Part 1: DECISION — Should you do it?

Homeschooling as an Educational Option:

Home schools can work well.  In fact, I (the editor) think that in many situations homeschooling can provide the best of all possible educations, when all things are considered.  But home schools are not for everyone, so Part 1 provides information to help you decide if homeschooling is the best option for you and your children.

All links in this page were checked on January 2, 2009.  Unfortunately, links with "==" before them don't work now.   { a comment-and-complaint: You can see the difficulty in keeping links current. Why don't website developers use page-forwarding when they change their URLs? }

FAQs — HomeSchool.com — Oregon Home Education Network — John Holt Associates
OVERVIEWS — from University of Oregon — ERIC Digest in 2001 (and 1995) — Great Schools — Statistics & Information (about numbers, reasons,... in 1999) from U.S. Dept of Education — and many websites have "series of pages" covering the basics.

SOME IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:
• WHETHER — The Benefits and Disadvantages of Homeschooling (Sonlight Curriculum) — Should I homeschool? (Homeschool Teacher's Lounge) — The Pros and Cons of Homeschooling — == Homeschooling for Black Children? — Advantages & Disadvantages - (about the AllAbout-Websites) — to homeschool or not to homeschool (Joanna Bratten, Franciscan University) — Ten Most Important Things — Pros & Cons (lots of links) —
• WHY — Advantages of Homeschooling — Unsung Benefits (Mary Pride, HomeSchool World) — == Six Types of Reasons (Pam Sorooshian) & == Ten Good Reasons (Greg Sherman) in NHEN —
• WHY NOT — it isn't easy finding pages focused on "reasons not to" although reasons are in some WHETHER-pages above and CRITICISMS below

IS IT LEGAL? — quick overview — == 8 Probing Questions & == FAQ & == Laws by State (from National Home Education Network ==, NHEN) — Laws by State (Home School Legal Defense Association, HSLDA) — info from == State Departments of Education — == Links (NHEN)

HISTORY — by Linda Dobson (overview) — == Patrick Farenga (more thorough) — Helen Hegener (re: John Holt) — Patrick Farenga (re: John Holt)

CRITICISMS — Educators Criticize Homeschooling (cites NAESP: == a search shows four abstracts encouraging cooperation, with one available == paper) — == == Views by Non-Homeschoolers — National Education Association (resolutions in 2000 & 2005-06) & == letter (to NHEN)
RESPONSES — Responding to Common Objections (Homeschool Teacher's Lounge) — Answering Objections (Fred Worth,...) — Common Objections to Homeschooling (John Holt) —

SOCIALIZATION — by Rebecca Kochenderfer (editor of Homeschool.com) — Home School Teachers Lounge — == Myths (Christine Web) — ERIC Digest — The "S" Word & links by Ann Zeise   /   Minimizing Damage to a Child's Self-Image:  Whether it occurs due to a teacher (with overly harsh evaluations) or other students (on playground or in lunchroom), your child's self-image can be damaged by the “socialization” that occurs in public schools.  Parker Palmer describes the personal pain that can occur "whenever we violate the identity and integrity of the other,... when we demean, marginalize,... when we simply don't care or don't look hard enough to evoke our caring for another."  This personal pain can happen more easily in a public school setting, compared with homeschooling, because you are highly motivated to focus your efforts on the overall personal edification of your children.  A public school teacher can "help repair any damage to a child's self-esteem" but you can be proactive in doing what you can to prevent this damage. (quotation about damage repair is from Whole-Person Christian Education by Craig Rusbult, the editor)

SCHOLARLY STUDIES — National Home Education Research Institute — search in ERIC (use their "Search Help" and explore) or Google Scholar — for example, panel (at 2004 meeting of American Education Research Association) & == a paper (Michael Apple) & == response (Nicky Hardenbergh) —

ON TO COLLEGE? — Three Questions — ERIC Digest — links for Getting In & Homeschool College — and explore (search: college homeschooling, or...)
 

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Parts 1 & 2:  This area of the website is about SCHOOL OPTIONS and DECISION is the focus, so (in Part 1) information about other schooling options — PUBLIC & CHARTER and PRIVATE (Christian or Secular) — is also relevant.  Questions about the ACTION of how to teach (in Part 2) are also in other parts of the website, in TEACHING METHODS & TEACHING ACTIVITIES and also in WORLDVIEW EDUCATION & ORIGINS EDUCATION and in LEARNING SKILLS & THINKING SKILLS & THE NATURE OF SCIENCE.  In home schooling, Parts 1 and 2 are closely related because parents making the decision will also do the action, so both are included in this page.

