Attend class in an online interactive 3D campus!

So you have been searching the Internet for months now trying to find the best approach  for your homeschooler and you are going crazy! There are hundreds if not thousands of choices out there now and increasingly, it’s hard to weed you way through all the online homeschooling programs. So what are the best things to consider when weighing all your options?

1. Consider if your student craves live interactive class meetings or does better in an independent study format.

2. Are you looking for certified teachers to handle the teaching and grading of your student’s online homeschooling program? Review the program’s Website to make sure you understand the role of the teacher vs. the role of the parent. Many online homeschooling programs provide teacher grading but it can vary drastically from program to program.

3.Find out what kind of online curriculum the school provides. Is it an accredited homeschool program?  Is it interactive or do they ship out curriculum supplies and books? Again, be sure you understand the expectations of the online homeschooling program before you take the leap into this kind of approach to homeschooling. Pick up the phone and call the schools to talk to a ‘real’ person! If the school does a poor job at making you feel comfortable over the phone, chances are they will be lacking in providing a good level of interaction online.

4.Read reviews on the online homeschooling program and find out what real parents are saying. There is no better way to find out about the inner workings of a homeschool program than to talk to actual parents and students who have been involved. The more you do your own homework, the better prepared you are for an enriched educational experience online.

Sitting at their little desks, listening to lectures, memorizing facts in preparation for tests, are we giving them the skills needed to compete in today’s world? Will they feel comfortable using technology? Will they be able to think for themselves, solve problems, innovate? Will they lead, or will they always follow?

There are, of course, natural leaders among us – those who will think for themselves and lead no matter what. But what about the students who need a little push in the right direction in order to reach their full potential? Aren’t we robbing them of vitally important skills when we stick with traditional teaching methods that worked 50 years ago, but may not be the best methods today?

To be ready for today’s world, our children need to feel 100% comfortable using technology. Technology can’t be something they experience once a week in a special computer class. It must be an integral part of the curriculum. Furthermore, students need to learn to be creative, to think independently, to ask questions and to solve them.

Memorizing skills are simply not needed in today’s world. With free, easy access to information, the skills that are needed are not memorizing information but rather knowing where to find it, how to access it, and how to best process it, applying it to solve problems.

Frustrated with the huge disconnect between the traditional classroom and today’s reality, many of our parents have chosen online homeschooling as a way to ensure their child is ready for the future. We encourage you to do the same.

Children are blessed with natural curiosity. They want to learn, to explore, to create. But being surrounded with ready-made toys means that they use their creativity very rarely. Even when it comes to the many wonderful things technology has to offer, technology-based video games generally do not enable the player to create or to change the world she plays in.

When you take time spent at school in traditional learning environment, which also doesn’t encourage problem solving or creativity, and you add afternoon hours spent in front of the television or playing video games, you get a very passive existence.

That’s why we feel so strongly that at least when they’re learning, children should be encouraged to be creative. Emphasis needs to be placed not on memorizing facts, but on solving problems, creating environments and thinking up stories.

The best gift we can give our children is love of learning. Rather than making education so passive and boring that they can’t wait for the school day to end, we can make learning an experience they look forward to. Whether through technology-based, 3D online homeschooling programs that allow children to create, or by adding a virtual worlds class to the traditional curricula, we owe it to our children – especially our gifted children – to bring life back into teaching and learning.

Parents who find our school often tell us, “I was fed up with the traditional schooling system.” Being a product of the same system, you don’t want to watch your child going through twelve years without really getting a chance to create, to be active in his learning. You don’t want your child to go through twelve years of passive learning, of memorizing facts, of so little technology exposure and training that when it’s time to go out into the world and find work, he’s simply not ready.

We believe that “schooling” is not the same as “learning” and in fact, often schooling – in the traditional sense – results in very little learning, certainly in very little high order thinking and learning. Back in 1956, Benjamin Bloom found that over 95% of the test questions students encounter require them to think only at the lowest possible level – the recall of information. The highest, most abstract order of thinking, which is creating, was almost completely ignored. Sadly, this is still the case today.

The good news for parents who worry about the way their child is being schooled: there ARE viable alternatives to traditional schooling. Homeschooling, online homeschooling, immersive education – today there are so many tools and options available to parents who want to see their child learning, not just going through the process of schooling. Start exploring your options today. You owe it to yourself, and to your child.

Now, we have another large, long-term study in our arsenal. “Fifteen Years Later: Home-Educated Canadian Adults” clearly shows that home-educated adults are more socially engaged, earn more and are happier than their public-school-educated peers!

This reminds me of the early opposition to homeschooling, when the main argument was that homeschooled kids will not do as well as public schooled kids because they’re not taught by professional, college-educated teachers. Several studies later, when it turned out that home schooled children actually do BETTER academically than public school students, the arguments shifted. Now, critics were saying that home schooled kids are isolated and will not learn how to socialize.

I’m happy about the studies, because they will ease the worries of parents who are considering homeschooling their children. But anyone who has been engaged in homeschooling for the past decade, or more, is not exactly surprised.

What’s surprising to me is that anyone would assume that what’s going on in a typical public school, socially speaking, is desirable or even “normal.” You force a large group of immature kids into the same classroom, and make them spend eight hours each day with each other, with very little supervision (one teacher for 20-30 students), and you call that normal, desirable socialization? While this scenario may work for some students, for many others it creates unimaginable stress and social difficulties, and not because something is wrong with them – but because the situation is inherently difficult.

