Based on our growth, I've been remiss to post so I want to begin by discussing two topics very important to all parents.
Parental Involvement in the Home School Environment
When you're home schooling, you, as parent, are really in charge. With teacher involvement at our cooperative only one day each week, it is vital that students and their parents work together to carry the learning process through to completion.
Discussing the material your student is studying almost guarantees your child's success. For example, if a high school student is spending at least 45 minutes - 1 hour each day in science study and you can ask him or her several questions from their Study Guide each week and that student can answer them, then I would say that student is being prepared to be successful in high school and college. Difficulty in communicating with teenagers I'll cover another day.
If your child senses that their education and your involvement in it is important to you, it naturally becomes important to them.
As a home schooling parent, you become educated along with your children. By the time you have a home school graduate, you will literally gain almost an additional college level education yourself. Home schooling is a life style - a learning life style that we all hope will continue into our children's adult lives. We and our children are learning to give God glory.
Homework from Classes (particularly 4th grade and up)
Tests, homework and class participation are the only ways a cooperative teacher can evaluate how well a student is performing. As home schoolers, we know this is not enough to gauge how well our children are learning. Parents and teachers work together to educate our children.
Homework assignments give parents the opportunity to participate in and evaluate their child's learning. They also help teachers measure student performance. If a student fails to turn in assignments, evaluation by a cooperative teacher becomes extremely difficult; it limits that student, the class, and the teacher's efforts to give assignments beneficial to the child's education.
Sometimes circumstances prohibit completion of all assignments. Communication with teachers in this circumstance is crucial. Ultimately, confirming a child's success lies with each of us, as parents. If you feel the homework load is too heavy, contact the teacher immediately and help that teacher navigate your child's progress. We can't do it without each other.
