What is Home Schooling and How Does it Work?

Going from work assignment to work assignment across the country along with children in an RV leaves a lot of questions when it comes to education. Moving from school to school every three months on short-term assignments leaves children in a bind, possibly unable to get established and connect with the school system. For this reason, many travel nurses have served dual roles: as medical professionals and as teachers. Is this a bad thing? Let's discuss.

Home schooling is an alternative to a class education. By definition, it is when children are taught at home by their parents instead of a typical classroom education. In the US, home school is usually reserved for parents who have decided to give their children a more complete education which they feel is not given at most schools. People from all over participate in this teaching method, including heavy travelers, cosmopolitan aficionados, small-town folk, and single parent families. According to the latest statistics, close to 2 million children are being home schooled, which is around 2% of the total school population.

Home schooling can be done in many different ways. Each parent has their own flexible or stringent approach to instructing their children. One thing is common for all: home schooling promotes better personal attention and a more personalized education than Public School 29. Approaches can be varied and different strategies used to educate your children. One approach is to create a structured, organized setting with the "school day" being divided into different subject areas. It is pretty much a replica of a standard public school education, only at home! Another is interest-initiated and is an excellent example of the travel nursing lifestyle. Children of travel nurses are most exposed to real world experiences, where frequent day trips rumbling along in the motor home is the norm.

With home schooling, the learning style of your children can be best accommodated. Educational activities revolve around the temperament and retention style of your child. Accelerated curriculums for home schooled children are not uncommon as well. A travel nurse traveling from assignment to assignment with a child can develop a mind that is immensely open, forcing them to create lessons with an intense focus. Involvement in the community also comes naturally to travel nurse children, particularly because they are forced to adapt to new environments.

What materials do you need to home school your child? For starters, there are many flexible options. Books can be reread and reread again, microscopes can be used for ten lessons on the stars, card games can introduce your young child to math, and a visit to Austin's 6th St area can open the eyes to cultured life. Travel nurses need not run to the bookstore immediately to jumpstart a curriculum, although textbooks can work just fine. Never forget the importantance of learning about current events through the newspaper to promote discussion. Regardless of materials, travel nurses have complete control over the structure and content of their child's studies. More importantly, the lifestyle travel nurses and their children live is a unique one where the most learning is done by being exposed to new ideas. A standardized K to 6th grade curriculum in a school in downtown Oklahoma City could never achieve the same effect.