How much of an adults time does it take up to home educate a child?

Question

If someone chose to take their child out of high school...and wanted to educate them at home.....how on earth do they work out exactly what the child needs to learn? how on earth do they manage to timetable everything/know exactly what the child needs?Is home education very expensive? How much of an adult's time would it take to teach the child? and would this be a problem if the adult was working??
Would it be even harder if there were two children to home educate?/very expensive?

Answer 1

it really depends on if the child is motivated or not.

Answer 2

There are many books available to homeschooling parents that teach "what a child needs to learn and when" (one is actually named this) -- and there are other books that help you schedule what you need to accomplish in a given period of time. With some practice, this becomes second nature. Home education can be expensive but there are ways to alleviate the expense by making use of the public library, purchasing used textbooks and borrowing. A lot of used book sales on e-bay, for instance -- you can sell your texts when you're finished and recoup some of the expense and put it toward the purchase of another text. It takes some work on the part of the parent to study and research -- but this part can be pleasant and challenging (and you'd be surprised how your own enjoyment of learning is inspired). For a high school-aged child, there is a lot the child can do for himself if you provide a basic guideline of what is expected daily, weekly, monthly, etc. There are also good video classroom lessons available which are self-tutoring (I found these helpful for subjects like algebra, chemistry, etc.). Depending on how disciplined and self-motivated your child is (and the appropriate age to stay home), working shouldn't be a problem as long as the parent makes a point to review materials daily. Other homeschooling families may be willing to take your child to field trips and social gatherings while you are working. Check out your local homeschool group. With two children, you sometimes save money because many of the texts are reusable -- just purchase a second workbook or photocopy pages (if permitted by the author -- which many do allow for that purpose). I probably spent about $400 per year per child on school materials -- I have seen families do it for much more and for much less -- depending on finances.

Answer 3

If the child can read than home schooling is easier on the parent. To teach younger children is time consuming. I really like to use Switched On Schoolhouse(SOS) by Alpha Omega Publishing(AOP) for 3rd grade and up. This is a CD-ROM subject based program. Cost is about $300 a year per child. They also have an accredited academy AO Academy that costs about $1100 a year per student. I have only had to spend about 30 minutes a day (max) helping my son and he is in 5th grade.

Answer 4

Well it depends on how self disciplined your kid can be. If you think that he can learn on his/her own then all you need to do is provide them with the necessary curriculum. If not then you'll have to watch over him/her a little more closely. What you might not realise is that homeschooling can take a long or short a time as you want. Public schools take up so much time but don't use up all that time to actually teach the students alot of it is changing classes taking role, lunch trying to get the class in order etc. since you will have only one or two of your kids to keep in order it will take alot less time to teach them what they need to learn. As for what curriculum to use there are so many books that you can buy and internet classes you can enroll in. what we do in my home is a mixture of online courses, text books and just plain studying on our own. And how expensive it would be is all your decision and what quality of books and things you want

Answer 5

There are two different ways to homeschool. You can get books and material from the school district. This is called "Extended Study" or "Home Study" and a teacher visits your home once a week to chart progress, correct current work and assign the next week's work.

The second method is actually "homeschooling." You buy curriculum from a homeschool curriculum site for the whole year and work your way through it. It's very organized and will tell you how much work per day per subject you should be accomplishing. You can sign on with a homeschool base and they will file your legal affidavit or you can name your school and file your own legal paperwork.

It takes approximately 5 hours a day to do a good job.

Answer 6

First, I have found that it is rather easy to know what to teach each child and when to teach it since you really get to individually know each child's talents and weaknesses. Yes, I did need a scope and sequence to help guide me in my decision for a curriculum each year, BUT I could not possibly teach each and every facet that was mentioned in those guides anyways. Furthermore, the public school system is exactly the same in that aspect... every child will have "gaps" in their education. However, if you have made sure that they have "mastered" the basic concepts in reading, writing, and arithematic... they can then successfully fill in those perceived "gaps" in their education through individual studies.

Second, time management has not always been an easy task for me in our homeschooling adventure. However, I had the exact same problem in the public schools when I worked there since things unexpectedly arose that I could not control. Furthermore, I now have more control to rectify these situations in homeschooling since I can choose to have my children study late in the evening, on weekends, or during holidays... I am not subject to a strict 8-3 (5 day a week) time frame. Moreover, I can slow a subject down so that mastery can take place, or skip over a subject if mastery has already taken place. In addition, since I "know" each child so thoroughly, I can easily evaluate what each child needs to review and teach that when it is needed. In the public school system, a teacher cannot allow the time for such an action even if she could keep track of approximately twenty-four students abilities or weaknesses.

