Homeschooling Pros and Cons
Benefits of Homeschooling
The many benefits of homeschooling mean more kids and teens than ever are learning at home. Families want the advantages of homeschooling, with the flexibility, academic benefits, efficiency, and opportunities homeschooling can offer. They seek an education and even a lifestyle that’s not based on minimum standards and a one-size-fits-all approach.
- Academic flexibility. Homeschooling can work whether a child is ahead, behind, strong-willed, creative, challenging, quiet, gifted, or active.
- Parent choice of pace and approach. You’re in charge of the schedule, grade level, learning approach, curriculum, and in most places, even graduation requirements. You can prioritize a child’s mental, emotional, behavioral, and physical health.
- Warm family environment. Family is the best foundation for social development as well as values and faith development.
- Community involvement. There’s generous time for service, community activities, volunteering, and entrepreneurship.
- Efficient learning. A low student-teacher ratio, without wasted time and busy work.
- Meaningful learning. Avoid teaching to the test, testing mania in general, and arbitrary minimal standards.
- Time for the stuff many schools cut. You can make time for play, the outdoors, projects, the arts, and real experiments.
- Getting into college. A great transcript with less stress and burnout.
- Accommodating to special situations. Homeschooling works well for military families, families who travel, and families contending with illness and challenging work schedules.
- Legal acceptance. Homeschooling is a way of meeting compulsory attendance laws in every state in the U.S. and in many countries.
Homeschooling Benefits: More Than Just Academics
There are obvious academic benefits of homeschooling, but potential homeschoolers may not have thought of the many other areas in which families can reap homeschooling benefits, including:
- Customize for your kid. A benefit of homeschooling is the ability to customize homeschooling for all kinds of kids. There are ways to tailor homeschooling for kids who are behind, kids who are gifted or advanced, kids who have ADD/ADHD, and kids who have special needs . You can customize for your child’s learning styles and preferences.
- Choose what works. Another benefit of homeschooling is parental choice in the basic elements of education. You can choose your own curriculum and resources, helping your child learn different subjects or from different viewpoints. You can help your child learn at the level she is ready for rather than being locked into an arbitrary grade level. She could even be at one level for reading and a different level for math. You can homeschool according to a schedule that works best for your child and your family. In most states, parents can even set their own graduation requirements, helping teens prepare for work, a creative life, or college with high school years that make sense for that individual child. You can also even find benefits to starting homeschooling in the high school years.
- Create efficient, effective learning. A benefit of homeschooling is its efficiency and effectiveness. With a low student-teacher ratio, little time is wasted during the day standing in lines or waiting for others to finish. You can choose from a variety of homeschooling styles or approaches. You can help your child with contextual learning or by pursuing passions. Many parents find interest-led learning leads to developing skills and knowledge across all academic areas. Rather than focusing on weaknesses in a way that can make a child lose confidence, a benefit of homeschooling is strengths-based learning. Parents can build inquiry-based learning into their days, helping kids grow their critical thinking, which is a huge benefit of homeschooling. Yet, you don’t have to have an education degree or be “a teacher” to homeschool well; as the parent, you’re the expert on what your child needs.
- Differentiate from school. Another benefit of homeschooling is that you can take advantage of the fact that homeschooling is different from school. Parents can value individual potential rather than school-based minimum standards, and they can get away from public education’s focus on standardized testing. Parents can also shape homeschooling so that learning is in tune with what we actually know about child development. We know that young children learn best through play, and we know that children develop on their own timetables. Sometimes children benefit from homeschooling with an emphasis on later academics. One of homeschooling’s benefits is that children can continue to build content knowledge even during a lag in skill development. There are so many school things homeschoolers do not have to do, which is a big advantage of homeschooling. Many parents do not use testing or grading, or at least not until the high school years.
- Focus on life skills. Solid preparation for adult life is an additional benefit of homeschooling. Spending more time in a household provides more time for the everything from learning to cook to learning to budget. Parents can make “adulting” part of living and learning.
- Extreme achievement or passion. A teen who is training as an Olympic athlete or dedicated to another all-consuming interest may find a homeschool schedule more compatible with her training and intensity.
- Getting into college. Teens can effectively prep for college with good homeschool transcripts for admission and with less burnout on busy work. Homeschooled students benefit by standing out for college admissions just by having had a different experience, but also because they may have had opportunities to follow their interests in a deep way.
- Preparing for a vocation or entrepreneurship. Teens who want to go directly to work can focus on vocational training, sometimes even starting with informal apprenticeships or mentorships during the high school years. Many teens also gain entrepreneurial experience while they’re young, and they can transfer that business experience to post-high school start-ups.
Homeschool Socialization Is Different
One of the biggest myths we shatter is the idea that homeschool socialization does not exist or that homeschoolers are all weird or do not know how to interact with people. The truth of the matter is that there are pros and cons with the social experience of homeschoolers, just as there are pros and cons with public school. Experiences will vary for all children, but the fairest way to characterize socialization in a homeschool environment is to say it is different.
How is homeschool socialization different?
Parents often decide to homeschool because they do not want their child’s values to be defined by their peers or for their children to face social ridicule or bullying. In private or public schools, the pressure to “fit in” or achieve a perceived level of social status among classmates can be quite great.
Homeschooling also means less daily interaction with large numbers of kids in a child’s age group. And homeschoolers can end up spending less time each day participating in organized sports and activities with their peers.
In fact, on average, homeschoolers participate more in their community, are less sedentary, and socialize with a wider mix of adults (especially professionals) than their public school counterparts.
As part of its flexible nature and focus on one-on-one / personalized learning, homeschooling involves more field trips, real-life experiences, and hands-on learning. When it comes to sports, homeschoolers often participate in recreational leagues or homeschool sports classes offered in their community. Some students are homeschooled because their athletic or artistic talents have them engaged in sports and activities at a higher level.
Start Homeschooling with One Simple Spanish Class
Bilingual people have better job opportunities and earn more than their monolingual counterparts. Plus, most colleges require at least two years of foreign language for their applications. When comparing homeschool vs public school, it is much easier to outsource quality language instruction at home.
Homeschool Spanish Academy is the easiest way to add language classes to your child’s at-home curriculum. Our native-speaking teachers from Guatemala have experience guiding students of all ages to proficiency and fluency. We offer high school credit, tailored programs, and affordable pricing to make language learning accessible for everyone.
Source:
https://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/benefits-of-homeschooling-2/
https://www.calverteducation.com/should-i-homeschool/homeschooling-pros-and-cons
https://www.spanish.academy/blog/8-amazing-benefits-of-homeschool-vs-public-schools/