Are you talking about homeschooling? Thinking it might be a good option for you and your kids. There are a few things to consider and ask yourself when you are deciding whether homeschool is right for you.
Somethings to think about include why do you want to homeschool, is it allowed where you live, can you afford it? Do you feel qualified to teach your child? Do you have what it takes? Are you patient, organized, and ok with a different life?
Homeschooling is a great way for kids to be educated through hands on learning and playing, but it can be a lot of work and decision making for the parent. These are questions you should consider before you decide to homeschool. Here is my Ultimate Guide to deciding on Homeschooling.
Why do you want to Homeschool?
What is your reason for even bringing it up as an option? It can be a life changing decision so you need to consider everything and most importantly the reason. Is it just because your child had one bad day at school, because everyone has terrible school days, but it normally gets better. You could homeschool for many different reasons including, religion, maybe you don’t approve of the public school system’s rules and curriculum, or maybe you want to homeschool your child because they have a disability and would learn better from home, or because your child was being bullied.
There are lots of reasons to homeschooling and to some people’s surprise, religion is becoming less common. One of the most common reasons for homeschooling is to make the change from a negative school environment. A lot of kids and parents disapprove of the way kids are taught at school. Another common reason is to enhance kids’ social interactions and avoid bullying.
Check the Regulations
If you are interested in homeschooling, you must find out what the homeschooling rules are in your country. In some places homeschooling isn’t even legal, but now more and more countries are allowing it. In the U.S. homeschooling is very much legal and very popular, with a growing percentage of 2% to 8% per year. There are already over 2.5 million homeschoolers. Homeschooling is also growing in countries like Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Homeschooling is illegal in Germany, Greece, Greenland, Switzerland, Turkey and Latvia…and a few others. But most countries have legalized homeschooling or have made it legal with some regulations. In some countries you can do whatever type of schooling you would like but in others, you need to follow certain rules and have teachers check on you child’s progress.
Once you understand the regulations of homeschooling you should figure out what type of homeschooling you want to do. There are around 7 different styles of homeschooling, I won’t name them all but some are, you can choose to educate your child through doing regular school at home, or have a teacher teach them, or teach them through a hands on approach, or teach them through play or completely unschool them.
Can you afford it?
As great as homeschooling is, it can be expensive sometimes. This is because only one parent can work because the other one needs to teach them. This depends on what job you have, because with some online jobs you can work and homeschool your kid at different times of the day. Also it depends on the age and independence of your kid. If they are older then maybe they will be able to learn on their own for most of the time. And if they are doing online classes it is easier for parents to have work time while their kids work too. Of course it will be a little more distracting to work with kids around but it can be done.
Anyways, some families can not afford to have only one working parent, or one and a half working parents. So you will have to keep this in mind for when making the decision. Another factor is do you have time? When you homeschool kids you need to devote a lot of time to making projects and a base curriculum. You are becoming the teacher so you’ll need to spend time working with your kids and planning school work for them.
Do you feel Qualified to teach your child?
Everyone is qualified to teach their kids in my opinion, but if you don’t feel qualified and aren’t confident then it can be hard. Don’t worry about what the government or state considers as qualified it is more about wether the parents FEEL qualified. Homeschooling can cause lots of worries and questions like, will I ruin my child’s education, and what if they don’t turn out well, it will all be my fault. But kids can have a bad education at school too. Homeschoolers are generally smarter anyways, because their parents teach them and they learn quicker and more efficiently.
Every parent who homeschools their kids have doubts and worries that it won’t work out but again, in conventional school it can be worse because kids are part of little cliques and try to be and do what all their friends are doing and peer pressure can cause lots of bad things to happen. So it isn’t always the parents fault.
Do you Have What it Takes?
Homeschooling parents do a lot of work for their kids education. If you want to homeschool you will need to have the patience, organization and most importantly you will have to be okay with having a different life than what is considered “normal”. As a homeschool parent you will get a lot of looks from people wondering what the heck you are doing with your kids in the middle of the day. You will need to be able to take on those stares, but it is not all bad.
Your kids may get frustrated doing projects and learning when they don’t understand. They might blame you for a lot of things, but this is all the types of things any kid would do whether they are in conventional school or homeschool.
Do your kid(s) want to Homeschool?
I think it is very important that the kids want to be homeschooled for it to be successful. If your kids are reluctant to homeschool and want to be in conventional school it will probably be hard to teach them, especially if they are upset with you. If your kids are between the age 7 and teen, ask them what they think about it. Of course if they are younger they may not understand as well the concept and will probably enjoy it anyways. And if your kids have gone to conventional school they will probably enjoy having a break from its stressful tests and homeschooling.
