Homeschooling - Does It Really Work?

There are so many questions associated with this subject. Is it OK to home school a kid?
Is it easy? Will my child not become exposed to the outside world if i do not send him school? The parents need not be worried when they decide to home school their kids. It's not a big deal. The only thing to keep in mind is, the parents should be ready to take responsibility.

If a child gets education at home, it can be the best, but it requires a lot of determination from parents or the parent may sometime feel pissed off or the child can get on their nerves.
Generally home schooling requires resources, that typically a school would have provided the child. Parents must be alert about where they are going to get some good material from.

The Internet is a rich source of information and today it's the only source to get information that is real good and real fast. So on line home schooling is a very good idea today.

These parents always need patience. They should learn how to make their child feel comfortable during the teaching process. The more interesting and comfortable the learning environment is, the sooner the child is going to learn and enjoy it.

Parents need not worry about home schooling results now. Over the years there have been a lot of studies and survey. The results are pretty impressive. Some surveys say that home schooled kids have always shown a raise in every field than those who got conventional schooling. So home schooling can be a real good option if parents have commitment for it. All one requires is good knowledge, understanding with their kid and awareness about home schooling.

Should You Be Home Schooling Your Children?

Home schooling used to have a bad image. When we think of home schooling, we often picture with fundamental right wingers, antisocial weirdos, or people too scared to let their children attend public school. This image has been improving over the last several years. New curricula for home schooling has come out, each provides a clearer path for learning. There have been many success stories of students that have come from home schooling environments.

On the other side of the fence, the quality of public schooling (in America at least) has been on a dramatic decline the last several years. Standardized test scores are down, gang violence is up, and that's not even considering the school shootings. This all contributes to an increasing lack of confidence in the public education system.

Many parents are finding they can better teach their children at home. Using personalized home schooling curriculum, parents are able to give their children a better education right in their own home. Many of the children who are schooled at home are getting excellent scores on standardized tests, with many achieving perfect scores. The quality of education is only one reason many parents are going towards homeschooling.

Parents have also found that home schooling is a cheaper alternative to expensive private schools. There is a student teacher ratio they can't be beat in public or private school. Overall, many parents say they like them relaxed learning atmosphere, and the ability to better control their students workload. There is also generally less peer pressure, and parents can keep an eye on their children better than if they were off at school.

Much of the improvement in the image of homeschooling can be attributed to the Internet. Online homeschooling options provide more than learning or teaching aids for home schooling families. Internet-based curriculum helps parents improve the general state of the education they are providing, as it can help the parents in areas where they may be weaker as teachers.

The Internet also helps overcome one of the main drawbacks to home schooling, and that is the lack of socialization. Many online home schooling programs offer group meetings or seminars where home school students can meet and work together on projects.

If it's so great, why don't more parents home school their children? There are a number of reasons. Many parents just don't have time to teach their children, and some don't feel qualified. Many families need both parents as breadwinners just to make ends meet.

While home schooling is shedding its iconoclastic image, whether or not to home school your children is a family decision. You will still need to hire teachers in such areas as driver education to be in compliance with state law, but most parents who are fairly intelligent and literate can use the helps found on the Internet, in books, or in home schooling support groups to provide an excellent education for their children.

Getting In High Gear For College - Strategies For Homeschool Parents

Homeschool Parents, you can contribute greatly to college success by having college planning as a priority for your children of all ages. From your youngest child to your oldest child, a plan must be in place for college. Avenues for extended academics, opportunities for honors and awards, and
selection of school and community activities pave the way for successful homeschool learning
experiences and for future achievements in college and career. College comes sooner than most
parents anticipate. Be ready when the time comes.

Consider these strategies in preparing your homeschool child for future success:

Focus On Academics

Skills to master all subject areas in school depend upon the proper foundation for learning.
The choice of pre-school experiences and the structure of an environment for learning in grades
K-12 is essential for college success. The personal one-to-one uniqueness of homeschooling
allows you as a parent to know first-hand the strengths and weaknesses of your child's
academic areas and to adapt the curriculum to suit individual needs. If supplemental
teaching or tutoring is needed, then make the adjustments to better equip your child.

