Homeschooling is growing in popularity. Each year more and more families are making the decision to pull their child out of a public school or never even enroll their child in the first place. We started homeschooling in 2007 and have been homeschooling ever since then. While homeschooling isn’t an easy choice, it is has been well worth it.
There are many great reasons to homeschool. I’m listing my top ten in no particular order. I’d love to hear some of your reasons. Please share in the comment section.
1. Escaping the standardized testing culture
Today’s schools seem to have fallen into a ditch of testing, testing, testing. Home education allows you to focus on educating and not on passing a test.
2. Passing on your values
Home education allows you to share your values with your children in your day to day life. If a religious, moral, or political viewpoint is important to your family, you can teach it directly or have informal discussions during the day as issues arise.
3. Freedom
Homeschooling gives your family freedom. You don’t have to be bound to a particular schedule or even have to stay in one place. You can travel the world or stay home. You can sleep late, rise early, or do a bit of both. Home education allows you to organize a life that works for you and your family.
4. Your child can be himself/herself
The bullying culture of the schoolroom promotes uniformity and looks down on anyone who is different. Homeschooling allows your child to be himself or herself without peer-shame. Your homeschooled child can choose peers that share similar interests rather than having peers based on age groupings in the classroom.
5. Go at child’s pace
There is no need to keep up with the class or wait for the class to catch up. Homeschooling allows you to go as fast or as slow as your child needs.
6. Freedom to use materials or methods that work best for your child
The standard school situation requires the teacher to use a certain book and teach in a classroom setting. Homeschooling allows the parent to use an education method that suits the child best. Whether that is unschooling, informal studies, learning through travel, classical, Charlotte Mason, Waldorf, Montessori, or a traditional method, homeschooling allows you to tailor the method to the child. Homeschooling also allows you to think outside the standard box of school-issued textbooks and use something that will connect with your child.
7. Teach subjects that a standard school setting doesn’t cover.
Many schools are focusing on the basics now. Homeschooling allows your child to delve deep into a subject that isn’t normally covered in a school setting.
8. Relationship with your children
Homeschooling your children can help you know and appreciate them even more. It will help you learn more about how they think and what makes them tick. Not only that, but the day in and day out of homeschooling will help build strong bonds. You will have bad days and good days, but you will go through them together while getting to know and understand more of each other.
9. Sibling bonds
A standard school situation would have siblings apart from each other for the bulk of most days. Homeschooling will allow your children to develop strong bonds with each other as they play together and learn together.
10. Time
One of the best gifts you can give your child is your time. Homeschooling will allow you to be there for those precious moments like when you hear your child read for the first time or when your child finally gets a math concept you are explaining. Lengthy discussions with you during the day are also made possible because of homeschooling.
Not only does homeschooling give you time with your child, but it gives your child time to be a child. Childhood rushes past fast enough. Opting out of the school system will give your child time to fully explore topics of interest, time to play, and just time to not be busy all of the time.
What are some of the benefits of homeschooling that you have discovered?
Love this! I created my own ten reasons to homeschool a while back. We name a lot of the same ideas 🙂 https://blogiswherethehomeis.com/2015/02/24/10-reasons-i-homeschool-my-kids/
I do not homeschool my kids, but I want to thank you so much for this site. You have given me so much inspiration for my 2nd grader and K. I am truly grateful for your work on this site. My 7yo loves history, so I have started the Ancient Greece curriculum with him. I am just doing a little a day and given myself about 10 weeks. My K loves Magic School Bus so we are doing 2-3 projects a week. They love the time I spent with them and we get more in depth learning than at school. Thanks so much! I love that most curriculum is you tube/library.
#3,5,6&8… But it has a lot to do with split custody.
I am mom to a son in public school. I feel like this article is wonderful and about the positive aspects of homeschooling. I don’t see it as an attack on parents of kids that go to public school like some of the other parents who stopped by to comment. I don’t understand why people get so defensive. Great job on your post. It is nice to see how homeschool can be so positive and I enjoyed reading this article. I am all about the ability to choose what is best for your family. I feel like it’s just not necessary to criticize an article if the subject doesn’t apply to you. I greatly value people who mind their own business and don’t troll the internet just to crap on a person’s lifestyle just because they don’t agree with it. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me. Anyway, great job on your blog and your convictions.
