Pros and Cons of Homeschooling – Is It Worth It?
Are you thinking about homeschooling? Learn about the pros and cons of homeschooling before making your decision. With homeschooling you have total control and flexibility of your child’s education. But is that an advantage or disadvantage?
Many parents think they cannot teach their child because they don’t have the necessary teaching credentials. This is just not true. If you have the desire and complete commitment to help your child succeed, you can ensure your child has the education needed to become a productive adult.
One of the many advantages of homeschooling is that you determine your child’s curriculum. You have the control to incorporate your own religious and moral beliefs into your teaching agenda. You, therefore, have more control over shaping your child’s core values.
However, successfully homeschooling your child demands the following two requirements from the parents. First, a true desire to teach your child. Second, a willingness to put forth the effort to make it happen.
The worst reason to home school your child is out of a sense of duty or sense of religious obligation. Although both are morally good reasons, without a true desire to educate your child, homeschooling will not succeed. Without desire, a parent will not have the determination to put forth the extra effort when times get tough.
With the many different learning styles and discipline problems, a public school teacher just cannot spend the individual time with each child that is necessary to bring out that child’s best. Homeschooling can help children to blossom and bring out a child’s full potential like nothing else can.
A distinct disadvantage to public schooling is that everything is preplanned, from the curriculum to the amount of time devoted to certain subjects. If students are intrigued about a certain area, very little time can be expended to go more in depth. On the other end of that, if students don’t understand a subject, very little extra time can be devoted to ensuring the entire class understands.
On the other hand, homeschooling allows you to adjust your teaching schedule and curriculum to your child. Need more time to understand a concept? No problem. Did a particular teaching style not work with a concept? You have the time to try another one, and another one, until your child understands. Or did you find a subject that truly intrigues your child? Let them explore it longer and just adjust your schedule. Or better yet, find a way to bring in other subjects based on what is interesting to your child. Does your child like spiders, but is not too fond of reading. Find books on spiders that they will enjoy reading and learning about.
So are there any disadvantages to homeschooling? Of course there are. The biggest is probably the amount of time you must devote to it. It is up to you to figure out your child’s curriculum, for record keeping, and for learning and applying different teaching styles. But the education that your child will receive will be well worth all the effort.
Learn all you can about homeschooling vs public schooling, and then make the best choice for your child and your family.