Education Standards

Studying at home is one alternative that many children have. Having access to a free home school curriculum can help with the choice of what to study. This is important as there are times when your child will be unsure of what subjects they should take. As these choices have the ability to get the best results for entering a university some time in the future, you may want to look at the curriculum carefully.

These many different subjects in home school programs will be covered briefly in the various home school curriculums. You should look through each of these in detail before you make any final decisions. This is very important as your child should be willing to study these. They will need to have these subjects covered before they can proceed to the next class.

While there are numerous free home school curriculum subjects that you can choose, you will need to keep some fun and interesting subjects as electives. Additionally there should be lots of electives that your child can study to broaden their educational horizons.

These many different avenues will allow you to look and choose from different free home school curriculum programs. These programs have many definite advantages that you can use for your child's future.

One aspect that you will find in using the free home school curriculum is that your child's educational track record is kept updated. This accepted home school record makes it easy for universities and even high school's to see what sort of educational standard your child has.

By enrolling your child in an accredited home school program you can make sure your child has the necessary help with their studies. The various subjects in the free home school curriculum will help them to get into a university. They will also be prepared for the various course studies they will need for any major that catches their fancy.

Providing that you choose a free home school curriculum that is varied, your child should show an interest in all of their subjects. This will help when there are different projects that have been scheduled for studying. For this reason if you want to your child to have fun learning their school work, it is a good idea to choose a free home school program where they will have the chance to grow.

There are many different free home school courses that you will find. These have ample subjects to give your child the education that they deserve. The free home school curriculum in many home study programs will allow your children the education to grow.

Online degree programs are leading a boom in distance learning that has made a college education more accessible than ever before. In fact, distance learning has taken a place alongside classroom learning in the mainstream of American education.

In the near term, advantages of online degree programs include lower cost and greater convenience. Over the long term, earning a college degree online can pay off with substantial financial benefits over the course of your career.

Growth of Online Degree Programs
Online degree programs are a prominent part of the trend toward distance learning which has changed the face of post-secondary education.

According to U.S. Department of Education statistics for the 2006-07 academic year, 65 percent of colleges offer some form of for-credit distance learning programs. In total 12.2 million people were enrolled in these programs, with just over three-quarters of those participating via online courses.

This proliferation has led to wider choice, with 11,200 college programs designed specifically for distance education. For the most part, these are not just continuing education courses, but rather degree-oriented programs. 66 percent of all distance education programs were degree-oriented, with the remainder representing certificate programs.

As with any college program, it is important to look for online accredited degrees--those that are recognized as meeting a certain threshold of educational standards. Fortunately, with so many accredited colleges now adding online programs, online accredited degrees should not be hard to find.

Why Earn a Degree Online?
Today, millions of people are earning a degree online.  Why should you consider joining them? There are a variety of reasons:
•    Accessibility. Not every student has the option of pulling up roots and attending college in another part of the country. In the past, this would have meant that your educational options were limited to programs that happened to be offered in your area. This is no longer true. With online education, academic programs from all over the country are now as close as your computer.
•    Flexible schedule. Traditional college programs typically represented a rigid time schedule. For people with work or family obligations, conforming to that kind of schedule is an impossibility. Online programs both increase the number of scheduling options you have, and the flexibility of many of those options.
•    Affordability. Online education gives you more low-tuition options to consider, and in particular eliminates the room, board, and transportation costs associated with an on-campus education.

Financial Benefits
Accessibility, flexibility, and affordability are all short-term benefits. If these make the difference in allowing you to pursue a college degree, then the long-term financial benefits are considerable.

Simply obtaining an associate's degree can bump the average person's annual earnings up to $34,000, compared to $29,000 for people who didn't get beyond a high school degree or equivalent. Obtaining a bachelor's degree raises the earning level by an even greater margin, to $43,500, and these income gaps have been getting wider over time.

Those are just one-year differences. Project those income differentials over the course of a career, and they add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's the long-term financial benefit of a college education, and online education may be your best chance at capturing that benefit.

There are number of programs available to assist single parents in improving their educational standards. For lone parent considering such prospects, you have a number of options with you.

The National Pell grant program is established to support low and middle income single parents to study in college. Their grants ranges starting from $400 up to $4,300 depending on your income and family strength. The college you want to join will require you to submit a full financial statement. Your income will be greater as you are the single bread winner for a family unit of 4 rather than living alone. FAFSA is the standard form used for this purpose by all the schools which provide financial support. To run this program with uniform justice these forms are standardized and in this way all the institutions can judge the applicants in an equal manner. All you have to do is to select your school, apply on the form and if you are on the merit you can start off.