With your child make a list of all the things you could do while homeschooling, so they have an idea of what they would be doing. Maybe they could create their own project ideas to do if they agree to homeschool. If you really want to do it make sure they are ok with your decision. If your child does not want to homeschool or isn’t keen on the idea, ask them why. Maybe they think of all the homeschooling stereotypes and think they won’t get to socialize or learn anything. If you have done research let them know that those stereotypes are not true. You can tell them about the homeschool group in your area (if there is one) and tell them all the fun things the families in the group do.
Are you prepared for what people will say and think?
People have so many stereotypes of homeschoolers, it’s crazy! You will start to hear things and people might not like you just because your family is homeschooling. Initially a lot of people will think you are super religious because that is one of the biggest misconceptions. It can be very annoying. You will get lots of weird looks from people who know nothing about homeschooling.
This is something homeschoolers get used to hearing, and although the comments and looks can get tiring, don’t let them get to you. If people make comments to you explain to them the misconception and maybe they will realize that homeschooling is normal and a great way of education. But it is not all bad comments, lots of people are actually nice and supportive of homeschoolers.
Read my post about 18 Things Homeschoolers are Tired of Hearing.
Are you Okay Having a Different Life?
Yes, it is true that homeschoolers live a little bit differently, but it is not that different. You will be spending a lot more time with your kids than when they were in conventional school. People might look at you funny. You might get a bit stressed out sometimes. But I would say it is defiantly worth it! When you are homeschooling you can go on lots of field trips, learn from play, do experimental learning and hang out with other homeschool friends during the day. It is very different from conventional school because your kids will have more freedom in education, but you will have to put work in to their education a bit more than you would if they were in conventional school.
Consider Socialization
Is there a homeschool group in your city that you could join? There are plenty of homeschoolers. One of the worst things a homeschool parent can do, is take away playing and hangouts with friends from their kids. That is why you need to find out if there are other people you know homeschooling, or if your kids will still be able to hang out with their friends from conventional schools. This is super important mainly for kids who haven’t ever gone to conventional school because they won’t have as many friends or know as many people to play with.
If there are no homeschooling groups you should consider starting your own on facebook. It should be pretty easy to create the group, and ask around to see if anyone you know knows any homeschoolers that could join the homeschool group. Maybe those homeschoolers will know other homeschoolers and you eventually will end up knowing a big community of homeschoolers. Or if you really want to homeschool your kids and you don’t know any homeschoolers in your town, you could move to an area nearby where there is a big homeschooling community. But keep an eye out for homeschoolers because they are everywhere now.
Do your research
If homeschooling still makes you a bit nervous do your research about it. Researching this will help you in a lot of different ways, and hopefully make you more confident when teaching your own kids. You can look into success rates on homeschooling and there is a lot out there about it. Of course you will need to look into regulations and rules in the country you live in. Here are some quick research information to read.
Homeschoolers have a higher college graduation rate. Their rate is 66.7%, but public school rate is 58.6%, Catholic school grad rate is 54.2% and Private school is 51.5%. Homeschoolers also have a higher GPA average compared to conventional schoolers. They also have a higher chance of doing community work, volunteering, and working at a school or church. In the same study they found that a higher percentage of homeschooled adults find life exciting compared to conventional schoolers.
As homeschooled kids and teens, a study shows that they are healthier and happier than public or private schooled kids growing up. Only 24% of conventional schoolers get enough sleep but over half of homeschoolers get optimal sleep. They get around 90 minutes more of sleep.
Things to Know Before you Start Homeschooling
Homeschooling is not a piece of cake. You might have seen and heard great stories but it is not always like that. For parents it can be a lot of work, especially having multiple kids to teach. You will need to pay attention and keep track of everything your kids are doing. Another important thing to know when you start homeschooling is to document what your kids are doing. Documenting all of their projects, books they read, field trips they go on and everything they learn. This will help them later on for university applications or even job applications. This will also be mandatory if your state regulations need to see documentation of everything your child has done to allow you to homeschool.
You should also know that you will make mistakes. I can imagine how parents get worried that they will mess up their child’s education, but you should not worry because every homeschool parent/teacher messes up at some point. Another thing to keep in mind is that you will want to have homeschool friends.
Homeschooling can be lonely if you are the only people you know doing it. It is a bit harder to do also because you may not be as confident without having other people also homeschooling. Other homeschoolers want you to know that it is not easy to tell other people. But also you should know that you are capable of homeschooling. Anyone can do it.
Overview
Homeschooling is a really great option for anyone. Whether you want to homeschool because your child has a learning disability, or you just don’t agree with the schools curriculum, you will be accepted in homeschool communities. It is easier to homeschool now too. We have technology for kids to learn through. There are learning websites and learning apps that people can use. You can even learn languages through the internet.
Homeschooling allows kids to be creative and learn about things they enjoy learning about. They can go in depth in what they enjoy learning. But in conventional school everyone has to learn everything at the same time and it is hard for all the students understand the subject.