Because I don't believe in traditional measures of "appropriate" child behaviour.  (aka "I've seen normal, and I don't like it.") 9. Because I want my children to have the freedom and flexibility to learn what, when and how they choose. 10. Because I think schools are enormously ineffective places for learning. 11. Because schools are fundamentally anti-intellectual, emphasize peer acceptance over moral values, and promote all the most trivial aspects of socialization. 12. Because we believe a strong family life is important.  This is impossible when families are separated for most of their waking hours.  We *like* being together. 13. Because spending most of the day indoors with two dozen kids the same age is unnatural, unhealthy, and very, very limiting.  Children need to see much more of the world than that. 14. Because schools promote the status quo, conformity, obedience to authority, passivity, intellectual dependence, emotional dependence, group identity, intergroup conflict, hostility towards achievement, and antipathy towards thought.  Oh, yeah, and they are a colossal waste of time. 15. Because we do so many interesting things, I don't know how we'd fit in time for school. 16. Because I think homeschooling helps my children be more secure, happier, and more accepting of others. 17. Because I don't like the idea of a school trying to teach values. 18. Because I don't trust the govt with my money.  Why would I trust them with my children? 19. Because I think learning is more meaningful when it is intrinsically motivated. 20. Because our children can be exposed to more of the world by being with me than by being in a school. 21. Because I adore my children.  I intend that they have the widest, most broadening experiences I can provide. 22. Because it allows long, uninterrupted blocks of time to work on an activity (which might involve daydreaming or planning or brainstorming). 23. Because children can spend more time outdoors. 23. Because children will have time to pursue interests such as sports, art, music, drama, dance, etc. 24. Children will become more responsible for their own education.  25. Children learn how to learn, not just how to be taught. 26. Our children will learn to relate to people regardless of gender.  27. Our girls will not learn to lose themselves during adolescence.