Is Homeschooling a Good Idea?

The Benefits of Homeschooling

Why is homeschooling a good idea? What are the benefits? There are many benefits to homeschooling from lifestyle benefits, to academics, life skills, environmental and parental benefits. I’ll touch on these benefits below.

Lifestyle Benefits of Homeschooling

I love the ability to set our own pace for life and the flexibility it brings to our daily schedule. Want to let your child sleep in today? Go for it! Want to go camping during the week and do some school work on the weekend? Go for it! I love having the ability to have more control over our time and how we spend it.

• More family time – closer knit relationship to family members.
• More time for extracurriculars – More time for that dance class, basketball practice, tae kwon do, etc without your child getting burned out from never being home.
• More time for the extra things in life – from playing outdoors, to art projects, you get that flexibility in your schedule for your child to do the things that truly interest them.
• More time for field trips – Wanting to discuss something in specific in history today? Go to a museum and see artifacts and engaging displays that help to spur more conversations and a better understanding. Is it nice outside today? Go have fun learning and exploring with a trip to the beach. There are so many opportunities.
• The flexibility of doing school anywhere and any time – Are you living out of your rv? Do you move around often due to work or military for example? There are so many reasons why a flexible school schedule with homeschooling can benefit your family.
• Meet needs as they arise – A child’s mental, emotional, and physical health are prioritized. If you need to take a break for a week or a couple months you can just make it up and give your child that time to heal now without the added stress of missing school.
• More community involvement – more opportunities to go out in the community and meet people of a wide variety of ages and backgrounds. Even the simple things like going to the grocery store and to the post office help teach your child life skills and interpersonal skills to use throughout their life.

Academic Benefits of Homeschooling

You know your child best and when you are able to tailor their learning to their interests and learning styles your child will naturally flourish with their learning. Put forth the time and effort and your child will reap the academic rewards.

• More efficient– The teacher to student ratio is much lower than your average classroom. Even when teaching multiple children it is still lower, and there are a variety of topics that can be taught together as a family.
• You and your child set the pace – Do they already have a strong grasp on one thing but not another? You can easily take more time for the thing they need more work on and skim over the other subject they are already grasping.
• Tailoring information in a way that your child will retain it better – try helping your child learn one way but if that is not working then you can quickly assess and change course in a way that will help them learn it better.
• More meaningful learning – you are not schooling to do good on some standardized test. You are focusing on really learning and critically thinking.
• Better college readiness – colleges like to see and recruit homeschooled children.

Life Skill Benefits of Homeschooling

Being in a classroom all day is not how your child will experience life as an adult. With homeschooling your child learns more than academics, they learn how to function as a member of society and get a better understanding of how to prepare for life as an adult.

• Learning life skills – Your child will be with you and naturally pick up on many life skills that are not taught in school or just skimmed over. Your elementary student can learn how to cook. You child can learn how to run a business if you are an entrepreneur or even just learn how to budget.
• Better preparation for careers – If your child is interested in starting up a business they have more flexibility to pursue that passion. Or perhaps your child wants to be an electrician, for example, they have more flexibility in their schedule to apprentice earlier in life than their peers.
• Create a love for books and libraries – What homeschool family doesn’t like to go load up at the library? Getting your child to love books will bring them so many benefits throughout their lives. With homeschooling you can make multiple opportunities on a regular basis to allow your child to explore their local library and see what peeks their interest.
• Build a love of learning – Sometimes we learned things in school that we thought we did not like, but years later we gave it a try again and realized we really do like doing it we just had some other reason for it souring us at the time. From a mean teacher to a kid that would pick on you every day at that class, it happens. Hopefully with homeschool we can give our children a happier more peaceful learning environment.

Environmental Benefits of Homeschooling

If you create a loving environment for your child to learn in the environmental benefits of homeschooling can be so profound.

• Better mental health – when you create a peaceful homeschool environment there is no school bullying, and school induced stress for example.
• Better physical health – You don’t have to sit still at a desk for hours upon hours, you can take a break and stand up and stretch while you do your school work, take a afternoon walk, etc. This is especially helpful for those kids who are always on the move – teach in a way that allows them to move around while learning rather than forcing them to sit still and keep quiet.
• Encourage independence and autonomy – letting your child have input in what they will learn leads them to be more motivated in learning and better critical thinking.
• Lessened peer pressure – Less effects of peer pressure with drugs, sex and alcohol for example.

 

Parental Benefits of Homeschooling

Homeschooling is more than just beneficial for your child(ren), it is also beneficial for you. There are sacrifices to make but if you are willing and able to put in the effort the benefits of homeschooling are there for the taking!

• Lots of memories with your child – Going on field trips, co-op outings, and just having more time together in general creates strong bonds and lasting memories.
• Personal growth– Besides just brushing up academically, you can also experience personal growth through homeschooling your child. It feels pretty awesome to look back on your school year and see all the things that you did together and how you helped your child to progress.
• Cost– This can be lower or higher than public schooling depending on how you do things. You can save money by doing off season vacations, or not feeling pressured to buy the latest this and that of their peers for example. Either way it should be much easier to save money on homeschooling vs private school. I go over cost is more detail here: How Much Does it Cost to Homeschool?

In Conclussion

Everyone’s reasons for homeschooling are going to be varied. Perhaps there is a benefit that I did not touch on here that is one of your favorites. If so leave a comment below and share with us what it is that you love about homeschooling! If you are interested in homeschooling and it is something you are able to do go for it! If you can make the time, and put forth the effort your child will reap many benefits for years to come. If you would rather go the public school or private school route then go for it. Do what is best for your family, thankfully we have the freedom to choose what is best! Have fun learning!

Want More?

How to get Started Homeschooling in Ohio

Helpful Resources for Beginning Homeschoolers

 

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