Provide Opportunities For Recognition

Homeschoolers deserve to be recognized for their academic merit and personal accomplishments.
Connect with a homeschool program and other organizations that can offer these opportunities.
Have your child volunteer or run for leadership positions, even if it is only chairing a committee.
Since your child will have to compete with students from public and private schools, you have
to go beyond the minimum and give your child exceptional experiences.

Involve Child In School And Community Activities

Every child needs a balanced program of study. School and community activities such as
clubs, music, dance, art, drama, and sports can open up outlets for your child to
interact with other students and to utilize talents and skills. Social skills are
essential for college and career success. Your child can also qualify for Fine Arts
and Sports Scholarships.

Positioning your child for success is a parent's goal. Helping your child to fulfill this dream is a rewarding responsibility. Homeschooling is an innovative teaching environment and the way to offer your child a favorable option for learning as well as future college and career success.

Home Security Systems To Protect Against Burglaries

A look at the three basic rules a burglar follows will tell you what you need to keep a burglar away.

1. A burglar cannot work when there is light around as people would see him breaking in.

2. A burglar will not try to break into a system when he has to take a lot of time to break in

3. A burglar does not make much noise so that no one knows he is breaking in.

Well you need to think like a burglar and try to break into your own place. Well this case study of your could go a long way in enhancing the security of your house. You should realize that nine out of ten burglaries in the US could have been prevented.

• Check for easy entry points.

• Cut trees and shrubs that can aid the burglar to a door or window.

• Outside doors need to be stronger than the inside ones. Get metal or hardwood for doors and frames.

• Get good quality locks. Dead bolt locks are good. Key locks for all the windows are also necessary and design them in a way that all windows can open only from the inside.

• Privacy is essential for any household but if you were to seclude your house thinking of privacy then the burglar also has the same privacy to get into your house unnoticed.

• Exterior lighting that is mounted out of easy reach is another way of adding light around so that anyone moving around the house could be seen properly. A burglar does not find lighting a comforting prospect when breaking in.

• Time is another important factor in your arsenal against the burglar. Simple devices like padlocks, window locks, grates, bars and bolts can keep intruders from entering as it is going to take a longer time getting through these.

• If robbing your house is going to be a noisy job then your burglar may think twice. Alarm systems that make a noise or other voice alert systems are available in plenty. You could call the police department or consult any other security department to advice you on where you need to mount detector systems. A survey would give you the different doors, windows and other areas where wireless or wired home security systems could be placed.

• A household inventory could be a document that would give you the indication whether anything is missing or not. Insure your valuables and inform the police promptly in case of a theft.

• Home security monitoring is an established routine of checking on all the alarm systems, detectors, door s and windows.

Avoid giving information to strangers and notify parents or police of suspicious strangers lurking around. Home video security systems are ideal for kids as it provides them the privacy as well as being able to call their parents and the police and even provide the video of the person as evidence.

• Do not be careless with keys especially in commercial parking lots and do not hide them in secret places in your garden or outside the house. Burglars know where to look for them.

• If you are leaving on a vacation. Stop all daily deliveries like newspapers or circulars. Leave the blinds in their usual position. Have mail held up at the post office or forwarded to or picked up by neighbors you trust. Ask them to keep a close watch on the house while you are away. Tell them where you can be reached as well.

• You could get an automatic time to turn on and turn off the lights in the living room and bed room at appropriate times. If you could get a timer for the TV and radio too it would be a great idea. Home automation systems are ideal in this regard. A timely morning alarm that switches on the TV and switches it off, if no one is in the room, an automated sprinkler system that switches on and waters your garden, etc. all these give the indication of a house that is inhabited.