Being homeschooled does not equal being isolated. It means spending your days with your family and with a select group of friends. It means going outside on field trips and on excursions, meeting other home schooled kids, and going through a much more gentle, natural socialization process than in public school.

We knew all along that homeschooling produces intelligent, happy, confident, well-adjusted adults. And now we have the studies to prove it!

But are they developing love of learning?

Unfortunately, it’s often quite the contrary. Traditional education takes curious kids who have a natural love of learning, and churns out, 12 years later, teens who can’t stand learning, who see learning as a hated but necessary chore and who are constantly looking to escape and to “relax.”

But what if learning can be a lifelong passion? What if, instead of taking the fun out of learning, learning could become fun again? As a homeschooling parent, you get the opportunity that other parents lose when they send their kids off to school. You get the opportunity to allow your child’s natural curiosity to flourish. You can give your child a curriculum that teaches her independent thinking, that challenges her. You can refuse to accept that “learning” and “fun” are two different things – after all, learning IS fun for young children. Why would we allow them into a system that takes the fun away and turns learning into a boring, repetitive chore?

In a typical classroom, your child is told what to study, when and for how long. In your “classroom,” whether it’s in the kitchen, in your child’s room, in a homeschooling group, or in front of the computer doing an interactive, online homeschooling program such as WiloStar3D, allow your child to be a self-learner, to discover his passion, and to develop a lifelong love of learning.

Photo credit: Courtney Carmody

One of the main issues with having highly gifted children in the traditional school system is that even if they receive enrichment, they all receive enrichment on the same level, and that enrichment is again geared towards the average, so that the very advanced kids, those who are years ahead of their peers in terms of their academic ability, will simply not benefit enough, even when placed in an advanced class.

“We must be careful not to lump all gifted students together. There is a wide range of abilities and needs within the group. One size does not fit all” says the author, and we completely agree. even if the school cannot truly support a gifted child’s need, acceleration may give the answer – and if you worry about him being the youngest in his class, he may be able to start taking college classes while still in high school, or to spend most of his time in his grade classroom while being accelerated on just a couple of topics such as math.

Of course, homeschooling is a wonderful solution for highly gifted children and the only way to truly make sure your child learns at his own pace. An added bonus is that a homeschooling program such as WiloStar3D also answers the need of most gifted children for a highly creative, stimulating, visual way of learning. It’s the best way to make sure they not only go through grades at their own pace, but also enjoy learning and are never bored.

We thought this was a fascinating discussion on whether homeschooling as a response to bullying is a good idea.

Our key takeaways from the discussion:

1. The first step should be giving the child tools to deal with the bullies and stop the bullying. There are several ways to do that, and what’s common to all of them is that you want the child to stop acting as a victim and to radiate confidence and a “I’m not a good target” attitude.

2. However, sometimes absolutely nothing works and the bullying persists. If this is the case, moving the child to a different school is a valid option and often ends the bullying, proving that it’s not the child who was the culprit but the school or class dynamics.

3. In cases of persistent bullying, since most experts agree that sometimes the only solution is to move the child to a different school, homeschooling should be a valid option, because it’s just like moving the child into another school – it just happens that the school is at home.

We agree with this approach. We think that it’s a mistake to view the act of moving the child into a homeschooling program as “surrendering” to the bullies or as trying to hide from the problem. Just like moving into a different school, the choice to remove the child from a situation where he is bullied and to homeschool him is simply a choice to remove him from a damaging social situation that cannot be fixed and to change his environment. This is a completely legitimate choice.

My own experience is that the vast majority of children love homeschooling. Sure, homeschooling takes some getting used to. It’s very different than what your child knows. But it’s better.

Homeschooled kids are not socially isolated. This is especially true for our online homeschool academy, WiloStar3D, because they get to go to a 3D school every day and interact with teachers and with peers. But in any homeschooling scenario, parents are definitely encouraged to meet with other homeschooling families, to go on outings, and to send their kids to enrichment classes. By the way, research consistently shows that grownups who were homeschooled as kids are well adjusted socially. So the social concern really is no more than just a myth.

As for the discipline aspect, homeschooling is perfect for kids who are self-motivated, independent, and want to learn. WiloStar 3D students are expected to remain current with all class assignments and to participate on a regular basis in our 3D virtual learning community, Wiloworlds. If you’re not sure about your child’s desire to learn, you will have to monitor them more closely, especially at the start – but this is true for any learning situation – students that are less motivated need more supervision. The beauty of 3D learning is that it often transforms reluctant learners into enthusiastic learners, simply becuase it is more interesting.

Photo by Picture Youth

WiloStar3D Online Homeschooling Academy follows a fairly traditional school calendar, but we do encourage flexibility – this is after all the beauty of homeschooling and of e-learning! part of this flexibility is the option to choose to study during summer break.

If your child is bored, or if you feel that they could benefit from reviewing last year’s material before they start the next school year, you should definitely encourage them to use at least part of their day for learning during the summer.

We recommend that children use summer break to review material that was previously learned and make sure they are ready for the next school year. Of course, summer homeschooling can be accomplished in many different ways, including reading, researching subjects on the Internet and solving math problems. Your summer homeschooling does not have to be tied to the curriculum – after all, it’s summer.

We find that children who spend at least part of summer break reviewing material are much more prepared for the next school year. However, we wouldn’t push the subject. You want learning to be fun, and if your child feels that they are “cheated” out of summer break, you won’t really accomplish anything.

Remember that summer offers lots of learning opportunities, including trips to the beach, visits to the museum and to the library, going to concerts and to the theater, and more.

Image credit: mikebaird