Help for Homeschoolers in Shreveport

SHREVEPORT, La. - July 9, 2013 - PRLog -- Local business women, Donesa Walker, M.Ed and Karen Johnson, have launched a cooperative designed to help local parents who want their children to be homeschooled, but, for various reasons, need help to make it happen.  The business, aptly called HomeSchool Helpers, LLC, works with the parents to aid in selecting curricula, maintaining required paperwork and mentoring the students.

Ms. Walker came up with the idea for HomeSchool Helpers while working with clients of her LearningRx franchise.  A homeschooling parent herself, Ms. Walker is intimately familiar with the challenges that go along with homeschooling, especially when the parents need to be at work, or feel unequipped to adequately teach their children.  According to Ms. Walker “HomeSchool Helpers, LLC was born from a desire to put the control over our children's education into the hands of the people most concerned about their long term success....their parents!  Many challenges accompany homeschooling, and we are here to help the parents, and therefore the students, overcome!“

According to the Department of Education’s website, over 18,000 children are homeschooled each year in the State of Louisiana.   A study by the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) reported that as of 2011 there were an estimated 2.346 Million children being homeschooled in the United States. According to www.thenewamerican.com “A 2006 study by the Department of Education found that 31 percent of parents who taught their kids at home did so out of concern for the public school environment, citing such issues as “safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure.” Another 30 percent said that home schooling offered them the ability to “provide their children with religious or moral instruction.” An additional 16.5 percent of parents cited dissatisfaction with “the academic instruction available” in the public schools, while about 14 percent said they chose homeschooling because of special needs of their children.” Homeschooling continues to grow in popularity locally and nationally.

HomeSchool Helpers, LLC will be holding a Homeschooling Seminar and Curriculum Selection Fair in their facility at 6331 Westport Drive, Shreveport  at 6:00 pm on July 15th.  Attendance is free and a packet of homeschooling information can be obtained for $10.  Register at www.homeschoolhelpers.net.