How is Homeschooling Different to Regular School?

Homeschooling is a lot different to public and private schools.

The most obvious of course is that your child is a student at home. He or she is not going to a campus and into classes with other students. Considering home learning more closely, the differences between traditional schooling go deeper:

Direct teaching
This hardly needs saying (duh, you say), but homeschooling is different to regular school because your child will be getting taught directly. The educator (you or a tutor) will be speaking directly to just one or more of your children. As opposed to a teacher having to tailor his or her words to every student in the classroom.

No one size fits all curriculum
Regular school curriculms tend to be desgined to best fit the average student. this can leave the below average and the above average disadvanted if tehre’s no facility or seperate tuituin to cater to their specific needs and to help them get ahead.

No classrooms
Obviously your home school set up is not a classroom in the traditional sense. This means making some adjustments if needed. Set the scene for learning. There’s nothing wrong with a relaxed environment but if your child is easily distracted, the freedom of being at home will allow you to modify your child’s learning space (hopefully you already have an area that will be the designated home classroom of sorts).

Set your own calendar and schedule

Homeschooling doesn’t have to abide by the strict daily time schedule of traditional schooling.

You can not only set your own daily scheudle, but also your own school calendar for the year. In fact you will want to have a plan in place for the year, rather than winging it each week or month.

As long as you can meet any state required reporting guidelines (which can vary considerably between different states), you’ll have the freedom to plan your school year as it’s most convenient for your family.

A common strategy is block study planning. This encourages a big focus on learning for a specified time period – it could be one or three months depending on your child’s age and specific needs – followed by a break period.

This gets you and your child into the habit of switching on for the school period, while looking forward to the time off. Of course, you can coincide your break times to the traditional school vacations if you are keen to have your child interacting with school kids during their vacation.

Each week can be scheduled as you wish. You might choose to educate only three days per week but pack a lot of learning into that time.

If your child is well focused and discplined, a lot more can be fit into those three days compared to a 5 day week of lack of focus or motivation in being productive.

Younger children with shorter attention spans can benefit from this flexible approach.

This leaves the question about what to focus your child on for the other days of the week. Many parents will choose some alternative pursuits that can have significant benefits: music, art, and outdoor sports being popular choices. In any case, ensuring your child DOES indeed get outdoors and get active everyday is paramount.