Pros and Cons of Homeschooling?

Some Pros (dependent, of course, upon how you go about homeschooling):

*Educational*

-They can have an education tailored to them. They can go their own pace. Their academics don’t need to take as long as school hours so they can have more time to be kids, pursue interests, do things. They have immediate help when needed. Better teacher:student ratio. Less wasted time.

*Social*

-They can interact with a wide age range of people on a regular basis instead of the same, same-aged kids day-in, day-out. They can receive more coaching on social skills because of the low child:adult ratio–the adult has a far greater chance of seeing what’s going on than in a typical school situation. They can meet new people all the time and get used to that. They can end up being more mature than their peers because most of their behaviour modelling has been from the adults around them. They are less likely to spend most of their time around kids who smoke, drink, party, engage in early sexual relations, etc., which means they are less likely to adopt those social behaviours.

*Psychological*

-They don’t grow up feeling that bullying and other forms of abuse are normal. They are less likely to have to overcome these abuses, which makes for psychologically stronger/healthier adults. They aren’t around the attitudes prevalent in many schools so don’t adopt them (things like having the best electronic equipment, certain types of clothes, wearing make-up at a certain age, attitudes against doing well in school or being “too good”, attitudes against family (for example, it’s not “cool” to enjoy playing with your younger siblings or wanting to hang out with your parents) and more.

*Other*

-Parents get to raise their children instead of having them for 5 years and letting a different stranger each year do most of the caregiving for the next 12. Family is often very important to homeschooled kids. Homeschooled siblings usually get along better than public schooled siblings (I know more than one family who started out with their kids in the school system, pulled them out and found that within the first year, their kids’ relationship improved dramatically). Children grow up in a more natural environment and don’t have to sit in desks half the day and ask permission to drink or go pee.

*Cons*

-Can be a total flop if you aren’t dedicated to it.

-Can be a total flop if your parenting skills need a lot of work and you don’t realize it or aren’t willing/able to improve them.

-There are a lot of people against homeschooling who have only limited experience with it or no experience at all and who will look down on you or give you a hard time.

-Others dependent on situations (loss of an income may be really hard on a family, for example).

There are many pros to homeschooling, as have you seen above.

When it comes to cons, there is a lot of misinformation and it’s a matter of perspective. For instance, some people claim that the lack of a gymnasium, wood shop, and science lab are cons. Well, not every school has those things or uses them regularly. Most homeschoolers are involved with sports programs in their community, and many more places offer special times and rates for homeschoolers to bowl, roller skate, swim, or do any other exercise for P.E. credit and overall health. Lab sciences can be taken through a community college for dual credit, and many homeschooling groups also offer lab. classes to save money on materials.

The biggest con of sorts is that it requires most parents to be more involved with their child then they have been trained by society to be. Primarily, you have to be a full-time parent with all of the work, responsibility, and discipline that entails. It’s a lot easier in some ways to just drop the kids off at school and pick them up several hours later. And in order to be your child’s best teacher you also have to be willing to think outside the box, look for learning opportunities, and be willing to learn new things yourself. You also have to be strong enough to deal with ignorant criticism and the full weight of knowing that you can’t blame anyone else if your child does not meet your expectations, you can’t blame the school or the daycare.

Some people would definitely consider these cons; I tend to see them more like challenges to be faced everyday. Homeschooling requires a lot of personal sacrifice on the part of the stay-at-home parent, and it can also mean a certain amount of financial sacrifice for the entire family. But that sacrifice does not go unrewarded when you see your child happy and learning.

If you are considering homeschooling, I highly recommend the book, “So You’re Thinking About Homeschooling” by Lisa Whelchel. It’s an entertaining look at the way different people homeschool and has a lot of starter resources.

I was homeschooled when I was younger, so I know what it is like:

Pros:

~ Your child will get to avoid some of the “bad stuff” at school.

~ Your child and you will have a closer bond (depends, read below).

