MessianicHomeschool.com

"I don't have time to homeschool."

"We both work."

"I'm a single parent with limited resources, I couldn't afford to homeschool."

"I'm not smart enough to be my child's teacher -- I'm not a teacher."

Most parents agree they would prefer their children receive the highest quality, customized education money can buy. Yet above are some of the most common reasons heard as to why parents who say they "would homeschool" if they could simply don't.

Home educating is not expensive; you don't need to know volumes of information about math and science. You don't even need to be fluent in a foreign language. As long as you are committed to your child's education, free from serious mental illness and have normal intelligence your child can learn everything they need to know with you as their education provider.

The majority of education is brought about from self teaching, that is we learn by doing. We typically learn more about topics we are interested in or that are presented in a format that we enjoy. By capitalizing on these basic truths you can easily home educate.

Some parents may be concerned about their child's social development. With the plethora of sporting and creative activities available through places of worship, the local community center and even the public schools social development is a mute point. Most parents don't realize that our courts have ruled the homeschooled child is eligible to participate in all extracurricular activities offered at their local public school. Messianic Homeschool strongly encourages the homeschool family to look to their place of worship or community center for their extracurricular activities but from time to time a public school district does offer a special activity which may be worthwhile. Choose your battles wisely.

We recommend Robinson Curriculum. It is a one time purchase for K-12. This curriculum is what our founder used when home educating as a single parent from elementary through high school. It is important to mention this curriculum is not Jewish. It is considered a Christian source HOWEVER it is not anti-Semitic Christian. You can learn more about the curriculum by clicking here. The curriculum is complete from K-12 with the exception of needing to purchase Math resources and arranging for fine arts and current events. The curriculum does come with a discount coupon for Saxon Math books. We have found that the buying power of MessianicHomeschool.com provides a better value for the Saxon Math solutions.

Getting started can be a bit tough, we suggest that you follow a simple consistent schedule regardless of what curriculum you choose. Our Homeschool Administrator tool is available for all registered members. If you are not member you can apply the same principles to your homeschool buy using the guide below.

Mathematics: 30 - 45 minutes per day. 1 -2 lessons depending on student's ability

Independent Student's Choice Reading: 30 minutes per day. Student should be continuously reading from a book or periodical that fits inside the frame work of acceptable materials for your family of their choice. This will help you know what your child is "in to" and keep them learning about things they are interested in.

Copy Writing: 5 - 20 minutes per day. Copy text from the current Torah portion, this helps with learning proper sentence structure, punctuation, grammar as well as familiarizes the student with Torah. This is not a Hebrew lesson so the student should copy the English text.

Essay or Journaling: 20 - 45 minutes per day. This may be on a particular topic chosen by student or parent or a creative writing. It is to be reviewed for grammar, spelling and structure.

Self Study: The remaining 4 ¼ - 3 hours of the day are spent reading and completing the social sciences, language arts and other academic topics of study.

For about 1 hour after the six hours of the school day are concluded alternate between Fine Art and Foreign Language programs in which the student expresses an interest. It is recommended that Foreign Language is covered every day when a student is in their first year of the language.

Breaking for morning and afternoon prayer is strongly encouraged. You can find morning and afternoon prayers for home use in the Daily Life section of this site or in a good siddur. Other short breaks are okay so long as they do not fully detract from the learning environment.

Most families we know do not stop schooling for snack or lunch times. They simply eat a good breakfast and follow up by providing an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables prepared in such a way that the students can munch while completing their lessons. Dips and sauces are avoided, as are sugary snacks and anything that will produce crumbs or the like. This is a great way to ensure your son or daughter is eating their 7 to 11 servings of raw fruits and 7 to 11 servings of raw vegetables every day.

Morning Exercise: 5 - 10 minutes of stretches 5 - 10 minutes of cardiovascular and 10 - 20 minutes to work the major muscle groups.

Mathematics: 30 - 45 minutes per day. 1 -2 lessons depending on student's ability

Self Study: The remaining hour to fifteen minutes should be spent reading and completing the social sciences, language arts and other academic topics of study. Yes it is important to use the remaining time for this purpose. Students need to have a bit of this every working day.