For those considering homeschooling as an option, you might be wondering what benefits there are. We have been homeschooling for over ten years. We feel that it has been a good fit for our family. Is homeschooling right for you? Here are some benefits of homeschooling that studies have shown to be advantageous.
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Family Time
Many families are concerned about the lack of family time in our modern world. Between work, school, and extracurricular activities, many parents and children find it difficult to find time to spend together. But homeschooling requires that you spend time with your children, and you learn a great deal about each other in the process.
Love of Learning
Homeschooling is often geared toward making learning fun and engaging, setting the stage for a lifelong love of learning. This love of learning is something that may get lost in a public school setting, where a child may be at a level different than the class’s teachings or may associate learning with boredom.
Flexibility
Homeschooling gives the opportunity to teach your child in whatever capacity and at whatever level he is. Some children, for instance, may be highly skilled in reading and read at an early age, but find handwriting a challenge. Others may write beautifully but struggle with reading. There are a great many variations across the learning spectrum, and homeschooling allows parents to work with these strengths and weaknesses.
Social readiness is another benefit of homeschooling – that is, being able to socialize your child at his own pace in settings he finds comfortable.
And finally, homeschoolers need not worry that their child is being exposed to teaching or issues that they find objectionable, or for which their child is not ready.
Customized Education
Homeschooling gives you insight into your child’s learning style as well as his strengths and weaknesses. This allows you to customize a curriculum and find the teaching style that best fits each child.
Religion has been taken out of public schools, so you could find the right program to use to teach about the religion of your choice.
Real Life Experience
It’s been said that “socialization” occurs when homeschoolers are out experiencing interpersonal interactions with a wide range of people, while public school kids are sitting at desks forbidden to talk to each other! Homeschooled kids get exposed to the post-academic world – the world outside of school – at an early age. This may better prepare them for the future since they can interact with a variety of people instead of just their peers.
Freedom from Bullying
Bullying is a significant concern in today’s schools. Kids these days are cruel. Freedom from intimidation is a significant benefit of homeschooling. Children learn in a safe environment and can concentrate on their school work rather than being worried about the next encounter with a bully.
Life Lessons
An excellent benefit for homeschoolers is teaching life lessons. There is more to life than just what you can find in books. How do you cook? How do you clean house? Do you know how to change a tire? How should you sort laundry? Homeschooling can answer these questions and more. Also, everyday life can be a classroom. That doesn’t mean you need to make a whole curriculum around something. Just giving guidance on practical skills that should be learned before your child goes off on their own is sufficient.
Our boys have been taught how to cook, do laundry, clean house, work on cars, mow grass, hang pictures, and other household tasks. We feel it is important for them to know the basics of everything, not just what some feel is a “man’s” job.
Resources
As you can see, there are many benefits of homeschooling. You only have a certain amount of time with your children. Make the most of what you have. Even if you choose that homeschooling is not right for you, that’s okay. Remember, there are only 936 weeks we have our children before they turn 18! When you look at that, it seems like such a short time.
If you would like to find out more information, we use SchoolhouseTeachers.com for a lot of our curriculum. They have over 300 classes from K-12. We have been members for more than five years and will continue until the boys have graduated.
If you think you might like unit studies, check out the Techie Homeschool Mom. That have unit studies for Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Famous Inventors, the Solar System, and others. You can even sign up for a free Online Unit Studies Sampler to try them out.
One of the primary sources we use for getting books for courses is through Christian Book Distributors. They have a wide range of curricula including Apologia, BJU Press (Bob Jones University), Alpha Omega Publications, Christian Liberty Press, Singapore Math, Saxon Math, Explode the Code, Notgrass History, A Reason for Handwriting, and more. These are all ones we have either used in the past or are currently using.
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