Homeschooling means parents take all responsibilities to educate their children. What are homeschooling advantages and disadvantages? Let’s explore in this post to see if it is suitable for family.
About a decade ago, homeschooling appeared as an alternative form of education. But now, it seems to be mainstream. We witnessed a dramatic rise in homeschooling during the pandemic. Then, this trend has continued through the 2022-23 academic year, despite the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in many schools, as reported by the Washington Post. The National Home Education Research Institute also suggests that homeschooling may be the fastest-growing form of education in the United States. Moreover, home-based education has also been growing around the world in many other nations, such as Australia, Canada, France, Hungary, Japan, Kenya, Russia, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.
In this blog, let’s learn about homeschooling and its benefits and drawbacks.
This blog covers:
Definition
Homeschooling is also known as home education. Parents educate their kids at home instead of sending them to public or private schools. But, home education does not mean that all learning activities take place at home. They can be at a museum, a park, or even a trip. Parents will fulfill all teaching roles, or combine with tutors, as well as other homeschooled parents.
Young woman helping a girl with homework.
Image: Freepik
Parents should consider both positive and negative aspects. Find out homeschooling advantages and disadvantages in the next part.
Homeschooling Advantages
Below are 4 easy-to-realize benefits that home education brings to parents and kids.
Flexibility and Freedom
Of course, learning distance from schools which are full of rules and regulations is much more flexible. You can educate your kids anywhere, anytime, and the way you want. Create a unique curriculum, timetable, and determine teaching methods that are suitable for you and your kids. For example, take them to a history museum to tell them national history. Besides, you can skip what your child already knows and go slow where they are unclear. Meanwhile, your kids have to follow the whole class’s pace. Teachers can only move to the next part when most students understand the lesson. Which style do you prefer?
Individualized Learning
Each kid is unique. Each of them has diverse talents and interests. Thus, parents can build teaching plans depending on them. For example, your kid’s learning style is visual. So, you should add more visual support in the lesson such as images and videos. If you realize that they have artistic or athletic inclinations, you can spend extra time practicing. This is not possible in schools indeed.
Safe Learning Environment
Home education helps parents protect their children from social harm. They may suffer from school violence, racism, and so on. Further, they may be stuck in drugs, alcohol, or bad relationship.
Image: Freepik
Besides, the Covid-19 pandemic is ongoing. Keeping kids off traditional schools can reduce the risk of infection.
Strong Relationships
Educating kids means that you have more time with them. It can help build a stronger relationship between parents and kids. Spouse relationships also become closer. That is because they have to support each other in educating children. It’s what we expect, isn’t it?
Homeschooling Disadvantages
As mentioned above, homeschooling has both advantages and disadvantages. In this part, let’s explore potential cons that parents need to be aware of.
Socialization Difficulties
About the cons, the first thing that comes to mind is socialization difficulties. Homeschooled kids have less chance to form bonds or interact with peers than normal. Of course, they can make friends outside of school. But, it takes some effort to arrange meetings or activities. Meanwhile, if they attend schools, they can spend up to 8 hours per day with a wide range of peers. As a result, they can form bonds naturally. Thanks to that, your kids can grow mental, physical health as well as social skills.
Image: Pixabay
Significant Changes in Family’s Lifestyle
Before, parents have a basic role as parents. But now, parents are also both teachers and administrators. The workload can be over. Apart from implementing lessons, they have to do many “behind the scene” tasks. For example, creating a learning plan or arranging field trips. As a result, the family’s timetable will change. Parents have less time for personal needs.
Homeschooling affects a family’s finance too. Parents have to spend money on learning materials, online courses, and so on. So, they have less time to earn money. More expenses, but less income. This makes them need to tighten the family’s spending.
For single-parent, this type of education can cause more pressure.
Lack of Facilities
In reality, a home can not be equipped with facilities like a regular school. For example, it’s hard for parents to provide all necessary chemicals, materials, or chemistry labs for chemistry lessons. Of course, they can find them outside, but it doesn’t come without any effort. Also, parents are not masters in all subjects to guide kids as specialist teachers.
Image: Freepik
Excessive Interaction
Most children spend a half-day or a full day at school. If you homeschool kids, you have to face them 24/7. It can make kids feel confined because they are always in their parents’ control. Moreover, it can frustrate you if kids misbehave or don’t know something.
Conclusion
We cannot deny that homeschooling brings some benefits for kids as well as parents. But, it still has some drawbacks. So, parents should learn both homeschooling’s advantages and disadvantages. Then, consider if it is suitable for themselves, their kids, and their family’s condition.
If you are about to homeschool kids and find an eLearning authoring tool, ActivePresenter is a good idea. With this app, you can:
- Design eLearning courses
- Create quizzes
- Gamify lessons
- And more
Let’s download and try it out!
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