In America, there was a time when the idea of homeschooling raised eyebrows of concern and could result in a visit from social services. A lack of trust by the government and public in general in a parent’s ability to educate their own children made homeschooling a bit of a stigma.

Even today in some circles, there are still many “old school” thinkers that go so far as to say that homeschooling is tantamount to deliberate child abuse. As ridiculous as that sounds to most of us, overcoming such ignorance has been a problem for some parents looking into homeschooling.

Overseas, it can be much worse. Homeschooling is illegal in Germany, a law instituted under Hitler and still enforced today. German families who choose to home school must do so in secret and run the risk of arrest; or worse, having the state take their children away.

Performance of home schools versus public and private schools

It doesn’t take much effort or investigation to discover that homeschoolers excel above their public school counter parts in nearly every category. According to a study conducted by Dr. Lawrence Rudner:

• The average home schooled 8th grade student performs four grade levels above the national average.

• One in four home school students are enrolled in a grade level that is above their age level.

• In every grade and in every subject, home schooled students outperform both public and private school students.

Other studies confirm these findings, showing that home schooled students have a much higher college entry rate, score higher on SAT’s and ACT’s, have a higher rate of college graduation, and earn higher incomes in the workforce.

These numbers come despite the fact that about 25% of parents in America who choose to home school either never attended college, or attended but never received a degree. An additional 7-10% have only an Associate degree.

Why do homeschooled children perform so well?

The advantages to homeschooling are many, and are quite revealing as to why homeschooled children do so well.

One on one attention – Whenever a child needs assistance, the parent is there to give him or her full attention, whereas in public schools a teacher must divide their attention between dozens of children.

Ability to focus more time where needed – If a student excels in math, but flounders in science, then a parent can very easily devote as much time as is needed to teaching science. Public schools are regimented, with each subject receiving equal time regardless as to the performance of the student.

Homeschooled students move at their own pace – If a student excels in math then they can advance much quicker than students in a public school, where all students are required to move at the same pace.

Diminished distractions – The parents control the environment, and there is no peer pressure from other students trying to talk a homeschooled student into doing things other than school work or study.

Do parents need some kind of special training or certification?

Some states highly regulate home schools, requiring training and certification in some instances. However, studies show that there is virtually no difference in performance between homeschooled students in highly regulated states versus homeschooled students in states with little or no regulation.

The truth is that homeschooling is gaining in popularity and as such, more and more information and help materials are becoming available. The modern homeschooling parent can now effectively teach their children, regardless of the parent’s own education level, thanks to pre-developed curriculums such as those provided by Heritage Home School Academy.

Parents today can use these curriculums to guide their children. Some curriculums are so effective that parents can study ahead of their children in any subject for which they are lacking and effectively teach the same subject to their children. Furthermore, many children often “learn to learn,” reaching a point where they are able to teach themselves and follow a curriculum with little interaction required from the parent.

Each year more families choose to start homeschooling, spreading knowledge about its benefits, and erasing old stigmas along the way. For more information about homeschooling and home school curriculums, visit Heritage Home School Academy.

Stresses induced by modern day living habits takes a serious toll on the well being of families everywhere. Deadlines to meet at the workplace, financial obligations to be met at the homefront, relationship issues, parenting issues and the like have caused a lot of havoc in a lot of people’s lives. News articles and magazines are filled with stress induced fatigue and stress induced senseless actions taken by people in all kinds of stressful situations. And this stress is not limited to any specific geographical region, any specific people or any specific age group. Stress seems to be affecting not only adults in the prime of their lives, but also the elderly and children of both sexes male and female. Management of stress is extremely important at this juncture in our society and unfortunately this is not something that is taught in schools and universities. While this article cannot encompass all aspects of stress management, we will deal here only with one aspect of stress management and that is addressing the source of stress.

Stress management is usually associated with yoga or meditation and other relaxation exercises. While mind calming techniques such as deep breathing and calming scene visualizations do play an important role in stress reduction, in the opinion of the author, stress reduction is different from stress management. To associate stress reduction with stress management is akin to saying reducing your household expenses is the same as home finance management; sure reducing the expenses will certainly help, but that is not management. Stress management invokes the use of techniques to manage stress, with the full awareness that you cannot lead a stress free life in the modern world and run to the mountains. Hence the first step in stress management is the acceptance that there will be factors that push your limits and introduce stress levels in your day to day life. Now, once that is accepted, you can proceed to manage it. Management of stress involves first of all finding the source of the stress and addressing the source rather than the result which is the stress. For example, because there is a tight deadline for you to meet for some project at work, you may get stressed; in this case, the source of stress is the deadline at work; you need to manage your resources, time, people, etc to ensure that you will meet this deadline and you would have managed the stress effectively. Another example here; let’s say you are in the process of buying a house and your finances are really not in great shape to purchase this house; you are getting stressed all over. In this case, you need to identify that purchasing the house is not the source of stress, rather it is your bad financial management that is the culprit; you have one of two choices, you can face the reality and back off buying this property until you get all your financial ducks in a row or you can opt to buy a lesser valued home. The house project may suffer, but you would have mitigated the stress from buying the house when your finances are terrible. As you can see from these two examples, addressing the source of the stress many times involves being completely honest with yourself and facing reality the way it is instead of hiding behind the curtain of imaginary bliss.

In the last few years, goal setting software is becoming more and more popular. Offering ease of use, goal setting software looks like it may transform the way goal setters set goals. But, how does goal setting software compare with setting goals on paper? As you read this article, you will find the benefits of both goal setting systems.
Paper based goal setting systems are used more often than not. There are benefits and negatives to using a paper based goal setting system. Some goal setters like to write goals down on paper, and it can seem like a great idea.
After all, goal setting on paper, allows you to easily refer back to your goal. This is important, because more often you see your goal, more often your focus will be on it.
However, this benefit can work against us. For example, you write your goal on paper. Now that is an extra piece of paper, which often will get into piles of other papers. Now the goal is hidden. It is time to bring it out, but where is it!
Goal setting software is a good alternative, and it allows you to have your goals all in one place. There are many different goal setting software available today. They basically all do the same thing, help you to set goals.
When you look for goal setting software, you will find a difference in focus with some of the goal setting software. Some may focus on a project management system, while others are dedicated to an alternative to ‘To Do’ lists. And yet others focus on actual goal setting which goal setters focus on.
Finding goal setting software to achieve this balance is difficult. Some focus on certain areas, and there is also the fact of trying to figure out which goal setting system is best for your needs. The good point is that many goal setting software companies will have trial versions, allowing you to test to see if the software meets your needs.
Many of these goal setting software packages allow you to print up some form of summary for your goal. This can be ideal, because goal setting often requires setting several goals – some big, some small, and some in between. And you may not want to have all your goals on paper, just the big ones.
One of the biggest problems you will find with goal setting software is that of focus. Having software is great, but it can become like a book in a library – hard to find. Self discipline then must come into focus, so you can enter the software, and keep looking at your goals and working forward on them.
Overall, we have many different ways of working. You may like working your goals on paper, it may seem more like you are setting the goal, whereas some may prefer a software based goal setting software. Either way, it can be hard getting used to a new goal setting system. Either way, you will have the tools for goal setting and goal accomplishment.