What makes homeschooling better than traditional schooling? Lately, there has been a rising trend in families choosing to homeschool their child than send their children to a traditional educational institution.
For many, the current education system has not met the needs of parents and their children concerning the academic educational standards expected by some. This has resulted in a growing movement of parents taking the education of their children into their own hands, especially after the pandemic. Homeschooling continues to grow and expand as more and more parents realize the many benefits and advantages of teaching at home.
Flexible Schedule
Homeschooling enables a flexible schedule. For example, the child does not need to wake up at 7 every morning. With homeschooling, your child can start homeschooling at 9 am or later depending on your preferred schedule. You can schedule your child’s homeschooling education as you see fit with materials or subjects that may be not available in a traditional school.
You can tailor the homeschool curriculum to suit the needs and interests of your child.
Flexible Curriculum
Homeschooling gives you more control over the influences that affect your child. The growth and development of your child are removed from the realm of the unknown. You and you alone can decide what your child needs to do or learn. Tailoring the curriculum to suit the needs and interests of the child is one of the most obvious benefits of homeschooling.
Homeschooling allows the parents to select the exact lesson plan or curriculum the students will learn that the parent thinks is best for the student, not the school system. It is often found that many traditional schools teach students subjects that are academically irrelevant, not challenging, or that are best left to the parent to teach.
Homeschooling offers a control mechanism over this and allows for a way to tailor the student’s education to specific interests and desires while continuing to provide a challenge level that will keep the student growing in terms of his or her learning abilities.
Homeschooling offers flexibility in the educational process. Some students excel at some things but not at others. Homeschooling a student of this nature would allow that student to excel where his or her strengths are while at the same time allowing that student to spend a little more on the development of the weaker areas.
Some students are gifted and do well with all subject matter they are being taught. For them, homeschooling allows for the education process to be more challenging since a more academically challenging curriculum can be adopted. Gifted home-schooled students can pursue their interests and development path without the time constraints or curriculum limitations that are present in the traditional learning environment.
There are many ways that homeschooling can be accomplished today. Some parents opt for a structured curriculum while others use available textbooks. Some parents combine these things with their teaching while others teach each lesson completely on their resources. Knowing this, it is evident that this education process is completely flexible, can be specifically tailored to the student’s needs, and can be changed on the fly as student educational needs change.
Individual attention
In a traditional school setting, 30 to 40 students are assigned to a teacher in class. Therefore usually, the teacher cannot devote 100 percent attention to any child since it will not be fair to the other children. Plus, it is quite impossible to provide individual attention to all students.
Your child’s homeschooling schedule can be adjusted to cater to that. For example, if your child is better at science than at mathematics, simply devote more time to mathematics and cut back on science. With homeschooling, the choice is yours. Traditional schools can’t do that.
Relation building
The schooling of the child becomes an extended family activity. Parents get involved in every step of the learning procedure. Field trips and experiments become family activities. Thus, the child receives more quality time with his parents. The entire family shares games, chores, and projects. Family closeness becomes the focus here. The child is also free of any negative peer pressure while making choices and decisions.
Homeschooling allows for the parent to become the main mentor and source of guidance for a child. Since a home-schooled child relates to the parent a lot more, the child and parent can form a tighter bond than they might otherwise form. This bond could be the foundation of a higher degree of trust between the child and parent where the child is more apt to come to the parent for help and guidance instead of turning elsewhere.
Getting to know their child as he/she grows up, thus creating a bond that sometimes is lost when the kids go away to school
No peer pressure
With homeschooling, the child does not need to prove his/her abilities to other children. Parents can deeply understand their child better with homeschooling and therefore can plan the learning program according to his strengths and weakness.
Parents can also change the curriculum to suit the learning style of the child. For example, some children learn better from reading while others need to write. Some children even learn better from experiencing or seeing things in action.
Religious Learning
Homeschooling allows parents to take control over the moral and religious learning of the child. Parents have the flexibility to incorporate their beliefs and ideologies into their child’s curriculum. There is no confusion in the child’s mind either because there is no variation between what is being taught and what is being practiced.
More time availability
Homeschooling offers other indirect advantages as well. One of these might be more available time. Homeschooling can be an efficient way to teach. The time you have during the day can be used efficiently, thereby reducing the overall time that the student spends at school. This efficient use of time results in more time to be spent on additional activities either related or unrelated to the student’s education.
No Bullying
Homeschooling can be an outlet for a special case where a child may have been a victim of excessive bullying at a regular public school. School bullying is a serious problem at some schools and is a hard issue to resolve. The homeschooling of a child victimized in this way offers the child a way to re-focus on learning while at the same time being able to receive the close parental guidance needed to overcome how the child handles situations of this nature.
Quality Education
It is now known for a fact that home-schooled students do well when it comes to college preparation. In general, home-schooled students have performed equal to or better than public-schooled students on SAT assessments. In addition, it is a fact that home-schooled students have an equal success factor for doing well in college as their public-schooled peers.
Avoid negative competition
Competition is limited when it comes to homeschooling. The child does not need to prove his ability to other children. His confidence remains intact. Since parents have a deep understanding of their child, they can plan the learning program to pique the child’s interest. It is also possible to intersperse difficult tasks with fun activities.
A tough hour with Algebra can be followed by a trip to the nearest museum. Learning becomes fun. Parents can also tailor the curriculum to suit the learning style of the child. Some children learn through reading, while others need to write, and still, others need to see objects in action.
Disillusionment with the current system
Lastly, more and more parents are getting disillusioned with the current school system. They believe that their children are being pushed too hard or too little. Other worrying issues about discipline and ethics also make the school system less welcome.
Many repudiate the educational philosophy of grouping children solely based on their age. Some parents themselves have unhappy memories of their own traditional schooling experience that motivates them to opt for homeschooling when it comes to their children.
Learning by Teaching
Teaching is the best form of learning. It makes one more tolerant as well as encourages the teacher to learn something every day. As you will have first-hand responsibility for what your child learns or is exposed to. So you feel the need to improve every day.
Conclusion
Homeschooling is not for everyone. Each parent should carefully evaluate whether homeschooling will benefit their particular situation or not. There are many considerations to be made when choosing to homeschool, but for many, homeschooling has been a choice that has proven to be very beneficial to the student’s exceptional education.
Homeschooling is the best way to teach a child if you have the time, the ability, and the interest to follow through with their education. After all, nobody can understand or appreciate your child more than you. After reading all the benefits of homeschooling, I bet you’ll also be looking to try it out. If yes, read our getting started guide below.