How to home school, teaching tips, encouragement, articles, getting started, should you home school, and more.

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We Can Help You Home School

Whether you are just looking into home schooling, or you've already started, we have lots of practical information on why and how to home school. The menus at the right have lots of great articles to help you.

If you already know a lot about home schooling, check our "Teaching Tips" for some more great home schooling ideas.*

- Featured Article -

If You Are New to Home Schooling

The First Few Weeks - Fear and Terror

Welcome to the wonderful world of home schooling! Maybe your excited, but fear or terror are much more common feelings. "What have I got myself into? What if I can't teach my children? What if they don't learn enough? What will my relatives think?" (Or maybe you already know what your relatives think.) Like all humans, we have some doubts when doing something new for the first time, especially when it is also very important.

Most of us were not home schooled, so we have to learn how to home school, "and" we have to teach our children. But don't worry. You have many years to teach your children, and home schooling is a lot more efficient than a classroom with 25 plus children in it, so even if you make a few mistakes (did I say "if"), there will be lots of time to recover. And remember there are lots of mistakes made in classrooms, too (lots and lots).

You don't have to be perfect to be a great home schooling parent. You just have to do a better job than an institutional school would. This may sound daunting, since they have professionally trained teachers, however, they also have 25 or more children in a classroom, all the same age, with just one adult teacher.

We home schoolers work one-on-one with our children. We use apprenticeship methods that have been used for thousands of years, and are still used to teach "work" skills in every industry and virtually every occupation (especially in the trades, but even in offices people "teach" new employees what to do). On the first day of a new job, someone is likely to show you around - you are likely to get one-on-one teaching. Why? Because it works.

Have you ever tried to learn a foreign language? Ask any immigrant from a non-English speaking country how easy it is to learn English. See how well they speak it after years of study. Yet, we parents teach our children to speak our native language like experts, in only a few years. Home schooling is just continuing this process with teaching them more things.

Sure it's difficult at first. Sure it takes lots of effort. But you'll love those moments when your children's eyes light up and they say "I see!" And you will know your children and they will know you. And you will have lots of enjoyment learning along with them (none of us know everything we have to teach - we just learn it and teach them, or learn it along with them - it works great in practice).

And your children will get the best education available today. They will learn social skills (direct from you, who know a little more than other children their age), and they won't have the de-socializing aspects of schools. And they will learn ethics, how to deal with real life, and many other things from you, that are not taught, or can't be taught, in a classroom full of children with only one adult.

And remember you are not alone. So, don't do it alone. Read books (and Internet sites like this one), and talk to lots of other home schoolers. If you don't know any other home schooling families, find an Internet discussion group (for more information on finding support, see our article called "Find Support"), so you can get help from people who have already been where you are. As they say, "Don't re-invent the wheel." With the Internet, there is no need to.

It takes about two to three years for most new home schooling parents to feel really comfortable and confident with home schooling (but your children will still learn lots in these first years, as you learn more about home schooling). So be patient with yourself. It's a great journey with your children, and it's so good for the children.

The Purpose of This Site

The purpose of this site is to provide specific "how to" information, to help home schooling parents home school better, including:

• Teaching tips.
• Articles.
• Encouragement.
• Resources.
• Success stories.
• How to get started.
• And any other things we can find or figure out that will help people home school better.

This site is also for information on why people home school, and the benefits of home schooling, to help those who are considering home schooling, to decide if home schooling is for them.

We hope our site will help you in providing the very best education you can for your children.

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