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.

When your child turns 16, it is almost a certainty that the first worlds out of their mouth will be “When can I get my drivers license?”

While this is a milestone in your child’s life, it is important that they understand the importance of getting a driver education and realize that along with a drivers license comes great responsibility.

Depending on which state you live in, a learner’s permit can be obtained when your teenager is around 15. In order for them to get the license, they need to meet a certain criteria, which includes a specific amount of driving time.

When your child is ready for driver education, it is important that they have the right attitude. They need to understand that a driver’s license is a responsibility that is not to be taken lightly. They need to understand that they cannot have a nonchalant attitude. This could affect their chances of obtain a license if the instructor feels that your teenager is not taking the class seriously.

Although it is cool to show off, it is not going to help you get your license if you are eating or talking on your cell phone when you are behind the wheel. It is an absolute certainty that your instructor will not think it is cool.

When you enroll in driver education, it is important your states department of motor vehicles certify the school.

These schools are up to date on all of the rules and laws of the state in which you live, and can teach you everything you need to know to become a safe driver. Driving school instructors have to pass painstaking tests in order to be licensed to teach.

Parents of teenage drivers can help in getting driver education. They are encouraged to take their child out driving. The more road time they log, the more secure they will feel driving. It not only gives them confidence, it also gives you piece of mind knowing that they are safe drivers.

Patience is the key factor in driving with your teenager. If you are high strung and nervous, it will affect the driver. If you feel that you cannot drive with your teenager have the other parent or friend drive with them.

Before you let your teenager get behind the wheel, it is important that they know the rules of the road and what each street sign signifies. Make sure they study the drivers’ manual and quiz them often. He or she is bound to be a little nervous when they drive with you they want to impress you. If they forget what a sign means do not make a big deal of it, simply study with them when you get home.

An empty parking lot is the perfect place for your child to practice driving and get used of the car being used. This is especially important if your car and the driver education cars are of different models.

Make sure your child understands what to do in case of an emergency. This is crucial especially if they are driving and their tire goes flat.

Summary:

Driver education will teach your teenager the rules of the road as well as how to become a safe defensive driver. Quiz them often, even if it is a quick trip to the store, ask them questions about driving. It is important that you be supportive and not critical of the abilities. Building confidence is a major factor when it comes to teenagers and driving. If they make a mistake, let them know and continue to let them drive.

How Can Our History Change Their Future?

History gets a bad rap in school. Many of us have memories of history class being taught by rote memorization of facts and dates and names with little or no application to our daily lives. No wonder its considered boring and dull. Anytime we are expected to simply recite and repeat bare data for the sole purpose of passing a test, that information is unlikely to have any lasting change or effect on our lives. In order to use the valuable lessons that history can teach us, it needs to be presented to children (and adults!) in a way that brings it alive and connects to our present day way of life.

How Can History Make a Difference?

History has many valuable lessons for us that can spur us on to greater achievement and accomplishments, but only if we can find a way to teach it to our children in a way that will get them excited and revved up. If a child is taught that the great discoveries and milestones in our history shaped our culture and our world, and that these discoveries were made by ordinary people JUST LIKE THEM, they can be inspired to go and achieve huge milestones and accomplishments of their own.

However, if, as parents, teachers, mentors or role models, we did not have a passion for history ourselves, it becomes nearly impossible to stir up an excitement for it in our children. We have become so accustomed to our world that we take for granted the amazing discoveries and accomplishments of the ordinary people who became extra-ordinary by using and building upon what has already been learned by others. By finding ways to get our children excited about the value of historical information and lessons, we can inspire them to see possibilities for their own future. We need to show our children that history is NOT simply a recitation of the events of the past, but a proving ground for the greatest challenges and accomplishments of the future. We can learn from those who have gone before us and use that knowledge to shape the events that will carry us into the “history” of the next generation.

Historians have long known and espoused the need to apply the wisdom of the past to the problems of the present in order to change the future. Frederick Jackson Turner, one of the two most influential American historians of the early 20th century, once said, “Each age tries to form its own conception of the past. Each age writes the history of the past anew with reference to the conditions uppermost in its own time.” Because we can more readily relate to the world in which we live than we can to a distant past, we view our history from a perspective that is based on today.

