Homeschooling

Every homeschooling family must have a curriculum. There are two extremes in curriculum which every homeschooler is familiar with. The first extreme is a curriculum which does everything for you. There are video teachers, online help, directed chatrooms (emphasis on directed), integrated textbooks and teachers to grade the student’s work. Many parents believe that this is the best of all possible worlds. While these are excellent curricula, there are two severe downsides. The first is cost. Most of these programs cost more than a thousand dollars per student per year, in addition to the cost of the equipment to make the programs work. Extracurricular activities, such as music or sports can easily end up driving the total cost to over $1500 per student per year. Even many parents who can afford these costs are asking themselves, “Should we?” Might some of this money be better spent on missions or even the general fund at church?

The second objection is not so obvious. Parents who have someone else do everything for them loose valuable interaction with their own children. At first this does not sound so bad.

The other extreme is not spending any money and building a curriculum from scratch. To anyone who has actually homeschooled, this sounds like a nightmare and anyone who would think such a though is insane.

Almost all homeschooling families are somewhere in the middle.