Posts Tagged ‘education’

The Advantages of Homeschooling

Sunday, May 15th, 2011

The pros and cons of homeschooling are many, but do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? With total control over your child’s homeschooling needs you have the flexibility to teach your child values that cannot be taught in a public classroom. On the other hand your time will not be as free as it used to be.

The education a child can gain from a loving and concerned parent will be much greater than is possible to receive in a public school system. You don’t need a teaching credential or even a college degree, just the desire to give your child a quality education. If there are subjects that you don’t feel comfortable teaching it is possible to hire a tutor for those classes. And on the positive side your home school curriculum can incorporate other things such as your own religious and moral beliefs, something that will not be taught in a public school system. By taking control of a child’s education a parent can shape that child’s value system better than anyone else.

There are two main requirements necessary to achieve a rewarding home schooling experience for both you and your child. Obviously you must have a desire to teach your children, that is number one. If you are doing it out of duty or obligation you may soon find yourself in way over your head and wanting to get out. The second requirement is determination. You must truly want your child to succeed and be willing to put forth the time and effort it takes for your child to reach his or her potential. With these two ingredients your child may be able to realize an education that could not be achieved in a public classroom.

You, more than anyone else, want your child to reach their full potential. This is usually not possible in a crowded classroom environment. A child, to learn at their best, must have one-on-one instruction from someone who truly cares for them. And who better than you can give that to them? Public school teachers are overwhelmed by the sheer number of students they must control every day. With the many different learning styles, discipline problems, regulations that need to be followed and other factors a public school teacher cannot spend the individual time with each child that is necessary to bring out that child’s best. Home schooling can help children to blossom and bring out a child’s full potential like nothing else can.

Do you have doubts about your ability to teach? All you have to do to overcome your fear is to visit a public classroom for a day. Visit a kindergarten class or a first grade class and you will see that much of the time spent is merely controlling the children’s behavioral problems. And the lessons that are taught are usually very simple. In a one-on-one home atmosphere you will be able to progress at your own pace.

With a few home school books and lesson plans you will be able to get started very easily. Remember, you are starting your teaching experience with a very young child. And you will actually be able to learn as you go. With a little preparation it is possible to grow with your child. And the first time you see some of your instruction sink into your child’s brain you will feel satisfied that you are performing a very important task. You will surely be surprised at how effective you can be as your child’s homeschool instructor.
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How to find the accredited online university program you need

Monday, March 7th, 2011

With countless online university offers fighting for your attention online, one of your first priorities in finding a university is to verify its credentials. Accreditation can make all the difference in the quality of the education being offered. It isn’t enough that a university is accredited. Find out more details about the accreditation. It should be legitimate and have recognition from the US Department of Education or the Council for Higher Accreditation.

What Is Accreditation

The US Department of Education has identified key points in ensuring the accreditation of an online university. Firstly, the institution needs to be able to meet established standards. They should also offer assistance to students in identifying the right colleges and finding out the details of transfer credits. The college should have set goals for self-improvement and increasing educational standards. Faculty and staff needs to be involved in institutional evaluation and planning. Criteria should be in place for availing federal financial assistance.

Accreditation is defined as a voluntary, non-governmental process of peer review by which an institution meets specific standards. However in layman’s language, it is more practical to think of it as the difference between a degree and the job that you’ve been striving for, and a waste of time, energy and money into a course that will eventually prove worthless.
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No – SMALLER is Better!

Monday, January 24th, 2011

Which would be easier for you to memorize?

1.) The entire New York telephone book
2.) A small nursery rhyme

If you picked #1, please go away!

Scientific studies have shown that we learn best by absorbing small morsels of information, applying them in a practical manner, then building on what we know. As we add more chunks of information our minds correlate, collate, and link everything, referring back to previously learned facts to form a comprehensive sphere of knowledge.

What does this mean to you?

Don’t tackle a huge book of foreign language grammar or prose as an early learning project. Begin with smaller projects.

For example, you could start with a few paragraphs of a novel – memorizing the vocabulary – and proceeding to the next few paragraphs.

Why not choose the most widely published book in the world?

Even if you’re not a Christian, the Bible can be an invaluable tool for learning the foreign language of your choice. It is published in more languages than any other book, and there is a plethora of internet resources with complete texts available for FREE download.
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Imagine That! Defining an Imaginal Education

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Education is failing in the United States. By saying this, I know that I join the ranks of the self-appointed Cassandra’s who hurl our hands up to our foreheads and sing the doom of a nation. But it’s true.

And most of the wailers miss the point. Underlying the political agendas, funding battles, culture wars, and the simultaneous disrespect for and outrageous expectations of teachers, there is a much deeper failure.

Think of a moment in your life when you were completely caught up in learning something. In that moment, learning wasn’t about facts, tests or grades, succeeding or failing. Instead, it was an all-consuming, joyful burst of energy and pleasure at finally discovering something. Of understanding something. To borrow from Shakespeare, it was an instance of god-like apprehension, comprehension of our place as partners in a creative universe.

How often have you had a moment like that in your educational process? If you’re like most people, pretty rarely. Somewhere along the line, education became a consumerist contest of amassing skills and factoids and spewing them back to the world like game show geeks. But when we become glorified databases, we lose the analytical abilities that keep us from being engulfed by systems (be they political, religious, societal, or media) without bothering to ask if they should exist at all. We have all of the pieces out of the puzzle box and arrayed on the table, but we don’t have a picture to follow.
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