How Can The World Change?

So, how might the world change if we could find a way to instill a love of history into our children when they are in elementary school? If children in third, fourth, fifth grade were able to really connect with some of the ordinary people in history who accomplished extraordinary things, what would they go on to accomplish in their own lives? Here are a few ideas of what could happen:

? If a child learns the history of Marie Curie what might that lead to? When Marie Curie and her husband Pierre discovered radium, it eventually led to an effective treatment for many types of cancer. Their work and subsequently Madame Curie’s own death from aplastic anemia, almost certainly from overexposure to radiation, also led to the discovery that too much radioactive exposure is fatal. We now live in a world where nuclear radiation is a global threat. If a child can learn about chemistry and Marie Curie, then she can learn how to counteract any bio-terrorism or nuclear attack and save millions from certain death and devastation.

? If a child learns the story of George Washington Carver or the history of agriculture, she will learn that the introduction of agriculture was instrumental in civilizations being able to evolve from hunter-gatherers who were constantly on the move in order to feed themselves to becoming more stable and settle in one place. Furthermore, developments in agriculture, allowed individuals and families to produce enough food to feed the entire community, freeing up others to perform other tasks that led to further growth and expansion. They will learn that innovations in agriculture changed the entire economic dynamic of the American south as reliance on cotton was lessened. By learning about crop rotation and hybridization, then she will grow up knowing that there are new techniques and hybrids waiting to be developed and she may finally find a way to feed the starving children of the world.

? If a child learns about the reality of the Holocaust and the murder of six million Jews, as well as millions of other Europeans who were determined to be less than desirable by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers and their rampage of hatred across Europe, he can become the political statesman that finds a way to end the genocide that still takes place in this world in many places such as Darfur and Rwanda. The fact that genocide still takes place in our world after the unthinkable horrors of the Holocaust is a tragic outcome of what happens when we refuse to learn from history. But it will be a child who has found a passion for history who becomes the individual who finally finds a way to end this kind of calamity and prevent it from being allowed to continue or begin again.

? If a little boy learns about the search for insulin to treat diabetes and discovers that the first insulin was extracted from dogs, he can use the tenacity that was involved to cure Parkinson’s disease or spinal cord injuries. By learning about the trials and errors of scientists of the past, especially when times were primitive and tools were crude, that child will learn that there are no boundaries to what we might learn or find or create? In 25 years time, there could be a cure for AIDS, diabetes and cancer. How would our world change if we could find the cures to such devastation?/

? If a child is taught the mathematical genius of men like Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton, he can learn that mathematical equations are the basis of all space travel and as he learns about how to apply that knowledge, together with the historical knowledge of astronomy, he could work with other scientists and chemists and discover how to recreate the Earth’s atmosphere on another planet or moon and the real possibility of a space community/colony can happen.

? If a child learns the history of the civil rights movement, in a way that shows and creates empathy for the very real feelings of the people that lived and still do live with such terrible injustice and intolerance, cruelty and ignorance, she can learn to find ways to end the rest of the racism in America. The lives of leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. are taught in history classes, but usually not to the depth that can create real change. If a child could be shown the creation of prejudice by a class-based society when he is seven, eight or nine years old, before he has been exposed to a lifetime of bigotry, he could readily accept the faulty thinking involved and prevent it from passing on to his generation.

? If a child learns the truth of wars like Vietnam he could learn that war really doesn’t solve a thing. Although we salve our egos with noble causes like ending Communism, ending slavery, ending terroristic rule, most wars are caused by power, hatred, and greed. If a child learns that these are really the reasons that thousands and thousands of soldiers and civilians die, he might learn to live a life free of these crippling, deadly emotions. If all of our children in third, fourth and fifth grade could learn to live without a need for power, a hatred of others and a greed that drives him to do unthinkable things, how might that change our world in 25 years?

Robert Kennedy once said, “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.” We cannot change our history, nor should we want to. We can learn from it, grow from it and become better because of it. The history of this next generation is waiting to be written….Equip them with the skills to make it a memorable one.