The Benefits of Homeschooling

photo via

Last year when COVID shut down most schools, many kids had their first experience of being educated at home. While the situation that prompted this was by no means normal, it did open many parents' minds to the possibility of homeschooling. Statistics show in 2019 2.5 million children were being homeschooled in the United States, but during 2020, interest in home education has risen significantly, and this number is expected to increase.

While online learning via your child’s school is not the same as homeschooling your child yourself, it did demonstrate that it was perfectly possible to educate kids at home. If you like the concept of teaching your child at home but would prefer to do it in your own way, then homeschooling could be ideal for you. When you homeschool, you need to comply with local home-learning requirements for your state, but you will still enjoy a greater level of flexibility and freedom. This flexibility can enable you to put greater emphasis on learning outside the classroom and to spend more time enjoying the other benefits with your child.

There are many positive aspects to homeschooling. I recently had a discussion with a friend about her experience with home schooling her children and what a few of the benefits to it are.

Your Child Can Learn at Their Pace

Not being unable to keep up with the pace of work in school can have a damaging impact on your child. Constantly comparing themselves with their classmates and struggling to understand the work can undermine your child’s confidence and make learning a negative experience. When kids struggle to make the same grades as everyone else, they may even start trying to avoid going to school entirely. This situation is not helpful for anyone, especially not your child, who may develop negative beliefs about themselves and their abilities. No two kids are the same, so it is only natural that their learning speeds will also differ.

One significant benefit of home learning is being able to work at your child’s own pace. Nobody knows your child better than you, which provides you with the opportunity to build your child’s confidence at every stage without their being under pressure. Taking your child’s cues on when they are ready to progress to the next level should make learning an enjoyable process rather than a race to the finish line.

Doing some research will help you build your understanding on the right time to introduce different stages of learning. Researching subjects such as ‘what is reading readiness ?’ will help you identify when your child is ready to progress to the next step in their education.

You Can Tailor Learning to Your Child’s Needs

When you home educate your child, you can adjust their education to fit with their learning style. Rather than needing to meet the needs of a whole class, you have the benefit of only needing to teach your child, which means you can tailor lessons to suit them and their individual needs.

Establishing your child’s preferred learning method can make it much easier for them to grasp new concepts and advance their learning faster. There are many different styles of learning, with eight most commonly listed. These learning styles include visual learners who learn best when shown images and physical learners who pick things up quickly when they can get hands-on and try them for themselves. Finding out which of these learning styles your child prefers can be really helpful, and you can adapt your teaching style to incorporate this.

More Opportunities to Connect with Nature

One significant benefit of home educating your child is you can be more flexible in your approach. Teaching at school is focused on core subjects such as reading, writing, and math, but home learning provides the opportunity to go beyond these subjects and get outside the classroom.

Being around nature is beneficial to everyone and has a positive effect on well-being. There is something to be said about being in a greenspace breathing in the fresh air that brings a strong feeling of calm and connection that you cannot achieve elsewhere. Exploring the natural world with your kids, teaching them about wildlife, and showing them how to nurture the environment is so valuable and cannot be taught in a classroom. Allowing your child to immerse themselves in nature and appreciate the beauty and wonder of the natural world is a gift that will stay with them throughout life. Think of it as a science lesson.

Teaching your child outdoors and showing them how to respect nature while enjoying its benefits can equip them with many positive traits. A deep understanding of nature and working outside can help your child develop empathy, a sense of social responsibility and encourage them to build resilience in a way that they would never learn in the classroom.

Allows Greater Freedom

When your kids attend school, you wave goodbye to the sense of freedom your family had when the kids were younger. Being at school means sticking with a rigid schedule and making plans around the school day. This leaves very little opportunity to enjoy quality time together as a family. When you transition to homeschooling, you're not constrained by the limitations of the school day, and learning becomes part of your child’s everyday life. Having this level of flexibility makes it so much easier for you to spend time together as a family and to create many positive shared experiences.

Away from the school environment, you can engage your child in learning a whole new skill set and making learning a more interactive experience. There are far more opportunities for your child to enrich their learning outside in the fresh air and discovering new places when they are home educated.

Having the freedom to set your own homeschool schedule enables you to teach seasonally, and your child will be able to experience and learn about the wider world in sync with nature. Teaching your child in this way is an excellent way to escape the materialistic trappings that kids often learn in school and instead focus on life appreciating the abundance and beauty of nature.