With more and more families homeschooling each day, more and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon to support and cater to homeschoolers. I call this the business of homeschooling.
Some of these businesses are wonderful, helpful, and even invaluable. Others are carpet-bagging opportunists. Before using any such “homeschool business” to help teach your children, be sure to do your homework. Here are some things you will want to consider:
Age of the company: How long has the company been in business? This is not to say that a new company will not be well intentioned and even instrumental in your homeschool journey, but they may very well be inexperienced. If you cannot get referrals from old customers, I suggest you call them up on the phone and talk to the owner/manager. If such contact is not available, look into other options first.
Intentions: Does the online school or service promote homeschooling, or is it attempting to fix homeschooling. I have noticed a dangerous trend lately of businesses that have come online and offering structure, standards, and school-at-home to homeschoolers. They are rigid in approach and look at homeschooling as if it were broken. The service you use should fit your approach, not the other way around.
Knowledge base: Unfortunately, many people dabble in businesses, fail and move on. Stay away from dabblers in the business of homeschooling. The knowledge base of the business owner/ manager will clue you in. Ask if they have written any articles or done any documentation the subject. Find out if they are full time, or work from home. Find out if they are homeschoolers themselves, and if so, how long they have home schooled and to what success.
In short, before you purchase a homeschool program, or participate in a homeschooling service, you will want to know if it will still be there in two, three, or four years, and if so, will drive your child to success or merely distraction. Look before you leap.
Here are a few Homeschooling companies you can trust:
HSLDA.org
Time4learning.com
Keystone Highschool.com
Look for follow up articles that will tell more about these and other online homeschooling businesses that you can trust.
Not sure if you can trust a homeschooling service or not? Ask me, I will look into it.