Thanks for your comment Jo. When I worked in public schools, I met some devoted teachers who worked hard to teach the kids in their class. It is definitely a good option for many families.
I believe that neither way is wrong, Home school or not to Home School.
SO, please do not tell me that there is a right or wrong way to educate children. This is subjective and highly dependent on your personal circumstances.
My children have been educated through state school – one is doing well and has nearly finished University, the other not so well – he was never going to be anything other than this, and I am convinced that this is of his genetic make-up.
(The course my eldest is doing at Uni – is not something you could home educate with, it is his passion and something he was born to do!)
I believe that I instil the right values in my children, and support them wherever I can. I let them have the freedom to expand their personalities and sense of fun & interests. This is I believe part and parcel of your responsibility as a parent, alongside formal education.
Where there are Pro’s for Home education, there are always con’s, and the same goes for state education.
The difference is, I know as a parent, I could not home educate my children, even though I had considered it. You are either predisposed to be that type of person who can do it – or you are not. – AGAIN neither way is wrong.
If you are able to financially afford to stay at home and educate your children, GREAT!!
I could not, at one point I was a single parent supporting a large mortgage due to a marriage breakdown. – This is not an excuse – this is life.
So please be subjective when you make comments about the things that you like to do, we are all different and things that work for some will not for others – that is not wrong – it’s just life as we know it!
As someone who used to work in public schools, I believe there are some great schools and pretty awesome teachers out there. I agree that there are pros and cons of homeschooling as there are pros and cons of public schooling. We each must make the best choice for our family.
I agree with all of them. I love how much happier my kids are at home than they were in public school.
Eclectic Homeschooling, you did an excellent job taking the high road in this conversation. Jared’s ignorance is so disgusting to me, his thoughts/opinions, which I’m sure will be passed down to his children, are perfect examples of the narrow mindedness of people that I don’t want my children surrounded by on a daily basis. Also, Jared, if you’re still reading this, which you probably aren’t, because bullies tend to flee when confronted, everyone home schools for their own reason, but I homeschool my daughter because she’s gifted and the school system can’t keep up with her educational needs. That being said, since your answer to number five, (going at your child’s pace), was “sloooowww”, does that mean that your school system is actually the “sloooow” ones? Let me guess, it’s not the same when reversed?!
Jared…yeah…pretty much…I was “home schooled”..was not an adequate education in most ways.
I raise my child, spend tons of time with, we are very close, and she goes to public school. Go figure.
Hi Beckie,
Thanks for stopping over on the blog from Facebook. Knowing your background, I can understand why you feel it was inadequate. Please know that homeschooling today does not look like homeschooling from decades ago. I agree that you can certainly send your child to public school and have a close relationship 🙂 I wish you and your daughter well.
Translations:
#1 your kid cant focus to take a test or doesn’t have the requisite DNA to produce
#2 You can bombard them with useless right wing religious garbage.
#3 justification for why Junior can’t sit still and focus
#4 the little freak can’t assimilate with his peers and spends wayyy too much time burning ants with magnifying glasses
#5 sloooowwwww
#6 picture books…crayons (age 9)….dull scissors…color by number projects
#7 who needs math…focus on creationism
#8 your kid will be totally dependent on you with an inability to develop external relationships
#9 because the best friendships are forced by dna
#10 deadlines are not important or needed in life
Jared, thank you for your reply. I replied in full to you here: http://eclectic-homeschool.com/homeschool-stereotypes-busted/
So True on every account! Testing and pressure was the tipping point for us to leave the public school system. Everything else has been like cherries on top!
Great reasons! More, for me would be that giving up parental rights, placing my child under false teaching, allowing my children to basically be raised by strangers, etc..are all pretty foolish.
I can say yes to all 10 of these. The biggest reason for us was the Lord led us to homeschool, and he’s intertwined into every single one of these reasons, as he reassures us we’re following HIS will!
This is the best! I agree with every item 🙂
I agree. These are great reasons to homeschool- many of them have a lot to do with why we began homeschooling in the first place.