What is Homeschooling. Advantages and Disadvantages. An improvised homeschooling app and changing the perception!!
Homeschooling was started in the 1970s, when famous researchers and authors, such as John Holt Dorothy and Raymond Moore started writing educational reforms. They argued that early education was harmful and damaging for the kids and they should be educated at home to give them formal education and moral foundation. Homeschooling has grown a lot since then. In parents.com it is stated that: “According to (NHER), National Home Education Research Institute, it is growing seven to fifteen percent each year and about 2 million children are being homeschooled” (Martin). Parents prefer homeschooling over traditional public and private schools because of their environment, teachings, social interactions, support disabled children that want to study. Making homeschooling better through app development and futuristic ideas has been my interest for a while now. Improving the technology for kids and their parents so that homechooling becomes easier provides more ooportunites and help the students get a better education.
Every parent at some point in life thinks about homeschooling their kids. Of course, why wouldn’t they? With more and more school systems being corrupted and being unable to provide with the education needed for students to grow, parents are forced to choose or at least, consider taking this route. The goal of current school systems is absurd; They, rather than providing tools for students to enhance or motivate their thinking skills and their creativity, select an easier teaching method and cheaper way of educating kids which is of little or no help at all. The other reason parents consider homeschooling is for their kids’ security. The objective of homeschooling is to take the hidden talents of the kids and strengthen them, groom them and indulge them in various activities so that they can be learn and practice whatever comes to their mind, whenever they want.
Homeschooling comes with it’s benefits and drawbacks. Benefits include; being able to set your kid’s own curriculum. Homeschoolers have the flexibility of scheduling. You can set your timetable according to your kid’s needs and they can be based on your everyday chores and other activities. Students can spend as much time as they want on a single chapter or subject, or they can breeze through the topic and move on to the next one, without waiting on others when in a classroom or being affected by other classmates. It is reported that homeschooled kids perform better than those who go to school. Also, there is more family time. Parents tend to take their kids on educational field trips, work on the same projects or read the same books, and learn the same thing their kids learn. Homeschooling kids also are reported to have grown in to respectable and responsible gentleman, creating a healthy and supportive family relation.
On the other hand, spending quality time with your kids sounds terrific, but it is not an easy to be patient when kids are having a hard time learning a new concept. Secondly, one of the parents has to quit their job and stay home, or work a part time job, because kids need their full attention and support so they have to live on a single income. Most students are sent to school, because their parents cannot stay at home, because they are needed to work full-time. Parents become responsible for the outcome of their children’s education. We don’t have anybody to rely on, discuss or share ideas with and to help us with complex problems that we are unable to solve on our own.
Although there are a lot of apps online that claim to be the “best” app. Though they do have some great features that assist in homeschooling, they are all paid as well as they still lack some features that, if added, would really benefit the homeschooling society. The apps let us design a schedule for our kids, help us keep updated with upcoming assignments using push notifications and reminders. They also assist in tracking student progress, their ups, and downs (where they are lacking and might need improvement), calculate grades etc. These features in most apps are paid. Subscription costs reach up to 100$/yr. So parents, choose the free apps, that are of no use and cause interference with the kid’s study. My plan is to design an app, with futuristic features found in no app before, thus revolutionizing the technology associated with homeschooling.
Considering the apps that are out there today, mine would take place of all those apps. Modern and remarkable features will be added just to provide the experience and will consist of all the help you will ever need. First and foremost, It’s free. Unlike the other apps with some good features, this app will be free so that parents on budget can provide the same education as the wealthy ones. The app I would develop will consist of, Global chat. This is one of my primary goals. All homeschool parents worldwide can connect with each other. Asking questions, solving queries, discussing the best-guided reading books for kids, etc. Secondly, Free books and library databases will be added. I would love to make countless books, articles and, newspapers to all the homeschooled kids. Parents who could not afford to homeschool their kids because of how pricey the books and tuition was, I will add an option for people who want to donate some amount to a good cause. Thirdly, tutors. Who would not want to seek help from professors and teachers? They are available 24/7 and free. Whether, it’s Science, Math or English, professors will be there to assist us and will reply back almost instantly.
Apart from all these cheesy new features, there is a translation tool. This translation tool would be able to all those who are not bilingual. For example, if Spanish speakers want to search something in English, they would open the translation tool, type in their query in Spanish. That’s all. They can also select what language they want the answers or solution in, default language would be English. After typing in the query, it’s the job the online translator tool to find the right information for the parent. Besides all this, I would be organizing an institution, where parents can leave their students along with the lesson plans, if they are busy or an emergency has shown up. It would consists of teachers, that will give 100% to the students to ensure that they are indeed learning something and their valuable time is not wasted.
In conclusion, homeschooling is indeed the best way for parents who would genuinely want their kids to shine. It currently has 2 million students and is growing. I hope to provide advanced and innovative features so that it allows parents to be relax and tension-free. With the help of the app, students would automatically be recommended, and assigned new assignments, as well as the grades we get by submitting an assignment online, are automatically entered, and updated. I plan to make it easier for every parent so that, they don’t have to work 24/7 and have some time for themselves. This center would allow the parents to focus on the emergency and the student is not neglected either.
(I do not own right to any of these images). Taken from google.