Although many parents prefer home schooling to public schooling for their toddlers due to its perceived advantages, they are often faced with hurdles which are inherent in the smooth functioning of any system. Parents need to understand these problems and find ways to overcome them if they want to continue with the home schooling method.
The main problem with home schooling is a flip side of one of its best known advantages. Home schooling puts all the responsibility of learning on the parents or the tutor appointed by them. An able parent can take advantage of the system to its fullest measure and make their kids beyond par with their peers at public schools. But if the parents or the tutors are incompetent, then the system becomes a failure.
The success of the whole system depends on the ability of the parents to ensure quality education to their kids. They should not lag behind their peers at school in any of the learning skills, both curricular and extra curricular. In fact, they should be a step or two ahead of the kids of their age at school or elsewhere. If the kids turn out to be less skilled than their peers, then the parents could be considered at fault both as an educator and parent.
Another flip side of home schooling is that either of the parents needs to be always with the kids. They will have to forego their recreational or entertainment activities such as visiting friends, a movie house or simply shopping. Many parents may find this as frustrating because they end up devoting all their time to the kids without a let up in the taxing routines. They need to have lot of patience and sense of responsibility to take on such a task of enormous importance. They have to prepare themselves to be content with the long term benefit that their sacrifice brings.
Another problem is financial constraint. Since one of the parents needs to be at home always, s/he is unable to go out to work. In this way the family has to make do with an additional income, which would have otherwise benefited the family. The family needs to limit its expenses and all the members need to train themselves to live within in the limited means. They have to forego many comforts and undertake sacrifices for the sake of education. However, the family can take on the challenge once they realize that their sacrifice is for a noble cause.
Parents also need to make arrangements to educate the children in developing social skills by enrolling the kids to various societies and support groups, which could be expensive. Also, the kids should be competent enough to pass tests such as SAT or GED for better career options. Finally, the kids may not be able to adjust to the public school environment easily, if the parents latter decide to sent them to schools.
Posted on April 30th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Child Care, Learning, Toddler, school
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