Our family has been homeschooling for nine years now. What started as a one-year experiment to see if homeschooling would work for our family has turned into a way of life. While there are disadvantages to this lifestyle, we continue because of these four advantages of homeschooling.
Advantages of Homeschooling
Even though homeschooling can take a lot of time for me as a busy work-at-home mom, we don’t have any intentions of changing our lifestyle, mainly because of the many benefits we see.
Flexible Schedule
Having a flexible schedule can’t be beat! We benefit from this flexibility in two main ways;
Flexible Yearly Schedule
We live in Arizona, and from May to September, the temperature is over 100 degrees every.single.day. Sure, it’s a dry heat, but the sun is so intense that coupled with the heat, most people don’t want to spend much time outdoors during the daylight hours. Instead of taking a break during the summer, we hunker down inside in the air conditioning and get as much school done as we can.
That allows us more flexibility during the rest of the school year. For instance, my kids hadn’t seen snow in eight years, since we moved from the Midwest to Arizona. This past February, we made the long drive from Arizona to Michigan to visit my mom. Because we had a flexible schedule, we didn’t plan to drive back home until we saw a three-day window of clear weather across the country to make the drive home. We ended up staying with my mom for 16 days, and the kids had a blast building snowmen and sledding. This type of trip would not be possible if my kids were in a brick-and-mortar school.
Flexible Daily Schedule
In addition to a flexible yearly schedule, homeschoolers benefit from a flexible daily schedule. If your child likes to get all of his writing work done in one day, he can. If your child works best after lunch, she can.
I have one child who is an early riser and likes to have all of her school done by 1 p.m. We get started with school at about 7:30, immediately after breakfast. My other child enjoys sleeping in and often isn’t ready to start school until 9 a.m., and that’s okay. We can work around their natural rhythms.
Child Can Work at His Level
Another advantage of homeschooling is that your child can work at his level. Often, public schools only let children get one grade ahead in work if they allow it at all. However, if your child is in 6th grade and is ready for Algebra I, he can when he homeschools. That same child may be a grade behind in English, and that’s okay, too. When you homeschool, you can teach your child at his level, which is likely where he will excel because the work is not too difficult or too easy.
Can Review Missed Concepts
While public schools must move their students along at a steady pace learning new concepts, some students need longer to master topics. When my oldest was in public school, I watched him fall behind in math concepts such as math facts. The first thing we did when we started homeschooling him was to stop math study and focus solely on math facts for a few weeks. Once he had those down, we picked up math again. Homeschooling gives you the freedom and time to do that.
More Family Time
Finally, when you homeschool, you and your children have more family time. You’re together a lot, and you learn to navigate disagreements and compromise so you can get along.
Most of us only have 18 years with our children before they’re off to college and independence. When you homeschool, you gain an extra 35 to 40 hours every week with your child that he would spend in school if he went to a brick-and-mortar school. That time is precious.
Final Thoughts
Why homeschool? We choose to continue this lifestyle mainly because of these four advantages. However, ask another family, and they may have different advantages that they would cite for continuing homeschooling.
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