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES for Parts 1 & 2 — most homeschool websites link to lots of useful resources, some more useful than others (and that's for you to decide) — for example, by exploring == Eclectic Homeschool Online (top-of-page tabs, sidebars,...) you can find == Articles & Reviews & much more — usually resources are arranged "by topic" but sometimes by author — or you can use a search engine (Google or Yahoo or ERIC & Google Scholar or...) and search [homeschooling] ["home school"] [or...]   {a reminder about broken links (==) and irresponsible website developers}

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Part 2: ACTION — HOW should you do it?

HOW — an overview from Home School Teachers Lounge — a "beginners series" by HSLDA — from Homeschool.com, Preparing to Homeschool for Success & info-and-resource page & Organization + Time Management — Revelations of a Homeschooling Mom — A Step-by-Step Guide — a resource-page from == National Home Education Network

TOP 100 EDUCATIONAL WEBSITES according to Homeschool.com

SUPPORT from ONLINE FORUMS — Homeschool.com — Homeschool Fellowship — Homeschool World
and ORGANIZATIONS in states (and countries), in lists from HomeSchool World & == National Home Educators Network & HSLDA

LEARNING STYLES — == Carrie Kitzmiller — Learning Styles — == Seven Human Intelligences (more about M.I. in THINKING SKILLS — Debra Bell (author of UGHS) — interview with two authors — Esau & Jacob
SPECIAL CHILDREN — NHEN offers == FAQ & == links and more (in right-sidebar) — overview & 10 tips — A to Z (links) — check for "special needs" forums in the FORUMS above — and sometimes "special" blends into "gifted"...
GIFTED CHILDREN — from the Gifted Homeschooling Forum, Why homeschooling? & articles & resources — == NHEN with sharing by parents (Christine & Laurie) and resources to explore, including Hoagies —

APPROACHES — == Eclectic HomeSchool Online (EHO) — HomeSchool World — == Socratic Method — Ponca Christian Home Educator — Home School Learning Network — == A to Z (with 5 additional categories) — == EHO-Links (== rearranged)

MOTIVATION & LIFELONG LEARNING — "Sir William Haley said, ‘Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it.’  Becoming a life-long learner, that's something that seems to come naturally to most homeschoolers no matter the homeschooling method used by their parents.  Homeschooling is just that much more personal and the education derived is a personal education. ... If at the end of your homeschooling career your children are excited about starting to learn, you’ve done well." (from == What Defines Homeschool Success? by Beverly Krueger, editor of Eclectic Homeschool Online) — Short-Term Motivation (Make it Intrinsically Fun Now) and Long-Term Motivation (Make it Personally Useful Later) by Craig Rusbult, editor of the "ASA Science Ed" website you're now using.

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER — [intro-pages] — descriptions of Childrens' Books for Building Christian Character — WORLDVIEW EDUCATION & LIVING A WORLDVIEW (most of it is useful for homeschooling) — == EHO-links —

THINKING SKILLS — == ChristianLogic.com — VirtualSalt.com with "Tools for the Age of Knowledge" and much more — Critical Thinking & Christian Worldview — and our link-pages about CREATIVE (generative) THINKING & CRITICAL (evaluative) THINKING for PRODUCTIVE (creative-and-critical) THINKING that includes Design Method & Scientific Method

SCIENCE EDUCATION — Science Overview from Sonlight Curriculum — ERIC Digest — Eclectic Homeschool Online describes articles in its lists: == medium-sized and == including these & more — every day Jack Haas searches the web to find interesting Stories in Current Science – and he has written a Youth Page for Science )
• ASA Homeschool Science Resources is another website-service (who are we and how can this new resource-website help you?) provided by the American Scientific Affiliation.  It is being developed by Douglas Hayworth, is introduced by ASA's Executive Director, and will be growing in the near future.

    CREATION, DESIGN, AND EVOLUTION — check the homepage about ORIGINS EDUCATION FOR CHRISTIANS — IOU (later, there will be more resources here)
    AGE OF THE EARTH — almost all homeschool resources argue for a young-earth view, with a few exceptions:  Online Geology Curriculum from Answers In Creation (old-earth non-evolutionary creation — Old-Earth Creation Homeschooling (lots of resources in right-side column)

    SCIENCE ED FORUM — HomeSchool Fellowship —

CURRICULUM — review of == “100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum” — Using TV for DVD-Education —

EDUCATION STANDARDS — Trouble for Private & Home Schools (Cathy Duffy, 2001) —

ACTIVITIES FOR SUMMERTIME (or other times) — links from Three Rivers Library — 101 Things To Do This Summer — Homeschool Highway (links) —