The National Home Education Research Institute estimates that there are 2.2 million children receiving an at home education. And, the rate of home-schooled children raises by 2 to 8 percent each year. Homeschooling can work for anyone and is a good alternative for many kids. In fact, many of these students score 15 to 30 percentile points above public school students on standardized tests and often score above average on the SAT and ACT. So, if you are looking to transition into home education or are already homeschooling your children, you can do so with ease.
Take Advantage of the Benefits
One of the main benefits of homeschooling is that you can customize your child's curriculum. You have the freedom to teach with different pedagogical methods or to explore topics that public and private schools do not have time to cover.
Homeschooling also allows for more flexible and free schedules. Some traditional schools don't have enough funding to take field trips or invest in projects; however, through homeschooling, you can select your own field trips and customize projects around these trips to provide your children with a more personal learning experience.
Embrace Technology
Technology is paving the way for museums to become more hands on and innovative. For example, the Smithsonian has a wide range of apps that let you interact with its exhibits in new ways. One of their apps, LeafSnap, allows users to snap photos of plants, trees, leaves and flowers and then uses visual recognition software to give you information about the plant species. This means that you don't have to live in Washington D.C. to benefit from the wealth of information at the Smithsonian. Instead, you can go out in your backyard or to a local park and learn about its plant life.
Many museums also are utilizing QR codes. Visitors just need to scan the code with their mobile devices for in depth information and interactive activities. This means you can use your smartphone or tablet to give your children a better learning experience than they would get on a guided tour with thirty other students.
Find Relevant Apps
There are a plethora of apps that can turn your outing into an educational field trip. As a tip, if you're traveling away from the city or doing any activities where you might not get a strong signal, consider investing in a wireless hotspot. For example, the Samsung LTE Mobile HotSpot Pro has one of the largest battery capacities and allows for USB tethering to your laptop, so you can take full advantage of educational technology no matter where you are. Some of the apps you can use with these devices include:
- Google Field Trip: Using GPS technology, the Google Field Trip app alerts you to unique facts and historical information in any area. You can select the local feeds you want to learn about and then the app notifies you if you are near anything relevant.
- Google Goggles: This is another handy app that allows you to identify landmarks, buildings, artwork and images just by snapping a picture. If it's in Google's database, it instantly provides you with background and historical information as well as translations from foreign languages.
- National Parks: Made by National Geographic, this app lets you explore national parks with your iPhone or iPad. It has interactive map views, personalized user space to track your favorite parks, must-sees for the parks and photo tips so you can share your adventure on social media.
- NASA's Earth Now: This app gives users visualizations of real-time global climate data from NASA's satellites. Use this app to teach your child about surface air temperatures, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, water vapor, gravity anomalies and sea level heights. Especially if your child loves science or the outdoors, this app can help them learn about the environment and how to analyze data, graphs and charts.