Is Home Schooling Right For My Child

Deciding whether or not to home school your child involves a lot of goal setting and decision making. You first need to determine if you have the patience to home school your child. You will be seeing more of him or her during the day and we all know the little ones can get on our nerves at times. Home schooling your child will involve one on one interaction and preparation of daily lesson plans. While these tasks may seem difficult, you may well feel that home schooling your child is the best way for your child to excel in all subjects. Your child will not be left behind; which does happen in the school environment at times.

If you are considering withdrawing your child from school to instead teach him or her at home, you may first want to consider whether or not you have access to the proper home schooling resources. For instance, some home schooling resources include teachers, the superindendent,, a local library, or the Internet. Additionally, there are many people who homeschool their children, who can also serve as home schooling resources. Talking with them can make the decision to homeschool much easier. Knowing that someone else's children are thriving in an envirmonment that fits their learning needs gives other people hope.

Additionally, you can appeal to other home schooling resources, such as the internet and outside tutors. The internet is a good source of guidebooks and other literature that can offer advice and ideas on how to present the information needed to be taught. An outside tutor can also be an asset when helping a child grasp concepts. The child will learn more efficiently in an environment that is catered around them. This type of attention is rare in a public school setting. Tutor visit everyday for at least four hours and can help most children learn.

Home schooling is a tough decision. There are many people who think that schooling one's children at home does not adequately prepare them for real life situations. They will miss out on the fun things that public school can offer, such as social interaction, team sports, drama club, and band activities. These activities are important for emotional well-being and emotional growth. Conversely, many will argue that there is as much social stimulation at home as there is in school. Many home-schooled children have friends in the neighborhood who they hang out with. Some parents enroll their kids in after school sports programs at community centers.

Developing A Quality Homeschooling Lesson Plan Does Not Have To Be Hard

For the novice homeschooling parent, one of the most intimidating steps in the whole process is the idea of developing a lesson plan that is both effective and manageable. Fortunately, this does not have to be hard. The important thing to remember is that your child should be the main focus and you should do what is in the best interest of the child. For those choosing to do it on their own, this article will briefly outline nine steps to developing a quality lesson plan.

Step 1 The first thing that you will have to consider, obviously, is what you will be teaching. This, in large part, should be based upon your state or local school standards. In addition, you will also need to be aware of what grade level you are developing the lesson plan for and record a reasonable time estimate for your lesson plan.

Step 2 You will need to develop clear and specific objectives for the lesson plan from the beginning. However, you must note that these objectives should not be activities used in the lesson plan. Instead, they should be the specific learning outcomes of those activities.

For example, if you wanted to teach your child how to add 1 + 3, your defined objective may be that "the student will learn to demonstrate how to add 1 + 3."

Your objectives should also be measurable. What this means is that you need to make sure that you will be able to tell specifically whether the defined objectives were met or not. Keep in mind that you can certainly have more than one objective for a lesson plan if you feel that this would be more beneficial.

Step 3 You should show, as early as possible in your lesson plan, what materials you are going to use. Be specific in this case so that you can make sure another teacher will have everything that they could possibly need in the event that you, the parent, choose not to teach yourself.

Step 4 It is highly suggested that you write out an anticipatory activity as a way to lead into the main lesson plan. This will help develop the student's interest in learning what you are getting ready to teach.

Step 5 At this point you need to write the step-by-step procedures that will be performed to reach each of the above-mentioned objectives. These don't have to involve every little thing that the teacher will say and do but, they should list the relevant actions that the teacher needs in order to perform them.

Step 6 After all of the outlined procedures have been completed, you may want to provide your students with time for independent practice. This step will help to reinforce the main concepts and lessons learned. In addition, it will help the students determine for themselves what additional information they may need to fully comprehend the material.

Step 7 Before you start moving to the assessment phase of your homeschooling lesson plan, you should be prepared to create some sort of closure for the lesson plan. A good idea for this part of the process is to return to your anticipatory set discussed earlier. It is at this point that your children can ask for additional information or clarification on the main lesson points. After having gone through the lesson, you can return to the introduction exercise and ask how things may have changed given what they have just learned.

