Homeschool:Pros and Cons

A Short List of Pros of Homeschooling:

(There are many more)

-Fosters family closeness and good relationships between siblings

-Enables students to pursue studies of a wide range of topics that may be outside the range of a traditional school’s scope and sequence

-Homeschooling can offer extremely individualized education.

-Homeschooling keeps families together instead of family members going off in different directions.

Homeschooling usually prevents peer pressure issues that often have such negative effects on children and especially teens.

Homeschooling usually produces young people that are confident, responsible, socially skilled, and productive.

Cons of Homeschooling:

-There are some opportunities that are readily available in traditional schools that are not available in homeschool. (The opposite is true also- homeschooling offers opportunities that are not available in regular school.) But with homeschool, there is always tremendous freedom because your children can learn however and where ever and from whomever. Parents can find opportunities for their children that totally make up for whatever they miss in regular school.

-Because homeschooling has become more widely accepted, many people drift into homeschooling that are not prepared for the hard work and restructuring of life that homeschooling may require. If the parents can not offer the leadership to help their children thrive in life which includes practical skills, social skills, spiritual training, academic knowledge and skills, then the children will suffer. Every family is different, so homeschooling is very individualized, but it does take effort and work from the parents. It is not a “laid back”, do-nothing endeavor.

-I take issue with the often mentioned “con” of homeschooling: Lack of social interaction. I would guess that this is a problem with less than 10 percent of homeschooled children, yet it is always mentioned as a con! My experience with homeschooling is that homeschooled children have much better social skills than traditionally schooled kids. They usually know how to communicate well with people of all ages, not just their peers. This comes from not being segregated by age. They are around adults and children of many different ages every week. Homeschooled children generally have very good manners and learn how to work hard because they pitch in with the family chores so that Mom has time to teach and read aloud. Today, particularly, with the popularity of homeschooling, there are abundant opportunities for social interaction: coops, field trips, park days, church groups, and volunteer work.

-Homeschooling in high school can be difficult for families with unmotivated teens. (as I have discovered first hand with my youngest son). With an unmotivated high school student, you can’t go on homeschooling as in the early years with Mom or Dad teaching or leading the child to learn on his own. My son got lazy. We wasted a year of school,  accomplishing very little. This year, we enrolled him in a homeschool tutorial that has classes that meet once a week. He still has the benefits of homeschool, but he has accountability to other teachers in addition to his parents which, in his case, was what he needed. He has become a great student with this tutorial motivation.

-Homeschooling is hard. It takes parents who are committed to giving their children the best education that they can and who continually seek opportunities that suit their children’s needs. This means looking all around for those needed  sources -tutors, special classes, lessons, travel, field trips, events, seminars, videos, audios, books.

Our family (with 5 children) has homeschooled for over 20 years with success. Our oldest son is an electrical engineer, second oldest son is a mechanical engineer, third son is a business major in college who hopes to have his own business. Our only daughter is an English major who is a writer (almost finished with her first book).  Our youngest son is still homeschooling (mentioned above) He is thriving this year with the extra motivation of a homeschool tutorial.

The picture below is of me with Jonathan, (youngest son) on Mother’s Day this year. He is playing his lute which he made as a project for his humanities study of the Medieval Period. The lute really works!