We’ve all heard about how homeschooling has been growing in popularity over the past few years, but why. What makes homeschooling such a good alternative to conventional school? Well homeschooling has a lot of benefits that publics school don’t have.
Here is a short list of the top benefits to homeschooling:
- One on one learning
- Academic flexibility
- Adaptable teaching methods
- Home atmosphere
- Children grow to be independent
- Parent children bonds
- The internet
- Interest learning
- Efficient learning
- Hands on learning
- Has good results
While these are just some of the homeschooling benefits, I think they are the most important ones to keep in mind. Keep reading to find out more about each of the benefits, and why I consider them benefits.
One on One Learning
Homeschooled children get one on one learning when their parent teaches them alone, which happens quite often in homeschooling. When students get to have one on one learning it opens them up to be able to ask as many questions as they want and learn at their own pace. In school a lot of students will raise their hands for a questions but only a few students get picked, and in school the teacher will move on after a subjects even if some students still don’t understands it. With one on one learning that is not a problem and the class will never go on without them.
When students learn in a one on one environment the stress levels lower because they don’t have any competition and they are not feeling the need to compete with their peers with projects and grades. One on one learning allows students to step up and take responsibility for their understanding, they can ask as many questions and don’t have to move on until they understand a subject. Homeschooled students don’t have the option to rely on others when a project comes up, they have to figure out how to do the project on their own, or simply with the parent’s help.
Academic Flexibility
When they are homeschooled students have academic flexibility to learn different subjects or pretty much whatever they want. In homeschooling parents can turn anything into a learning experience, so there is a lot of academic flexibility for how students learn including what they learn. Students might find themselves at a grocery store learning about foods and cooking, or learning some math while helping their parent shop. They could learn from gardening in the yard, by counting the amount of seeds to plant. The different ways homeschoolers can learn are endless, so academic flexibility allows them to learn how ever they want.
A homeschooled student can learn whatever they want to learn and spend as much time as they want on that subjects. This is similar to what I was saying under the one on one learning section, but academic flexibility gives students the chance to understand subjects better because they have the time. They can stay on a subject longer than students’ conventional schooled peers would if they don’t understand the subject or if they have an interest in the subjects. They can pursuit subjects that interest them, because they have the flexibility to do that.
Adaptable Teaching Methods
There are so many ways that a homeschool parent can teach their child. In conventional school the teachers normally only teach one or two ways, which is auditorial learning and visual learning most of the time. But when you are homeschooling you have no boundaries as to how you learn. Parents can try out several different teaching methods for one child. Some different teaching methods include, hands on teaching, auditorial teaching, kinesthetic teaching and learning through experience. Homeschool parents can try a bunch of these teaching and learning methods, and figure out which one works best for their children.
They can look at how their child’s response is to the learning method, maybe they are excited or bored. And then see how well their child understood the subject. Based on these things parents can find what method works best for their child. Once they have figured that out, they can make their lessons around what works best for their child but they should also keep in mind the teaching style that works best for them. Adaptable teaching methods may help homeschooled children understand the subjects that they learn more. Learning in a way that is preferred by the homeschool child might allow them to enjoy the subjects they learn more, simply because of the style it is being taught in.
Home Atmosphere
The homes atmosphere might be preferred by a lot of children. They are learning in the place they are growing up which might make them feel safer. A lot of children get nervous in a conventional school environment, especially at a young age, because children are used to spending their days at home or with their parents. Being away from home for so long when you are young can be hard and confusing, and some children might feel more comfortable learning from home. At home children know where everything is, and what they can and cannot do. In a home atmosphere children are more sheltered, which can be both good and bad.
Normally at a younger age homeschoolers might be more sheltered, but it is a common stereotype, and not always true. As they get older and gain more independence students most likely become less sheltered. Because some students are less nervous in a home atmosphere, they might find it more relaxing and absorb information and understand subjects better because they are not so focused on worrying about their classroom peers or what other people are doing.
Children Grow to be Independent
Since homeschoolers get to learn through flexible learning, interest learning and hands on learning, these things can bring a lot of independence to them. If they are doing interest lead learning, then they get to choose something they are interested in and figure out their own way to learn more about it. As homeschoolers get older, they start to do projects on their own without any help from their parent / teacher.
They can learn things they want to, in their own ways which allows them to be independent. Independent learning is a great way to motivate kids, and it is common, after half the day of homeschooling, for parents let their kids go learn something they are interested in or work on an interest lead project. After spending years working on projects on their own, they become independent human being. Not as many conventional schoolers have the chance to do work on their own projects during school.
Parent Children Bonds
Homeschooling allows parents to spend a lot more time with their children. When students are in public school, they are gone 6 hours of the day, so for homeschoolers they get an extra 6 hours each weekday with their parents. Homeschool parents get to know their child really well, while being their parent and teacher. They will discover their child’s learning style, which not every parent gets to do. Parents and children who homeschool together have a shared sense of connectedness.
Homeschool parents are sacrificing their time and even money to give their children what they consider the best type of education. They are teaching their children so they do have a spacial bond that not every family gets to have. Homeschool parents don’t always make their kids get up super early everyday, they allow their children to learn about things they are interested in and they get to go on lots of field trips and do hands on learning.
