As a parent, you have the important task of providing your children with an education that will prepare them for life. Nowadays, one of the most popular ways to educate your children is via online homeschooling, where parents collaborate with academic experts on educating them. Not only parents can provide their children with quality education and opportunities to develop their life passion, but parents also have access to accredited courses from a biblical perspective, teacher support, and grading. 

In this blog, you will learn how to find the best online homeschool program for your children in PreK-12 grades. Also, you will find out why it's important for the program to be faith-based and accredited by a Christian organization such as the Association of Christian Schools International.

Parents often consider homeschooling their children when concerns arise in local public or private brick-and-mortar schools. For example, when children are in elementary school, parents might want to influence their academic and spiritual development which can be done more easily when the child is learning from home. In middle school, parents might discuss the possibility of pulling their teens out of public schools due to negative influences or peer pressure. In high school, parents might want to provide more academic opportunities for their adolescents and prepare them for college. However, parents often don’t know what it means to homeschool. Therefore, it is worth answering the following questions:

Enlightium Academy is an approved private Christian school that is accredited by Cognia and the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) that has served homeschool, online, and co-op school students in K-12 since 2003. As K-12 education policies are different in each state, it is a parental responsibility to check on their state’s homeschool requirements and fulfill them as applicable. To assist parents with this process, Enlightium provides basic information about each state’s requirements . Parents are also encouraged to review their state’s requirements at hslda.org/legal and/or the Texas Education Agency, as educational policies are subject to change over time.

Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states and Washington D.C.; however, with a freedom to educational opportunities comes a responsibility to understand and fulfill legal requirements. This can be worrisome, yet you’re not alone in this endeavor. Enlightium Academy is here to help!

Today, the online model of K12 education impacts students on an individual level.¹ Studies show that the effectiveness of education appears to have more to do with who is teaching the student than any other factor.² Technology opens the door to new methods of learning! Yet, while the technology itself is a powerful tool, knowing how to use it well requires wisdom, knowledge, experience, and the professional judgment of teachers. 

Technology allows students to have more teacher interaction since teachers can focus their attention on one learner instead of a classroom of students. Online teachers can also address student questions individually which allows students to be open and inquisitive with much less anxiety than if they had to ask the same questions in a classroom setting. 

No two kids learn the same way. The “one-size-fits-all” approach in education does not cover the needs of every child. Children have different learning styles, work at different paces, and have unique strengths and weaknesses. However, many brick-and-mortar schools are struggling to meet each child's individual needs in the following areas:

• Learning accommodations
• Special needs
• Gifted and talented programs
• Flexibility to accommodate chronic illness, injury, or difficult life circumstances

A standardized assessment provides the student, the family, the school or homeschool program, and the state insight as to how a student is doing in their academics compared to other students around the United States who took the same assessment. 

The right of parents to choose an education for their children was declared at the United Nations General Assembly in 1948: “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”¹ The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture and direct his or her destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare the child for life. The state may require that all children of proper age attend school, that teachers would be of good moral character and patriotic disposition, that certain studies essential to good citizenship must be taught, and that nothing be taught which is manifestly inimical to the public welfare.²

For parents, homeschooling has been an alternative to Brick-and-Mortar schools for decades, since home education provides parents the opportunity to teach moral and religious principles to their children.¹ The first families to choose to homeschool their children dealt with backlash from numerous groups including family members, educators, politicians, and neighbors who felt they were doing their children an injustice. However, proponents of homeschooling held fast and helped to establish the laws and regulations that recognized that teaching one’s children is a right.² In the 1970’s, only 10,000 children were homeschooled, and by 2010, about 2,000,000 students were part of homeschool options.³  There are more than 3.76 million students in the U.S. who were homeschooled in 2020 and by 2022, there were 4.3 million students who were homeschooled.⁴

E-learning reflects the reality of how people learn in the 21st century. As more and more parents are choosing e-learning for their children, there is a need to respond to the following questions: (1) What is e-learning? (2) What are the benefits of e-learning? (3) What are the challenges of e-learning? (4) How does my child apply his/her personal strengths to e-learning? (5) What is the future of e-learning?

Being a student can be expensive. From tuition costs to everyday items, families often find themselves looking for coupons and discounts. Thankfully, there are a myriad of businesses who want to help families just like you! 

