The surging popularity in virtual education coupled with the long-lasting practice of students being educated at home rather than at a public or private school has created a unique online homeschooling opportunity for parents of school-aged children.
Online Homeschooling: An Uptick in Virtual Schools Means an Opportunity to Accelerate Home Education.
More commonly referred to as online home education, this idea of online homeschooling has begun to transform the educational landscape-opening even more learning pathways than ever before.
The reason: Online learning opens a whole new set of doors for parents who choose to educate their children at home because it allows them to either supplement or completely substitutes their curriculum with online courses and programs that otherwise may be out of reach.
For parents who don’t want their children educated in a public or private school and prefer to educate their children at home, accessing all of the elements a traditional public or private school entails can be a challenge.
According to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Education, approximately 1,770,000 students (approximately 3.4% of the school-age population) are educated at home in the United States today. With the surge in online education options, online courses and programs are opening up homeschoolers to many new resources that can help satisfy various elements of their at-home education.
Here are a few ways parents can use online learning as a form of online homeschooling:
To Enrich Education
If a parent has always educated their child at home, then it would only make sense that they turn toward online learning as a way to give their student the education that they cannot provide. Online courses and programs can also include increased access to all the materials a student may need that their home-educated parent may not have access to.
To Satisfy Requirements
A student must meet certain requirements established by a state’s education system in order to earn credit as a home-educated student. These requirements may include the development of an academic portfolio and annual evaluations.
A parent may turn to an online course or program to prepare a student to satisfy such requirements and also to supplement a particular subject that their child may be having difficulty understanding. Online homeschooling also allows expanded opportunities to access courses-whether it be college preparatory, Advanced Placement, arts and sciences, computer technology, or world language.
To Prepare for College
According to the 7 Ways to Think about College When Homeschooling, taking online homeschool classes can be a “low-risk” way to introduce college and college-level academic expectations. And because you’re likely trying to save money for college, enrolling your homeschooled student in an online course or program can be a low-cost, high-quality way to gain experience before they ever step foot on a college campus.
Adding online courses to home education, while relatively new, is revolutionizing the traditional idea of homeschooling in general, turning it into a special hybrid of learning that preserves the familiarity and comfort of learning at home, while enhancing it further through the wide-ranging possibilities of virtual learning.
At the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School, where roughly 25% of our students are homeschooled, we offer students and their families a flexible academic schedule while providing interesting and rigorous learning opportunities. Our wide array of course offerings can help your son or daughter achieve his or her academic goals. We offer even more information regarding home education in our knowledge base.