The Internet
The internet is a huge benefit towards homeschooling. With the internet and technology homeschoolers can learn everything they need to know just from one website. There are plenty of great educational websites out there for homeschoolers, like Khan Academy, Duolingo, Time 4 learning and TED Ed. (Read my post about the Top 10 Online Education Programs for Homeschoolers to find more great sites for your child.) The internet is also a benefit for homeschool students, so that they can stay social if they don’t get to see their friends every day like students would in conventional school.
The internet takes a big load off from homeschool parents. If they don’t know certain subjects that they want their child to know, they can easily just find a website on the internet that teaches that subject. It might make it easier for the student too, if they learn from someone who understands the subject very well (a teacher or pre made classes on the internet), because you parents won’t know everything about every subject you need to learn. Even teachers in conventional schools don’t know everything about every subject, they will commonly put videos from the internet for students to watch, or give the students’ computer time to do their own research about the subject.
Interest Learning
When they are homeschooled, students don’t have to learn every little boring thing you have to learn in school. Normally in conventional school you don’t get much choice for what you learn. You will need to learn subjects you hate, and love. Plus there are not many options for interest lead learning. When they homeschool though, students can pick certain topics to learn about. If they have an interest in space sciences, they can learn a lot about it and go more in depth in the subject to understand it more. In public schools you don’t have the option to continue learning more in depth about a subject because the teacher will move on from subject to subject quite frequently.
Homeschooled students also have the opportunity to learn about subjects that aren’t int he normal conventional school curriculum, like certain types of arts, sports, or different subjects. If one student has an interest in guitar, they can spend a lot more time learning it. Or maybe the student is into graphics and designing, they can get a subscription to adobe and learn how to use photoshop. Homeschooling just gives a lot more flexibility so that students can learn things that interest them, along with the core subjects.
Efficient Learning
Homeschoolers know how to get things done with efficiency! Homeschoolers can get through subjects so much faster than they would in conventional school. In conventional school classes, many hours are wasted by kids talking, not listening, teachers doing organizing and all the time to get students back in the classes after breaks and lunch. So homeschooling is a lot more efficient. Homeschoolers can spend one hour working on a subject, while in class it might take the teacher two hours to teach it.
When there is just one student they get to go at their own pace, and there is no one to distract them, or for them to distract. It is very common for homeschoolers to be ahead of the majority of the people in their grade. They get through conventional school grades much faster than students in conventional schools do. I know a few homeschoolers who are the age of an eighth grader, but are learning at a grade 10 level because they were more efficient.
Hands on Learning
Hands on learning is where children get to learn by doing things. It might be an experiment where students engage in the activity. Projects and experiments are both types of hands on learning that most classes do at some point in the year, but homeschoolers have the chance to do a lot more than just once a year. Homeschooled students can pick projects based on the hands on learning method. Hands on learning will often result in a physical thing that the student has created. STEM projects normally involve a lot of hands on learning.
Hands on learning includes experiencing and seeing things in real life instead of reading it out of a textbook or hearing a teacher talk about them. So many homeschool families take field trips where they can do experiments and learn, as part of their hands on learning. There are lots of science exhibits that schools go to that include hands on learning. Hands on learning is so great because it gives students the chance to try things as they would in the ‘real’ world. They get to practice skills that they have learned, so that they are more prepared when they use that skill in real life.
Has Good Results
Another benefit of homeschooling is the research that has been done about it. Homeschooled students tend to have better academic and social results in post secondary school and beyond. Many studies have been done to see how homeschoolers preform academically compared to their public and private school peers. In most studies done, homeschoolers do better in all subjects. Homeschoolers score higher and do better on these studies because of all the homeschool benefits that conventional schoolers don’t have. Homeschooling allows students to have personalized learning, adaptable teaching methods, interest lead learning and homeschoolers grow up to be independent.
In a study of homeschooled adults done by HSDLA in 2003, they discovered that not only did the homeschooled participants have a higher GPA but they also found life more exciting than and were more satisfied with the work they do compared to conventional schoolers. Homeschoolers’ average GPA was 3.45 and conventional schooled students’ GPA was 2.69. Homeschooled students also have a higher post secondary 4 year diploma graduation rate. In a study done in 2009 they found that the homeschoolers’ graduation rate average was 66.7% while the public schoolers’ graduation rate average was 58.6% and catholic and private school grad rates were even lower.
Overview
Homeschoolers have the opportunity to learn in different styles instead of the typical auditorial learning like in a conventional school. Students can learn through visual experiences, hands on experiences, the internet, and homeschoolers are able to get through work much faster than they would in public school. By having their parents as teachers it creates a great family bond that not everyone gets with their parents. And parents can adapt to, and teach their children based on their learning style.
Homeschoolers have academic flexibility to do school work whenever they want, and they can take breaks when they are tired of doing school. They can even learn subjects that interest them, and they don’t always need to stick to their curriculum. Homeschooling has had good results over the past few decades, and is on its way to becoming one of the most popular forms of education in our day!