Step 8 For this step, it is a good idea to include a "connection" section, which clearly shows how the lesson plan could be integrated with other subjects. This builds on step 7 and by putting a lot of work into it, you can really help to develop complete thematic units that help integrate related topics into many different subjects.

Step 9 In this step, you will want to write your assessment and evaluation. In reality, many lesson plans don't really need them. However, they are helpful and most of them should have some sort of evaluation as to whether or not the objectives were met.

The key to doing this is to make sure that the assessment specifically measures whether the objectives were reached or not. As a result of this step, there should be a direct correlation between the defined objectives and the evaluation assessments.

That's really all there is to creating a lesson plan! If you follow the steps as outlined here, you are on your way to writing a very thorough lesson plan that will be useful for you regardless of the subject that you may be teaching.

Tips For a Cozier and More Inviting Home

Recently, I had a few unexpected guests in my home and I panicked when I realized how untidy my home was. My children's toys were everywhere, I had big pillows and blankets on the floor where my family plays together, and my kitchen sink still had our lunch dishes in it, and so on.

Why did I panic? Well, when I have company my house is cleaned from top to bottom and it doesn't look so "lived" in. As I apologized for the disorderly state of my house, my guests explained to me how comfortable my house looked and made them feel. They liked the fact that toys and pillows cluttered my living room because it made my house feel more inviting and cozy and not the normal "showcase feel" that they've seen before.

This experience started me thinking. What makes a home feel cozy, warm, and inviting? I believe the most important characteristic of a home is not the size or style, or that it's in perfect order. What's truly important is whether your home is a place of comfort, somewhere in which your family and friends can relax and enjoy themselves.

There are many ways to give your home that inviting "feel" to it. Try incorporating some of the tips and ideas below into your home and see if you can "feel" the difference.

Family Photos - A house without family photos is like a candy store without candy! Family photos do not have to be professionally taken to make them good pictures. Consider framing your favorite snapshots in interesting frames and displaying them around your house. To create a great wall display, simply enlarge and frame a few of your family pictures and hang them up.

Pillows & Throws - By using colorful throw pillows, pretty throws, quilts and blankets, you are making your house look and feel more like a home. Look for these items in luxurious materials such as chenille, cashmere, or velvet. For extra seating, purchase large colorful floor pillows and place them on the floor in your family room.

Books & Magazines - Have you ever heard the term "coffee table books"? This is a good way to give your home a comfortable, relaxed feel to it. Lay out some of your big books with the pretty, colorful covers. Display them on your coffee table. You could also fan out a few of your favorite magazines.

Flowers & Plants - Flowers and plants can add color, brightness and a bit of the outdoors to your home. Put them in non-traditional containers. Try some pretty colored bottles, decorative baskets, cheerful bowls or glasses; use your imagination!

Lighting - Instead of relying on bright overhead lighting, consider using wall sconces, table lamps, or floor lamps to create softer light. The lower wattage bulbs will lend a much cozier feel.

Smell & Hearing – Don't forget to please the important senses of smell and hearing. Create a soothing atmosphere in your home by having several music sources throughout your home. By doing this, you and your family can enjoy the soothing sound of music regardless of what room you are in. To give your home a welcoming scent, use aromatic reed diffusers, room sprays, candles, and/or fresh flowers.

The above ideas are an easy way to create a warm and comfortable home environment. As I learned from my guests, they preferred my home to have the "lived in" look over the "sparkling showcase" look. So, don't panic the next time an unexpected guest arrives and some of the kids' toys are lying around or you have blankets thrown across the furniture. These types of things give our home character and make it a more inviting place for everyone who visits not to mention the people who live there.

On Becoming a Faster Reader

Has slow reading speed kept you from reading as much as you want to? Are you able to remember what you have read without going over the material again and again? If these questions open up concerns, then read on.

In today's fast-paced information age, it is more important than ever to be a proficient reader. Everyone from high-powered executives to children just learning to read in grade school can benefit by improving their reading skills.

