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Home Schooling—Alternative Schooling
This is the most complicated issue of practical Home Schooling ever. Its contents range from a detailed analysis of the educational features of online services to an equally detailed analysis of major curriculum packages, and from reports on major educational conferences to a side-by-side look at major Home Schooling methods.
There are many great online and offline resources for Home Schooling.
HSLDA: Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is a nonprofit advocacy organization established to defend and advance the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children and to protect family freedoms. Through annual memberships, HSLDA is tens of thousands of families united in service together, providing a strong voice when and where needed. HSLDA’s mission is to protect the freedom of all homeschoolers. Although our officers and directors are Christians, HSLDA membership is open to all homeschoolers. They trust and respect parents to make the right choices for the upbringing of their children.
They have no agenda to make all public and home-based classrooms religious or conservative. Their primary objective is to preserve the fundamental right of parents to choose home education, free of over-zealous government officials and intrusive laws. They do put on a national conference annually and invite the board members of state organizations with whom they have worked for many years. Most, if not all, of those organizations have Christian leaders, but many serve all home schoolers regardless of religious affiliation, as they do.
The National Home Education Research Institute: The National Home Education Research Institute's mission is to “Produce high-quality research (e.g., statistics, facts, findings) on home-based education (Home Schooling).
It serves as a clearinghouse of research for the public, researchers, home schoolers, the media, and policy makers. Educate the public concerning the findings of all research on home education. Whether called Home Schooling, homeschooling, home-based education, home education, home-schooling, unschooling, deschooling, or a form of alternative education, the movement is growing and the National Home Education Research Institute is tracking and analyzing it, internationally.
NHERI's forte is in the realm of research, statistics, technical reports, data, facts, demographics, the academic world, consulting, academic achievement tests, and expert witness (in courts and legislatures) while serving people ranging from researchers and policy makers to professional educators, teachers, home schoolers and parents in general to the media, marketing consultants, and the general public. NHERI was founded by its president Dr. Brian D. Ray, Ph.D., who has been the editor of the refereed academic journal Home School Researcher since 1985.
Some more useful Home Schooling resources:
Calvert Homeschool: Calvert School provides a time-tested and complete homeschool curriculum with two goals in mind: To inspire the best in your child and to make you the best Home Teacher possible.
As one of the best home schooling institutions, they plan detailed, daily lessons in all major subjects, and their lessons are designed to appeal to different learning styles. Their lessons are written in their private Day School, using the best textbooks and workbooks available. Their program is proven and assures you no gaps in instruction. In addition to their lessons, they support your home teaching with their Placement Testing, Education Counselors, and Advisory Teaching Service. For details, visit: http://www.calvertschool.org.
Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd: Sonlight Curriculum’s literature based approach to homeschooling provides a dynamic and unique educational program. It promotes a life-long love of learning, helps build close relationships between parents and children, and creates an experience that is truly the “Educational Adventure for a Lifetime.” People from very different backgrounds with widely differing educational experience are successfully using Sonlight. For details, visit: http://www.sonlight.com.
CompuHigh: Since 1994 CompuHigh has provided an online accredited high school diploma program and courses. CompuHigh seeks to provide a supportive, challenging and alternate learning environment. Students are encouraged to be in charge of their education, giving them the opportunity to develop creativity, independence, responsibility, time management and critical thinking skills.
Some more features:
- CompuHigh provides year-round high school courses.
- CompuHigh issues a transcript and diploma accepted by universities and colleges.
- All course material is online: you will not have to purchase additional textbooks.
- Students can work at their own pace.
- Our high school is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Each course has a teacher.
- Teachers will respond to students' postings within a 48 hour time period.
- CompuHigh courses are project-based, not test- based.
- CompuHigh is affiliated with Clonlara School, a fully accredited private school. Clonlara School is an unweighted school.
For details, visit: http://www.compuhigh.com/.
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