Homeschooling is becoming more and more popular as families make the decision to educate their children outside of the traditional classroom environment. Currently, an estimated 3%-4% of school-aged children in the United States are homeschooled. For those considering homeschooling, it can be helpful to explore the benefits and determine if homeschooling is right for your family.
In this article, we will look at the good side of homeschooling, its potential benefits, and discuss if it fits your family’s lifestyle.
1: Cost Savings
One of the possible benefits of homeschooling is a significant cost savings. In the traditional classroom setting, taxpayers are responsible for certain costs associated with a student’s educational expenses. Since the taxpayer is not responsible for the homeschooler’s educational expenses, they on average can save approximately $15,000 over the traditional classroom option.
Additionally, homeschoolers can save money on curriculum and classroom materials, as well as other expenses such as extracurricular activities, uniforms, and technology. By investing in a homeschool curriculum, families can choose one that provides engaging and challenging learning materials, without breaking the budget.
Furthermore, with homeschooling, families don’t need to incur the transportation costs associated with taking their children to and from school. This can result in significant cost savings for the family.
2: Focus on Academics
Another potential benefit of homeschooling is the ability to focus on academics. Since the homeschooler is in control of their own educational curriculum, they can focus solely on the course material at hand.
This eliminates the time wasted on unproductive activities or on topics that the homeschooler is not as interested in. Additionally, with homeschooling, families have a greater say in the type of materials their children learn. Homeschoolers have the ability to customize their curriculum to focus on certain topics such as math, science, or language arts, while potentially minimizing or eliminating the need to waste time on other topics that they may not find as interesting.
This makes the learning process more personalized, allowing homeschoolers to expand on their particular strengths and interests.
3: Improved Social Interactions
Contrary to popular belief, homeschoolers are still able to meet and spend time with other people their own age. Homeschoolers typically join clubs and organizations, participate in homeschool sports teams and programs, and attend homeschooling events such as field trips. Through these experiences, the homeschooler can develop relationships with peers, as well as adults outside of the home.
This can help them learn to navigate mature relationships, as well as gain a better understanding of different perspectives and viewpoints. Furthermore, as opposed to traditional classroom settings, homeschooling provides more demographic diversity, allowing children to interact with people of different backgrounds, religions, and ethnicities.
This allows homeschoolers to gain a more comprehensive and global perspective on the world they live in.
4: Flexibility
Homeschooling also provides more flexibility. Traditional school hours often require families to set their schedules around school hours and mandates.
With homeschooling, however, the family can create a schedule that fits their individual needs and preferences. For example, homeschoolers can take off for family trips without worrying about missing out on school. This also allows homeschoolers to pursue activities outside of school, such as a sport or music lessons, without worrying about missing out on school work.
Homeschoolers can also study more intensively in subjects that they enjoy and skip others that they are not as interested in, thus creating a more efficient study plan and finding more positives in their education.
5: Educational Autonomy
With homeschooling, the family has much more control and autonomy in regards to their child’s education. Parents can take the time to explore their child’s needs and create an individualized educational plan that is tailored to those needs. This allows parents to guide their child’s learning and help them focus on their individual strengths and interests.
Parents are also able to choose the venue and resources that are best suited for their child. They can select from a variety of educational materials from off the shelf books and websites, to online courses and magazines.
This can help families choose comprehensive materials that are both fun and educational for their child.
6: Safety Considerations
Homeschooling may provide a safer environment for the child. During the traditional school day, most students are in an atmosphere with a high student-teacher ratio, and are in close proximity to other students throughout the day.
This can make it difficult to monitor their interactions and can potentially lead to safety concerns. By homeschooling, a family can be sure that their child is safe and secure within the family home. Additionally, with homeschooling, parents can have more direct control over notifications regarding any safety concerns that arise outside of the home.
7: Parental Involvement
Parents who homeschool might also experience more parental involvement in their child’s education. With homeschooling, parents can take a more active role in the day-to-day curriculum decisions and activities, thus allowing them to create a more meaningful and engaging educational experience for their child. Additionally, homeschooling allows parents to take on more responsibility for the child’s educational goals, helps them to better manage the educational process, and can result in more meaningful dialogue between parent and child during the learning process.
8: Increased Discernment
Homeschooling may make a child more discerning in their pursuit of knowledge. Since their curriculum is based on the family’s individual criteria, the homeschooler has more control over the type of materials they learn and when.
This allows them to decide which topics are more important to them and helps them establish which topics they would like to spend more time studying. Additionally, by controlling their own education, the homeschooler can help identify areas of interest and decide if they want to continue learning about a particular topic or not.
9: Mental Well-being
Homeschoolers may also benefit from increased mental well-being. By removing themselves from the often taxing environment of the traditional classroom, the homeschooler may have less stress and anxiety in their daily life. Additionally, the family can set the pace and tone of the educational process, allowing the homeschooler to take breaks as needed, as well as have more control over the topics they are studying.
This can potentially benefit academic performance by providing the homeschooler a more relaxed and confident attitude toward their school work.
10: Self-Reliance
Homeschoolers may also be more self-reliant. By controlling the pace of their own education, the homeschooler may be less likely to rely on the teacher for their learning.
This can potentially lead to a more independent approach to learning and a greater willingness to take initiative when faced with a problem. Furthermore, with the family being more involved in the day-to-day activities, the homeschooler may learn to be more self-sufficient and find ways to motivate themselves.
11: Relationship Building
Another potential benefit for homeschoolers is improved relationship building. Without the distractions of their peers, the homeschooler has more time to develop meaningful relationships with family members, friends, and potential mentors.
This can help foster deeper connections and a better understanding of each other’s values and opinions. Additionally, by removing themselves from the traditional classroom setting, the homeschooler can learn to appreciate and pursue knowledge more independently, while also developing a sense of respect and appreciation for different classrooms of thought and opinions.
12: Access to Resources
Homeschoolers also have access to more resources. By taking control of their own education, homeschoolers can access materials from all over the world. This can help the homeschooler gain an understanding of a variety of cultures and perspectives, without having to leave their home.
Additionally, the homeschooler has access to the endless resources of the internet to further their instruction in any particular subject.
13: Spiritual Benefits
Homeschoolers may also experience spiritual benefits. Since the family is taking control of their own education, they have the ability to create a curriculum around certain religious ideologies.
This can help the homeschooler gain greater spiritual understanding, while creating a learning environment that aligns with their values and beliefs. Additionally, since the learning environment is conducted in the family home, the family is able to spend more time in spiritual activities and prayer, as well as find ways to integrate that aspect into their day-to-day schooling.
Conclusion
Homeschooling is an increasingly popular option for many families, as it provides an array of potential benefits from cost savings to spiritual growth. Some of the most notable benefits of homeschooling include cost savings, better focus on academics, educational autonomy, improved social interactions, and the ability to shape their own curriculum.
Before families make the decision to homeschool, they should consider all of the potential benefits, as well as the potential drawbacks, and decide which option is best suited for their lifestyle.