In today’s economy, many homeschool families look for ways to cut education costs without sacrificing the quality of education. With the rapid development of online education, families can now have the best of both worlds – high quality online education at a very reasonable price.  While cost is only one factor that families should consider in choosing their child’s education, they no longer have to decide between cost and quality.

For the past several years, families were sometimes forced to choose between free public schools, and homeschooling. New technology now offers a third choice, private, accredited, online school-at-home programs.

This article won’t discuss the free public education option at all, so if that’s still a decision factor, it won’t be much help here.

This article discusses the two other options: Homeschooling vs. School-at-home programs. So, what are the differences between homeschooling your child yourself, and enrolling in a private online school?

Homeschooling:  Over the past decade, homeschooling has grown substantially as a viable education option for many families. A homeschool family is one that, for a variety of reasons, has pulled out of the traditional education system in order to have direct and complete control of the education of their students. The parents make all decisions regarding the curriculum their children will use, if any; how they will assess their children, and when they consider their children to have completed their education. Because the parents are typically not licensed educators, very few homeschool programs are eligible for accreditation. Although this should not be a strong deterrent for committing to homeschooling, it is a factor that should be considered. There is a great resource of information on this topic at: http://www.globalstudentnetwork.com/homeschool/blog/

School-at-Home (Private Distance Education Schools):  Good online schools have professionally trained educators and faculty to provide high quality, flexible education support to families. Many seek and receive regional accreditation. Accreditation is the official recognition that a school of any type uses curriculum developed by professionals and that is evaluated by accrediting agencies to guarantee that the curriculum is in line with local, state, and federal academic standards. Enrolling your children in an accredited distance learning program means you’ll never have to worry about colleges accepting classes, or questioning the accuracy of transcripts.

Another strength of many distance learning private schools, such as International Virtual Learning Academy, is that they provide students with individualized instructional programs based on each child’s specific needs. Many times, students struggle to understand complex concepts, and as parents, we sometimes find it difficult to explain or help our children in these circumstances. With the help of a private online school, students have access to a variety of different teachers and to numerous programs that will assist in the learning process.

A third advantage of some online private schools is that they combine the strengths of private schooling and home schooling?  This hybrid model where the school’s staff and faculty support the parent’s direct academic involvement in their children brings out the best in children and provides educational opportunities not previously available to many homeschoolers.

Not sure which option is best for you? One company, Global Student Network can help you navigate through your decision. Global Student Network provides a public school online curriculum directly to homeschool families. With this option, the parent is in charge of their child’s education from start to finish, and has total authority of their student’s education.

Global Student Network also collaborates with International Virtual Learning Academy, a private, accredited online school for grades 3-12.

International Virtual Learning Academy offers a less expensive private school alternative. Tuition at most private schools is very expensive and can compare in cost to sending your children to college. However, IVLA’s tuition is surprisingly affordable, and costs a fraction of the tuition of a bricks and mortar schools charge.

By choosing a private online school, you also avoid the “oops” cost of homeschooling, those expensive mistakes of purchasing textbooks and workbooks that aren’t quite adequate or what you expected. When this occurs, not only do you have the cost of the original purchase, but then the replacement purchase as well. How many times have you purchased a curriculum or a textbook only to find that it’s not quite what you expected?

Homeschooling is time-intensive, and your time is money—whether you work outside the home or work full time within your home. Your time developing a teaching strategy, pouring over curriculum options, trying to figure out how to provide a report card and diploma, etc., is no longer an issue. By enrolling in a school-at-home academy like IVLA, the school staff manages all of these aspects of your child’s education. This works well for many parents that just don’t feel qualified to teach certain subjects or don’t feel qualified to do it all on their own.

When it comes to your child’s education, your ability to provide a caring, comfortable, and positive environment is second nature to International Virtual Learning Academy. IVLA understands and works directly with each student’s parents to ensure that all students receive a high quality education.

•    Value Laden Education at International Virtual Learning Academy:
•    Uses high quality curriculum developed by a public school district and used by over 30,000 school-at-home students world-wide
•    Accredited by Northwest Association of Accredited Schools – One of the “Big Six” accrediting bodies.
•    Highly qualified teachers for each course – Master’s degree and licensed teacher.
•    Affordable – surprisingly so. Contact IVLA at: 877-878-6001 for more information.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Homeschooling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.