Are you considering homeschooling for your family? Linda Dobson has created a comprehensive guide which will help you determine the appropriate first steps, build your own educational philosophy, and discover the best ways to cater to your child’s specific learning style. In this interview with Linda, we had the opportunity of chatting about: why her homeschooling book helps parents with the "grand educational experiment" of first year; picking the right curriculum; can parents be good homeschooling "teachers"; the most important thing that a beginning homeschooler needs to know; finally she shares with us a FREE excerpt of her book where she shatters a myth of homeschooling, "Myth #4: You Need Teacher Training, Dearie!" I hope you enjoy reading the interview as much as we did doing it. Also, if you have any questions for Linda, please send them to us.

Choosing a mode of education
is one of the most difficult decisions parents make for their children. Which is best, we all agonize: public school, private school, alternative school, homeschool? Should they go to preschool? Should they try Montessori school or Waldorf school? Which system will best enable our kids to grow up healthy, happy, ethical, self-sufficient, tolerant, mannerly, compassionate, and intellectually above average?

see the rest of this interview with author Rebecca Rupp

Meet author Linda Dobson
"Homeschooling Book of Answers"
"How do I know if I am cut out for homeschooling?"
Stop by and see our cyber-interview with Linda Dobson, hosted by Joe Spataro, which has information on the what's happening in the homeschooling movement. She began homeschooling in 1985 and has been Homeschooling Magazine news editor and columnist since 1992. Also see a FREE excerpt of her book, "The Homeschooling Book of Answers" which tries to answer the question, "How do I know if I am cut out for homeschooling?"

Marty Layne, author of Learning At Home: A Mother's Guide to Homeschooling says, "If your child is going to spend most of her waking hours in your company, it's vital to her well being that you enjoy the daily interaction between you. I devote the first chapter of my book to this topic, listing 11 characteristics that I think are important to develop to be a good teacher for a child.
Eleven Characteristics of a Successful Homeschooling Parent

There really is no
right or wrong way to begin.
After all that is why many people start homeschooling because, for whatever reason, they want something different for their children. What I have outlined here is basically the approach that Sue and I took to approaching this problem. It is not the "right " approach, but "one" approach that you can use to get started as you develop your own homeschooling style.

How we started...
Sue and I came to homeschooling after using the public schools for a couple of years and then a private school for one year. In both cases, we found the schools unacceptable. At the end of the day, we would ask the kids, "What did you learn today?" Often, we would try to re-teach or primarily teach things that had been missed or muddled in school. The agenda of the schools is to maintain the status quo. They are producing Chevys and have no place for Hyundais or Mercedes.

Afterschooling
As concerned parents, we tried to overcome the deficiencies of the system by afterschooling. The main problem with afterschooling is that we always got the worst parts of our children's day, after they had been tired out by the system. We came onto the idea of homeschooling initially with the idea that perhaps we could do a better job once we had the "best" part of the children's day.

For you afterschooling, may be the "perfect solution" in that you can retain the program you are using now, but add what you think is deficient

The most important thing is to
Keep it simple.
Find out about what the homeschooling regulations are in your area. Find people in your area that are the resident "pros" and can help you. Learn about the regulations governing homeschooling in your state.

Meet the authors
This is our great series where we bring the "greats" of homeschooling and family life to your with cyber-interviews and FREE excerpts from their books.

Zone News
is our series of great essays, interviews, and FREE excerpts that is continually growing. This will give you the cutting edge information from the leaders of the homeschooling movement and some nice folks just like you.

Oh, did I say, "Keep it simple"? Ask around a bit before you buy, and you'll have a first rate program at an affordable cost.

also see:
Is homeschooling expensive?

more grade school education
more homeschooling books
"Is Homeschooling Expensive?"
Frequently Asked Questions

Interview & FREE Excerpt

Homeschooling 101
Home Schooling: Is it for you?
more Homeschooling Videos

Home Learning: Year by Year
Home learning Sourcebook
Meet the author
Rebecca Rupp
"The Truth About Curricula"
more Curriculum Guides
more homeschooling books
Frequently Asked Questions

The Beginners Guide to Homeschooling
by Patrick Farenga

A brief and useful guide to the essential information, resources, and guidance you need for starting homeschooling. Questions and answewrs about homeschooling, suggestions for creating or purchasing curricula and for record keeping and evaulation, history and research, as well as lists of state and national support groups, correspondence schools, and learning materials.

Homeschool FAQ
How do I maintain my child's interest?
by Rebecca Rupp, Ph.D.
I think one of the more difficult questions in homeschooling is deciding when to let the kids quit something they don't like and when to insist that they persevere. Here's few points to consider, when weighing the pros and cons