What Is It Really Like To Online Home School?

Online home school is a relatively new proposition on the educational scene. Not so long ago, your choices were traditional home school, where the parent took care of most of a child's learning, public school, or private school. Online home school is a blend of public school, private school, and home school. It allows parents some freedom and flexibility in the education process while still providing kids with a quality education similar to what they would receive in a brick and mortar institution--but what does that really mean for your child?

Your child will take command of their learning process. As an online home schooling family, you will work as a team: you, your student, and their teachers. All of you will work together throughout the learning process, but ultimately, your child will have a much greater responsibility for their own learning. They'll be able to work at their own pace, completing projects in a manner that works for them, while checking in regularly with a teacher when they need help. This is great preparation for both college and the "real world," where individuals are responsible for themselves and their project completion.

Your schedule will be yours to develop. This is true both of your daily schedule--the specific hours of the day that are actually spent on schoolwork--and of your vacation days. If you want to take a vacation in the middle of February, then it's yours to take! Just shuffle vacation days around to make it possible. Do you have an activity on Tuesday that makes it difficult to fit in schoolwork? It's okay to shift it to Saturday. This is one of the most enticing parts of online school for many families: the freedom you have to make your own choices regarding scheduling, rather than being held to a school district's rigid schedule.

Your home will become a place of learning. There's no way around it: when you choose online school for your child, you'll quickly discover that it takes over your home. Whether you have an entire room dedicated to learning each day or a desk set up in the corner of the living room where your child can do their schoolwork, you'll discover that those learning materials travel throughout the house anyway. Some days, your child will complete their schoolwork sitting on the couch with their feet propped up. Other days, they'll sprawl across their beds with a laptop or a book. This will become perfectly normal to both of you.

You'll learn what it means to teach your child. If you've never attempted traditional homeschooling, online home school will open your eyes to a number of things that you never expected. Your relationship with your child will grow in unexpected ways as you work together to achieve their educational goals. You'll discover the patience to sit down and explain a lesson that your child doesn't fully understand, even when it's not your favorite subject. You'll realize that teachers have it harder than you thought: they have thirty of these creatures in their classrooms, while you only have to deal with your own! You'll learn how to adapt your home to your child's learning style, whether that means offering regular breaks to run around the house, providing fidgets to keep their hands occupied while they work, or creating a silent environment with no distractions to enable focus.

Online home schooling is an incredible journey. Your child will increase their proficiency with a computer while gaining a quality education--often a better one than they were able to attain in a traditional brick and mortar school. Undertaking this journey will create substantial changes in your life, but they're changes that, in the long run, will enhance your family and your child's education.