The Advantages of Homeschooling

Are they for real?

You hear about the advantages of homeschooling all the time...but are they for real?

As a homeschool mom of 16 years, I'm here to tell you they are.

Let me give you the statistics about home schooling first and then I'll give you my personal experience and how you can have these same results for your family.

Of course, this sounds great - who doesn't want smart kids? We would all like our children to do well in school and get a jump ahead of the crowd, but this is only one of the advantages of homeschooling.

The more meaningful advantages of home schooling are:

Spiritual Life

Whether you want to admit it or not, when your children leaves home for eight or more hours a day, you are no longer the major influence in their lives.

Their teacher is...their school friends are...their friends at activities are...not you.

This is okay, if you don't mind taking "pot luck" when it comes to shaping your child's character, but if you want to be able to shape your child's character with your religious and moral beliefs, it is better to teach them at home.

When you educate your children at home, you are not just teaching them academics. You are teaching them valuable life lessons every minute of every day and can spend your time teaching them what is truly important in life, not what their friends at school say is important.

To me...this is one of the very important advantages of home schooling.

Family Life

Family life is so much richer in families that teach their children at home. The parents enjoy spending time with their children and doing things together as a family and believe it or not...the children like spending time with the parents too.

Because of home schooling, our family has had great times together and have made some great memories...and we truly like each other!

Flexibility is another one of the advantages of homeschooling that home schooled families enjoy. You can choose your school hours. You can choose your vacation times. You can school around your work schedules. You are available to help other family members in times of crisis. The flexibility is limitless.

Academic

Of course, one of the advantages of homeschooling is the fact that home schooled children tend to do better academically in grades K-12 and also in college. But, it is far more important to be able to teach your children at their speed and teach what they are interested in.

Yes, you still need to cover the basic subjects - math, science, language arts, and history, but when you educate your children at home, you learn their strengths and weaknesses.

You take their strengths and develop them and help them grow in their personal interests and skills.

At the same time, you also become very aware of their weaknesses and you can take action to work on those areas. You can do this because you have time to give your child one-on-one tutoring.

More great advantages of home schooling is that you can tailor your children's learning styles to the curriculum that's best for each of them. If your child is weak in one learning style, for example - auditory learning, just look for ways to teach your child with a hands-on approach. There are many different curriculums, that cater to every child's special needs.

If your child learns at a slower pace in math but excels is grammar and spelling - great. Spend extra time on math until you see it "click" and either let your child advance quickly in the other subjects or do less of them for the time being. It all depends on how you want to budget your time.

Another one of the important advantages of homeschooling is that you can give your child individual attention. They don't have to wait in line to use the school computer, they don't have to be in a "special" group at school to be able to go on interesting and educational field trips. Your child can study what interests him any time he wants!

These are just some of the many advantages of homeschooling. Just as soon as you start your adventure - I'm sure you will be able to add many more!

Socialization

This is the "BIG" question to many parents. Many parents don't like the things their children are exposed to in public school.

When you choose to do in home school, you can still let your child choose their friends, but from a group that has similar morals and values as your family. It provides safe boundaries for your children - they have the freedom to choose and explore - just in a safe environment.

One thing you do not have to worry about is your child NOT getting enough socialization. Home schooling is so popular today and there are so many groups to associate with, the problem is too many activity and socialization opportunities. You will have more of a problem remembering to stay home and "do school" instead of going on fun field trips all the time.

And, yes, this too is one of the advantages of homeschooling.

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