In the current world of education, teaching and learning are moving from brick-and-mortar schools to the virtual world, from 30 students in a class to serving one student at a time. Especially in the last 10 years, online education is on the rise for homeschooling parents.¹ It provides students the flexibility to learn anywhere, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as long as there is Internet availability. Homeschooled online students can take advantage of unique course offerings such as world languages, Dual Enrollment (taking college courses while in high school), Advanced Placement (AP) courses, Honors courses, Gifted courses, and AIMS intervention. Importantly, homeschooled students enrolled at Enlightium Academy can obtain an accredited diploma recognized by colleges and universities around the world.

What kind of environment provides a proper context for learning to take place? This question is often asked by educators and parents. Let’s try to answer this question in a practical way so it can benefit students and satisfy parents’ and teachers’ expectations. In regards to the environment, the best approach is to minimize distractions while a student is working on school assignments. It is important that students take breaks, get fresh air, exercise, and have nutritious meals. Lave and Wegner (1991) saw learning from non-traditional lenses, instead of asking what kinds of cognitive processes and conceptual structures are involved in learning, they ask what kinds of social engagements provide the proper context for learning to take place.

Sometimes your academics may feel overwhelming. What classes should you take? What do you do if you’re struggling in a course? How do you make friends in a virtual school?

Remember that you’re not alone! Enlightium Academy was founded in 2003 and has helped thousands of students around the world. Learn from those who came before you with these seven basic habits of a successful student.

When I was 13 years old, a big change took place in my life: my family moved. Suddenly I had to adjust to a new home, a new city, and a new school. It soon became clear that the public school I was enrolled in was not a good fit for me. The classes were not at an appropriate level for my abilities, and I had difficulty making friends. So I came up with a plan: have my parents homeschool me for 8th grade. I devoted months to convincing my parents and it worked. At that time, the only option I considered was traditional homeschooling, as cyber school education was still a new development in education.

Interested in switching to a non-traditional environment to earn your high school diploma online? You’re not alone. In the last ten years, the number of students enrolling to earn their high school diploma online has increased tenfold. Four of the top reasons families are making the switch are:

Sometimes, being a student athlete can feel like a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you have the opportunity to practice your God-given talent. On the other hand, the stress of coordinating your practices, competitions, and travels with the other parts of your life can be pretty intense.

In order to maintain a high level of athletic performance in any sphere of athletics (e.g., soccer, running, gymnastics, skateboarding, BMX, motocross, etc.), students need the flexibility to practice throughout the year, which involves lots of traveling, whether it be due to weather conditions or getting acclimated to a certain environment prior to the big event.

For many parents it becomes apparent over time that public, charter or private schooling is not benefitting their child, and they start to look into home schooling options. The reasons for choosing home schooling are as varied as the children who leave traditional schools to be home schooled: Parents often do not agree with the subject matter taught at traditional schools or the methods that are used to teach the subjects. They may not believe in the morals underlying the instruction in the classroom. Parents may have a child who has health issues that make it challenging for him or her to be surrounded by too many people. Maybe their child is being bullied or struggling with social pressures. 

Does this sound familiar to you?

One of the advantages that homeschooling families have is the ability to design a learning space for their students in their own home. Social media sources like Pinterest and online blogs are full of ideas for homeschool organization. These sources often emphasize the importance of designing a learning space that fits the needs of your family.

Today, I would like to take this idea one step further and suggest that the ideal learning space may not be the same for each family member. What is seen as ideal by a parent may not in fact be ideal for a student. What qualifies as an ideal learning space may even differ from child to child.

Students taking technical courses online face different challenges in an online learning environment. Parents, teachers and students are familiar with the traditional, ‘brick and mortar’ approaches to education. It’s what we were raised with. In that environment, students are gathered into an assigned space at a specific time where a teacher provides the instruction. The teacher leads in the presentation of the content and then moves to a lab-based activity. This is a linear focused approach that has instructional milestones and sets evaluations (i.e. quizzes or exams) to confirm student understanding and mastery of a set of objectives over a fixed period of time.

What model and approach works for the students today?

Christian Universities Online explains that the history of Christian universities in the United States dates back to 1636, with the opening of Harvard University who had a founding rule stating that all students should know God and Jesus Christ and for Him to lay the foundation for their education. While today, Harvard is more diverse in its acceptance of a student and their religion; many institutions were founded as a Christian university. The history includes universities such as Brown, Yale, and Princeton.

Currently there are 3.4 million students enrolled in private universities. The graduation rate at a private institution is 30% higher than public, but the cost is also more than double.