Student loan is another way to finance studies for single parents. These low interest loans are supportive as they usually have minimum interest rate and return of payments are postponed till graduation or if you are unable to attend the compulsory number of hours. If you are looking for the loan it is mandatory to be careful about the terms and conditions. If you are unaware about the terms, try getting some assistance first. Most of these are mandatory to return and you cannot get rid of student loans by filing bankruptcy. Adding up of interest will result in piling up of hundreds of dollars to be paid back. Private student loans are one such type of loan in which there are variable interest rates, moreover the terms are not as good as standard federal student loans.

A number of single parents decide to return to college and a number of adult scholarships are available to support them. You need not pay to look for these scholarships as you can get the help of certain non profit organizations. These agencies are available allover the country. One such agency is CFNC.org which mainly looks after residents of North Carolina. Similar websites assist lone parents as well as other students to find student scholarships.

In general a large number of single parents decide to resume the college either to acquire a degree or to get a higher qualification. The aim is to increase their job prospects. Pell grant, student loans and adult scholarships are all viable options for low or middle income single parents. Some options out of these are for specific groups such as single mothers. The idea is to use as much free assistance as possible to find the best option and then to look for the correct place to find it. This is where admission offices of various schools come to your help as they are keener to teach committed adults as compared to non serious young ones.

If it wasn't a big enough perk to grow up next door to the Magic Kingdom, Orange County high school students are also being sought out by nonprofit organizations in their area. As part of Disneyland's 50th anniversary celebrations, high school students from Orange County Schools have the chance to participate in community outreach projects with local nonprofits.

Show Your Character

The "Show Your Character" competition encourages local nonprofits to design projects that get high school students involved. Beginning in 2004 and continuing through 2006, Orange County nonprofits submit project proposals designed to help local teenagers give back to their community. If selected, the nonprofits are paired with Orange County high school students and given the resources they needed to complete a community service project in their neighborhoods.

Projects for the competition must meet the California curriculum standards for Service Learning Projects. In this way, students earn academic credit while learning valuable skills from nonprofit groups.

A Service Learning Project must meet four basic goals (provided by the Volunteer Center of Orange County, www.volunteercenter.org ):

Meet a Real Community Need

In partnership with your organization, students should gain an understanding of how the needs of the community you serve are identified. After developing an understanding of these needs, students will actively participate in a service-learning project designed to effectively meet those needs.

Gain an Understanding of the Connection Between School and Community

Students should develop an understanding of the relationship between the school and the community and the value of school-community partnerships. This will be gained through direct interactions with your organization, staff and/or clients to develop and implement meaningful service activities that meet the needs of both the students and the community you serve.

Develop a Sense of Civic Responsibility

Students should be able to demonstrate an understanding of civic responsibility through their participation in this service-learning activity. The project must meet a real community need and improves the quality of life in the community.

Strengthen their Understanding of Core Character Traits and Values

Trustworthiness - Respect - Fairness - Caring - Citizenship

Benefits for Students

In addition to the school credit, participation in the competition also benefits students and their schools in other key ways. Students will gain from an increased awareness of the nonprofits operating in the community. In working with a nonprofit organization, the student will learn about how nonprofit groups help at risk members of the community and see for themselves how they and others can contribute to building their community in a positive way in the future. Participation also qualifies the student to apply for a Disneyland Resort Legacy Scholarship Award. The Disneyland Resort Scholarship Program, called Making Magic Through Community Service, plans to grant $50,000 in scholarships, with a minimum scholarship of $5000 each.

Benefits for Teachers and Schools

Teachers and schools can get in on the action too. In assisting their students to participate in the competition, teachers and schools meet the standards in character education and have the opportunity to build character and civic responsibility in their students. Teachers and students will have the advice of a Disney VoluntEAR Project Leader who is knowledgeable about their nonprofit organization partner as well as the character education curriculum education standards to be met. In addition, teachers and schools will have the expert assistance of the Volunteer Center of Orange County, the California State Regional Lead for Service Learning. There are financial benefits for teachers too, such as earning a Golden Performance Award worth $1000 to further improve the learning environment for their students.

Disney's community outreach programs for Orange County high school students combine learning with public service and specifically address the character education curriculum standards for the state of California. Students in the area have been given the opportunity to learn from Walt Disney that, "the greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish achievement but rather with the things we do for the people in need."