Cons:

~ If you take your child away from their friends, or they really dislike homeschooling, your relationship could actually head for the bad. They might feel that you are taking them away, and destroying some things that are very important to them (children LOVE friends).

~ I personally, disliked homeschool, especially during the Jr. High school years, because I had no friends. You might say that your child can still have friends, but it wsa really hard, as all of my friends and I grew distant, and they just eventually hung around each other (myself not included).

~ If you neighborhood has no children, you child will not like homeschooling.

~ If you child has no siblings, homeschooling will be even worse.

~ Your child doesn’t really develop social skills.

~ Can be costly. Some schols have the whole package for learning such as microscopes, art materials, and other expensive stuff that is very useful for educational purposes.

Some schooling systems are good, and you spending money on textbooks and materials could become expensive. You can always send your child to a private school, or a charter school (those usually don’t have much though, ie gyms, after school activities, etc).

Email me if you have any questions.

Homeschooling

1. National Home Education Network

2. Help Your Child Explore Science

3. Natural Child Project

4. Family Unschoolers Network

5. Homeschool Groups

6. The Highschool Homeschooling Page

7. Homeschool Headlines

8. Home School Teachers Lounge

9. The Home School Zone

http://www.fi.edu/tfi/hotlists/education.html

Homeschooling and Curriculum Resources Pg1

http://www.kidsolr.com/homeschool/index.html

HOME SCHOOLING.

http://www.homeschool.com/

http://www.hslda.org

http://www.homefires.com/

Homeschool.com also has the following information available free of charge:

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/index.html

http://www.home-schooling-advice.net/

http://www.canteach.ca/links/linkhomeschool.html

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi

http://www.teachnlearn.org/index.htm

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/TeacherZone.asp

http://www.highlightskids.com/

http://www.youcanhomeschool.org/starthere/default.asp

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/

http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/H/homeworkhigh/

http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/kids/

http://www.home-school.com/groups/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/

http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/

http://www.world-english.org/

http://www.highlightskids.com/

http://suzyred.com/

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/toftwood/resources.html

http://www.naturalchild.org/

Welcome to Oak Meadow

http://www.happychild.org.uk/

http://www.englishforums.com/

http://www.midlandit.co.uk/education/index.htm

http://www.schoolexpress.com/

http://www.abcteach.com/

http://www.midlandit.co.uk/education/index.htm

http://www.wacona.com/

http://www.childdevelopment.org/

http://eduscapes.com/

Hope this is what you need. Good luck.

There are such a lot of execs I do not believe I can record them. Your children will be taught extra in much less time. You may have a near dating with them. They will likely be more secure. They may have extra time with the loved ones. They will nonetheless get lots of oportunities for social hobbies (until you’re making plans on locking them within the closet, LOL) . You will understand what they’re studying and wherein they’re at academically, as an alternative of having a document card and brooding about, “Why did he get a D? I understand he’s smarter than that.” You will understand precisely why the youngster bought anything grade he bought, and precisely what demands to be performed to deliver it up if its low. (Thats in case you use grades in any respect.) The cons: Total strangers believe its their existence’s undertaking to quiz your 7 yr historical on the whole thing from multiplication details to the political problem within the Sudan. People love your children and believe they’re essentially the most good adjusted, well mannered children they have got ever met…. till the ones individuals discover out they’re homeschooled, then abruptly your kids expand “issues.” People will quit your child within the core in their play with 10 – 15 different children and ask them in the event that they ever get the hazard to socialise. Those are the one cons, the attitudes of ignorant misinformed individuals. (Really, I am now not that troubled via it, I simply forget about it.)

Well as a home school er i can truly say that there are goods and bads to home schooling. I have a 16 and a 12 yr old. And at times it really gets frustrating trying to get all the curriculum in for the whole year and they truly try you about doing the work for that day. Think from 8 till 2 you aren’t mom anymore you are the principal and the teacher. It also keeps kids isolated my 16 yr old don’t know many people at the present time. Now the pros would be the dangers that they are protected from, kids this day in time get mad they jump so quick to kill. Also you KNOW what your kids are learning. Which is a major plus alone. The values in life that schools teach now I want no dealings with.

