Homeschooling or “Home Education” is an alternative method of learning based on teaching children from the safety of their homes.
Nowadays, parents around the world are recurring to this old method of teaching to address specific issues they believe could be fixed with a tailored education plan for their kids.
Although homeschooling allows you to take a closer look and supervise your children’s education, there are several things you must keep in mind. Here we will explore the main advantages and disadvantages of homeschooling:
Benefits of Homeschooling
- Personal Attention
Parents can address the particular needs of their child, asking them about their points of view and concerns personally.
- Content Adaptation
Every kid has a subject they dislike and some they adore. With homeschooling, parents can take this information and balance the content they like with the ones they hate, providing an education catered to the child’s strengths.
- Socialization (Positive Take)
You’ll have to take your children with you almost everywhere, so they won’t be limited to interacting with kids their age, they’ll meet everyone and socialize with them throughout their daily lives.
- Positive Family Bonds
If you have contact with your child regularly and work with them about dozens of different subjects your interactions and bonds will change positively.
- Alternative Teaching Methods
Every child is a world, by exploring what works and what doesn’t –your children can start learning in a tailored experience that caters to their capabilities. Some are artistically inclined while others prefer sciences if you take into account your child’s desires and abilities it will positively influence its sense of responsibility and participation in education.
Disadvantages of Homeschooling
- Scheduling
Children spend half of their days or more in school if you take this time to your home you’ll have to invest hundreds of hours balancing between personal lives and teaching.
- Limited Contact With Different Perspectives
Even if you involve both parents and specialized tutors in homeschooling, the lack of social interaction with dozens of children and different teachers can cause a “narrow” look towards some topics.
- Content Difficulty
Unless you’ve invested thousands of hours learning about every subject taught in formal education, chances are you’ll need help with some contents.
If you don’t have access to specialized tutors teaching your child about some subjects like arts, science or sports will be relatively difficult for some parents.
- Socialization (Negative Take)
Balancing a child’s socialization skills can be hard when homeschooling, you’ll have to enroll your child in several “extra-curricular” activities like sports to ensure the child receives enough contact with children their age.
- Children of Different Ages
Homeschooling one child of any age can be challenging, now imagine having to balance between two or more and of drastically different ages. You’ll have to find a way to teach the older one who’s 15 with the little one who just turned six simultaneously.
Final Words
Homeschooling is not a new concept – centuries ago it was the primary way of education and the preferred method of many parents, who employed tutors to oversee the child’s needs right from their homes.
However, in today’s modern world and society, the concept of education changed drastically and depending on the country you’re living homeschooling could even be illegal, for example, Germany, Brazil, Greece, and the Netherlands.
Several researchers conclude that the debate of whether homeschooling is right or wrong depends exclusively on the quality of the teachers. If the parents dedicate enough time to their children’s education and take into account every aspect of it, they can achieve surprising results.
There are examples of both spectrums: children who have enrolled and graduated from Ivy League Colleges and those whose education failed miserably because of homeschooling.
If you’re looking to homeschool your children keep in mind your country’s laws and views on home education and validation of the method, then ask yourself if you’re capable of taking this responsibility and everything it encompasses.
