Home Educating parents might want to consider distance learning for their children for various reasons. Some may feel more secure in the knowledge that they won’t have to do everything by themselves, others may want to homeschool but feel they don’t have enough time or energy to spend on educating their children, whereas still others opt for distance learning once their child has reached high school age and they don’t feel they are qualified to teach her all she needs to know.
Whatever their reasons for choosing distance learning, they’ll have many options to choose from.
Distance learning is
available in many forms and flavours.
Correspondence courses are probably the first option that springs to mind, but it’s definitely not the only one.
Nowadays, many courses for distance learning are computer based and provided online.
Cyberschools, e.g., also called Online Academies, Virtual Academies or Umbrella Schools, will typically oversee and approve the student’s curriculum, and may also provide testing, keep records and issue diploma’s.
Other computer based options include enrolling your child in the online academy of the curriculum provider of your choice (e.g. K-12, A Beka), or enrolling the child in an Online Homeschool Curriculum (e.g. Time4Learning).
Online High school Programs may be a very valuable option for parents of home educated teens, who wish to ensure their child will be able to go to college upon completion of their homeschooling career.
Advantages of Distance Learning:
- Distance Learning makes life much easier for the home educating parent
- Distance Learning can take the worry out of Homeschooling; you know your child is learning what she needs to know in order to further her education
- The home educated child may greatly enjoy computer based programs for distance learning, where learning and fun often go hand in hand
Disadvantages of Distance Learning:
- Costs: Distance learning can
be quite expensive
- You can’t always make your own choices when it comes to the material that’s being used, and you or your child may not like (parts of) what’s provided in the course.
- Although some online academies will work with whatever curriculum the parent chooses, other may be very rigid.