The pros are for the right student and parent a vast improvement in learning, the ability to learn faster and better, the ability to take courses at your own rate, take them again for refreshers, pick and choose the methods to learn by, etc., etc., etc.

Cons are if you school system is good, has modern equipment and is safe you are spending money twice for an education which is foolish.

If you kids are not good students and you don’t supervise well, they will fall behind and miss out on the ability to go to college.

There’s going to be some costs involved.

You also have to get them involved in group activies and sports.

You’re going to have to do some field trips.

You can’t match a school that is well equiped with say, a complete 4×5 photo darkroom with color head enlargers, commercial grade drill presses for plastics, wood and metal shops.

You can’t effectively teach a drama program.

You have to buy gismos to demonstrate physics, chemistry and biology for science.

You can’t get an education with just a book.

In college you do labs after the lecture.

In High School you do some lab work.

So you have to do it at home too!

I’m currently homeschooled and it’s great. I love the flexibility of being able to set my own days. I’m a senior homeschooler, so I study and work. Homeschooling was my own idea and when I was younger I told my parents that I wanted to be homeschooled and they just couldn’t bring themselves to do it. Since I do not like the school settings, like spending 2 hours in one class some days and 1 hour on other days, and I do not like having to wait for teachers to get the class settled down, I would much rather be homeschooled. A classroom setting for me causes too much stress. Some of my teachers didn’t even teach, instead they would alow us to just sit and sleep. Most of my teachers were boring and didn’t like to explain anything. They would tell us that if we couldn’t do something then it was our own fault. This is the price we pay for a free education from the public school system. You get what you pay for. You pay nothing and you get nothing but headaches and a high stress levels. Mind you, I went to one of the BEST highschools in the country.

There are so many different ways of teaching a child. There is public school, private school, homeschool, correspondence homeschool, virtual homeschool, public school virtual homeschool, public school charter online school, public school charter correspondence school, and unschooling.

For our family:

Better education because we educate a child, not a group of children. We can teach to his learning style, his interest and his ability.

More time for social life.

Flexibility in schedule and less wasted time.

The only con in our family served his time and is living a law abiding life now. (smile)

The only con about home school for our family is not having enough time devoted to studies because of work schedules. We are a dual income family. We do the best we can, but feel it would be even more beneficial for our son if one of us could devote more time to ‘teaching’. He is old enough to be a self learner, but has not developed enough in the 2 years of homeschooling to realize that this is his education. We continue to encourage and educate him on the importance of education.

You have gotten a lot of different and interesting perspectives here.

Yes some parents hs their kids and isolate them. That is NOT the norm. Most of us find there are so many other things to do that we have a tough time keeping up with the book work that does need to be done.

We have a huge network of homeschool families here and we spend a lot of time with other families. Sometimes you have to be the ones to step out and reach for those friendships.

My kids are involved in homeschool band, gym, dance, swimming, musicals/drama, film school and other activities. We are BUSY.

The kids in the neighbourhood go to different schools and they all gather after school to play so there are lots of kids to play with. If you are in a place with fewer kids you do have to make that effort to seek out friends. No doubt about it.

You get one-on-one time with your kids. If you are dealing with special needs, like we are, your kids benefit so much. My youngest would have fallen through the cracks at school, been teased horrendously as children do and been compared to other kids. Not fair to her.

Some of the cons are that it takes commitment. If you aren’t willing to commit your time, don’t do it. It isn’t for everyone.

You must be willing to spend a lot of time with your kids. Yes it can get frustrating no matter how much you love your kids. However, for the most part I now enjoy spending time with my kids. We have fun together.

If you pull them out of school you have to be willing to hear “that’s not the way the teacher did it!” for the first year. *grin* That about drove me nuts. LOL