Welcome to your ultimate homeschooling resource


Proven Advice To Give Your Kids A Great Education At Home

Many parents are disgusted with the dismalspends only two hours per day, seven days a
education their kids get in public school,week, year-round, on basics alone, logs over
but think they wouldn't have the time tothree times as many hours 'on task' in a
homeschool their kids because both parentsgiven year than does his public school
(or  single  moms)  have  jobs.counterpart. Moreover, unlike the public
school child, whose day is largely taken up
The good news is that even working parentsby non-task activities, the homeschooled
can homeschool their kids. Parents don't havechild has ample time left each day to take
to depend on vouchers or charter schools,part in other activities - athletics, art,
which are few and far between. The time youhistory,  etc..."
will need to teach your children the basics -
reading, writing, and arithmetic - is muchSo, according to the authors, if
less  than  you  think.home-schooled children study for only two
hours a day, year round, they will get three
Most parents are not aware of the fact thattimes more educational hours on academic
for over 200 years in this country, before webasics like reading, writing, and arithmetic
ever had public schools, most working parentsthan  public-school  students  get.
taught their kids to read and do arithmetic
at home. Let me quote author and formerNot only does teaching your child the basics
public-school teacher John Gatto from hisat home take far less time than you thought,
wonderful  book,  "Dumbing  Us  Down":but teaching these skills is even easier
today because parents now have tons of
"Were the colonists geniuses? [i.e., why dideducation resources available to them such as
our colonial forefathers have literacy ratesthe Internet and computer learning software.
close to 90 percent?]. No, the truth is thatAlso, bookstores like Barnes and Noble and
reading, writing, and arithmetic only takeBorders have whole sections full of books
about 100 hours [italics added] to transmitabout teaching your child to read, write, and
as long as the audience is eager and willingdo basic math, as well as books that will
to learn. . . . Millions of people teachinterest  and  challenge  young  readers.
themselves these things. It really isn't very
hard.  .  ."Once your children learn to read well, the
whole world of learning opens to them. They
To be conservative, let's assume that becausecan explore any subject that interests them,
you're not an experienced teacher it takesand read ever more difficult material by
you three hundred hours to teach your childthemselves in books or on the computer. For a
these skills with the help of learn-to-readsmall subscription fee, your children can
phonics workbooks and computer software.study the entire Encyclopedia Britannica on
Three hundred hours, divided by the averagethe Internet. They can access almost every
six-hour public school day, comes out tomajor library in the world through the
fifty school days, which is about ten weeksInternet, including the Library of Congress.
or  three  months.If your kids love to read and learn, the
Internet  provides  unlimited  resources.
Let me emphasize this point - it could take
you, or a tutor you pay, as little as threeOnce your children read fluently, you can
months to teach your child to read, write,point them towards your local library or
and do simple arithmetic. Again, to be evenbookstore, supervise their studies, and see
more conservative, most children could learnwhere their interests lie. Your job is to
these skills in one year if you (or a tutor)introduce your kids to as many different
concentrated your instruction on thesesubjects and resources as possible. Have them
basics. Public schools take eight to twelvetake art classes at the local YMCA, library,
years of children's lives, yet they turn outor arts and crafts store. Introduce them to
millions of high-school graduates who candifferent kinds of music. See if they enjoy a
barely read their own diploma or multiply 12music lesson on the piano, guitar, or drums.
x15  without  a  calculator.Give them classic novels by great authors to
read.
David Colfax and his wife Micki were
public-school teachers turned ranchers whoMost home-schooling parents spend about three
taught their four sons at home in the 1970sto four hours a day homeschooling their kids.
and 1980s, and three of their sons eventuallyThe key point to remember is that you have
went to Harvard. They co-authored a bookmany options and a vast amount of education
titled Homeschooling For Excellence, whichresource material available to help you
describes their home-schooling experience. Inhomeschool your children and quickly teach
their book, they compared the time a childthem  the  basics.
wastes in public school to the time average
home-schooling parents need to teach theirThe Resource section in my book, "Public
children  the basics. Here's what they wrote:Schools, Public Menace" lists a wealth of
education resources parents can take
"The numbers are straightforward andadvantage of right now. You do not have to
irrefutable. The child who attends publicdepend on vouchers or charter schools. When
school typically spends approximately 1100you take advantage of all the education
hours a year there, but only twenty percentresources available to you, home-schooling
of these-220-are spent, as the educators say,can be fairly easy and take much less time
'on task.' Nearly 900 hours, or eightythan  you  think.
percent, are squandered on what are
essentially  organizational  matters."Don't your kids deserve the great education
you can give them?
"In contrast, the homeschooled child who



1 A B C D E F 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137