Why do you want to read faster? When a person is able to increase his/her reading speed, reading becomes more like watching a movie. More material can be absorbed in a shorter amount of time. In short, improved reading speed leads to more success and a better overall quality of life.

Poor readers have to overcome bad habits in order to improve reading speed. One of these is subvocalization. This is the habit of pronouncing the words in your mind while you read. Another bad habit is re-reading or regression. This is letting your eyes wander back to re-read text.

One place to go to get help is on your computer. Computer software has been developed and is on the market which will help the typical reader increase his/her reading skills. These software programs pace the reader at higher speeds, making it physically impossible to subvocalize. Other software displays text by flashing word sets, whereas the reader will not have a chance to look back and re-read materials.

Typical reading software also helps the reader reduce eye fixation time (which is time spent with the eye focused on a single point), expand the eye fixation zone (which is the ability to read a wider text width when the eyes are focused on a single point), and to help increase the re-fixation speed (the ability to reposition the eyes at a rapid rate).

To help the reader improve, software programs usually employ two types of technology: rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) and tachistoscopic scroll presentation (TSP). When in RSVP mode, text is displayed in the center of the text area. RSVP can help one reader faster than normal because the eyes do not need to move. The words come to the eye's focus point instead of the eye going to the words.

In TSP mode, text is displayed in a manner that forces the eyes to move just like they do in normal reading. TSP trains a person to read in a normal fashion, but at higher speeds. Both modes can help a person to read multiple words at a time.

So, where do you find this miracle software? Try searching for reading improvement software, reading assessment software, productivity reading tool, self-improvement educational reading tool, reading fluency software, vision training software or speed reading software.

A good speed reading package will help you assess your current reading speed level and improve your reading speed and comprehension. The program should be challenging but fun, making you want to come back time and again to continue to improve your reading skills. Evaluate what you want a reading improvement software program to do for you and give it a try.

Reading improvement is like training for a sport. It is physical skill. So, practice, practice, practice. You will be amazed at the improvement in your reading speed in a short period of time.

The Benefit Of Distance Learning Programs

In today's day and age, the computer plays an integral role in our lives; allowing us to work, shop, and even learn from the comfort of our own homes. Online education has increased in popularity as more and more colleges and universities offer comprehensive distance learning programs. And the more these programs are well received by non-traditional students who appreciate the flexibility this type of learning provides, the more programs begin to be offered.

Distance learning programs are especially helpful for those students struggling to fit education into an already busy work and family life. These programs allow students to complete their studies at a pace that works for them and still achieve their educational goals.

In the modern world, students who are already engaged in a career and family life, have little time to drive to and from college or university even if one is close enough to attend. And when you add the time in the classroom combined with homework, attaining a degree can be unmanageable.

The benefit of distance learning programs is that the same level of education is offered through accredited online colleges and universities - giving students the opportunity to earn a degree without the logistical constraints associated with attending a traditional school. There are now a variety of accredited degrees available and the subjects being offered only promise to grow in the future.

In order to decide between programs it is first necessary to ensure that the program being offered is through an accredited online college or university. The U.S. Department of Education offers an online service that allows students to research specific distance learning programs. Be sure to find a program that fits your financial and educational needs and one that will give you the degree that will help you best achieve your career goals.

Once you choose from among the distance learning programs that make the most sense for your lifestyle, you will be asked to choose a number of courses during each semester. Just as students pay tuition in a traditional college or university, students are also required to pay tuition in the case of distance learning programs.

The professor for each course will present a syllabus that outlines the course work for each semester and detail the requirements for each student requiring the purchase of books or other materials needed for the course.

Assignments and examinations take place throughout the semester to ensure that students are on track with their studies and implementing educational concepts correctly. In some cases, learning will take place through specified readings, online tutelage, and even the watching of videos.

Often, students will be asked to submit assignments on specified dates - either posting them to a particular online location or emailing them directly to their professor.

Distance learning programs bring the joy of education to all students regardless of their life situation. Programs such as these transcend busy work and home lives and bring students one step closer to a degree in higher education.