Pamela Campbell, also a missionary's wife, and Raveney both stress the importance of setting aside a work space and time for their child with no interruptions. "When we lived in Argentina, Katie had her study room in the back of the yard," says Pamela. "She had her desk, bookshelves, TV screen and video, complete with the US flag to stand and salute along with the video 'class' kids at the start of each day, which gave her a sense of routine."

"Motivation is key," adds Raveney. "Some children just love the satisfaction of having finished their workbook on time or even in advance. Others need encouragement or deadlines."

Goal charts—planning out how many pages to do in a month, week, and day—help. If all else fails, try ultimatums. Says Raveney, "If you don't have such and such amount of pages done before Friday, no TV and/or video or whatever. No arguing or yelling needed, state the facts and you'd be amazed at how fast they can work when they know you mean it."

Along with wider learning curves, a higher level of academic material, greater parent/child bonding opportunities, flexibility in teaching methods and a low teacher to student ratio, most homeschooled children can benefit from online chat rooms, support groups and networks for social interaction with other homeschooled children.

Partial Homeschooling

Partial homeschooling is a patchwork combination of sending a child to attend a regular school (public, private or both for different classes, though that family's schedule could well turn into a nightmare!), and supplementing with subject areas that the child is taught at home, following a grading/accreditation system.

This arrangement works for parents who are not able or willing to homeschool full blast, yet want their child to benefit from some of the aspects of homeschooling, while receiving accreditation in those areas. Many of the French mothers I know are sending their kids to local Argentinean schools, while homeschooling their kids in the afternoons, to help them prepare for the French exams they'll be sitting for at the end of the year. Several American families living in Argentina have opted for traditional Argentinean schools, while offering their children additional online courses for preparation to take international exams. For maintaining native age-appropriate language arts and fluency levels, this is also a great arrangement for citizens living overseas in a country where their native language may be used as a second or third language.