Homeschooling is growing in popularity and is great option for many families. We’ve been homeschooling our kiddos for several years now. We homeschool because we believe it is what we are called to as a family. Homeschooling enables us to meet the unique needs of each of our kiddos. That said, I’ve often been asked, “How do you know if homeschooling is right for you?” There are both pros of homeschooling and cons of homeschooling. I think you should be aware of both to help you determine whether or not homeschooling is right for you.”
Is Homeschooling Right for You
The Pros of Homeschooling
- Teach according to your values and morality. You don’t have to worry about finding out after the fact that your children are being taught things that contradict your faith. If you want to incorporate your religious beliefs and values into your child’s learning, homeschooling is a perfect option.
- Create a special bond with your children.
- We get to choose a homeschool curriculum. We are able to choose what our children learn and when they learn it.
- Great teacher-to-student ratio: A huge benefit of homeschooling is individualized attention. The ability to teach 1-on-1 is maximized when you only have a few students. 😉 This is a beautiful thing, especially if one of your kiddos struggles in any given area. It also means that you can ensure your child gets it before moving on.
- Flexible scheduling. Want to take Monday off because you have appointments? Done. Want to do schoolwork four days a week and reserve the fifth day for exploring the world around you? You can do that! You can alter the study time of your child according to the rest of your obiligations.
- Ability to tailor lessons to each child. Here are 5 TIPS ON TEACHING AND ACCOMMODATING DIFFERENT LEARNING STYLES
- Encourage your child’s interests, gifts, and abilities. The beauty of that is that when my daughter decided she wants to be a zoologist, we were able to spend weeks learning about zoology and various animals and not have to worry about being “behind” in everything else. When my son decided he wanted to learn how to code, we could encourage him to code a Raspberry Pi and incorporate it into his lessons.
- Keep learning exciting. Because you are able to explore their interests, gifts, and abilities, kids will want to learn.
- Dedicated teachers: We want our children to succeed in life, which means we are dedicated to teaching them well.
- Ability to help your child learn to socialize with people that are not necessarily age peers.
- Share the day-to-day life with your kids. See what gives them joy and let them see what give you joy.
- Ability to address social issues on your own time scale.
- Ability to vacation during the school year.
- Eliminate busy work and homework. When you’re spending time one on one teaching your child, it is easy to eliminate the busy work. This means you can finish lessons in a third of the time required by non-homeschoolers.
The Cons of Homeschooling
- Potential for conflict with your child. When you wear both the parent hat and the teacher hat, it can get a little sticky. It’s important to set clear boundaries for your kiddos and teach them to not to cross them.
- Homeschooling can be time consuming. Not only do you have to do the teaching, you have to do the planning and grading. This is when you need all of the homeschool organizational tips you can use!
- Listening to nay-sayers. Trust me, when embark on the journey of homeschooling, there will be plenty of people who don’t understand and are overly critical.
- Homeschooling *can* be a budget buster. Some curriculum are simply not cheap. It’s important to know about free homeschooling resources because you can use them to offset the cost of a home education.
Overall, there are certainly more pros than cons to homeschooling. I am a firm believer that knowing the pros and cons of homeschooling goes a long way toward knowing is homeschooling right for you. I think the old adage is, “to be forewarned is to be forearmed.” You can rock your first year of homeschooling, and every year after that. With the increasing popularity of homeschooling, some parents may also want to explore home-based childcare for their younger children while they teach their older children. Whether you decide to hire a mom’s helper for a few hours a week, or just on lab experiment day, it can help you focus on your older children when needed.
There are a ton of homeschooling resources available on Amazon. Here are just a few to help you determine is homeschooling right for you.
Homeschooling 101: A Guide to Getting Started.Homeschooling: It’s Easier Than You Think!
Homeschooling For Dummies
Homeschooling: what to do when you want to quit