Third, home education can have a minimal cost or a high cost depending on what the individual family chooses for their curricula. I personally spent about $500 each year on materials during their elementary and junior high years. Luckily, I was able to use most of the materials with my younger daughter so that cut the cost of purchases for her. However, during my eldest daughter's high school years, I spent an average of $100 dollars or more per subject... not including the cost of a microscope, chemistry sets, etc. However, this is only what I chose for my family... and I know that not everyone has to spend "x" amount of dollars for their child to succeed. I only spent that much since my daughter loved science and wanted to continue into a scientific field in college... just as she has done. Therefore, cost, per se, is not really an issue since "unschooling" is a viable method of educating a child and has little cost attached to it.

Fourth, once again, the time allotted to teaching varies with each individual family. While I do not believe that any child can learn solely by themself throughout life, I do believe that the main goal of education should be for each child to become a self-learner. Therefore, while it is totally necessary for a "young" child to have a lot a parental involvement in their education, parental involvement should decrease as the child masters the basics... not that an older child will not need assistance anymore... but the student should become more independent in his or her studies. Therefore, I cannot say just how much time would need to be allotted to teach a child unless I knew all the variables involved... such as the age of the child, did they have learning disablilities, what concepts have they mastered, how motivated are they in their own education, etc.

Last, I think that it is easier to educate more than one child at a time since the younger student is usually already exposed to many of the concepts that the older child has learned; thus, the younger child needs less time to master many subjects. Also, I would often teach my younger daughter with my older daughter if I thought that the material would be appropriate for her and that she would enjoy the experience. Therefore, I would often instruct both of my girls in history, science, or literature together and then assign them individual lessons that were approporiate for their age. However, one negative aspect of homeschooling more than one child is that it does require more time for me to plan lessons and grade papers since I utilize a more traditional method of schooling.

Thus, I believe that home education is a viable and successful method for most children and their families if they are motivated to undertake such an adventure.

Answer 7

I have been homeschooling my kids for a year now and the only things I want to make sure they learn is basic matsh- addition, multiplication, division, subtraction...and i extend on those a little by going into fractions, percentages, geometry, mass and volume. I also ensure they get a firm grasp of spelling, reading, vocabulary and grammar.
When it comes to science, history, geography, art, music, I let them choose what they want to learn about because if they're interested in something they're more likely to retain what they learn about it.
Unless the authority who monitors homeschooling in your area specifies what has to be learnt for each age group then I wouldn't worry too much about making sure you teach them 'everything' they need to know. No child or adult ever remembers everything they have been taught anyway. I just try to keep it realistic and relevant to the real world. So much of what I learnt at school is irrelevant to my life now and most people will tell you the same thing. I mean really, unless you want to go into aerospace engineering or some other high tech profession, you're not going to need to learn about calculus or trigonometry.
Find out what interests your child, what his/her career aspirations are then find out what subjects he/she should be learning in order to help secure them a job or college/university placement in their chosen field.
The beauty of homeschooling is that your child doesn't need to waste valuable time learning about things that won't help him/her achieve their goals, they can instead focus completely on what WILL help them achieve those goals.

Answer 8

Clemence, since you are 18, you should not need an adult homeschooling you. You need to contact an adult education centre in your area and proceed that way.

Why do you keep asking the same questions over and over? This hints at somebody goofing around and wasting people's time or somebody who has some serious issues...

Answer 9

There are homeschools in which you can enroll your children. Those schools will either provide or recommend text books and other ancillary materials necessary for your children's education. Is it expensive? It can be. However, some homeschools will give you a break on the tuition if you register more than one student.

Answer 10

You really do not need to spend anytime with your child homeschooling ages 12 and up. Here are some good curriculums. All you have to do is accredited work and a teacher takes care of the rest!!

http://www.compuhigh.com

http://www.keystonehighschool.com

http://www.aop.com

http://www.calvertschool.org

http://www.k12.com

Answer 11

When you home school, you don't exactly do it by yourself. There is a curriculum available for each grade and lesson plans. There are support groups and you can get together for field trips. I do not believe it is expensive. My sister home schooled all three of her children and they were way ahead of their peers in public school. They all got scholarships to college. Oh, and she only has a high school ed.