The Pros and Cons of Becoming a Homeschooler

Homeschooling is becoming a popular choice.  It gives the children a flexible schedule and allows the curriculum to cater to the individual child.  Is homeschooling the right choice for you?  Well, that all depends. 

 I was brought up in the public school system.  K – 12 I went in and out of a school house nearly every day and loved much of it.  I wasn’t warped or bullied or failed out of any grade.  It was what felt ‘right’ to me.  I even got training as a public school teacher when I went to collage.  

So, why do I homeschool?  

Because my children are my very favorite people. 

As I put my daughter on the bus for the first time, something about it felt wrong to me.  Throughout the next year I had more and more doubts that the public school road was right for us.  By the end of that year, all my children were home and I had taken a crash course in what it meant to homeschool.  

Now, I am not one of those homeschoolers who think it’s right for everyone.  I can’t speak for anyone but me.  But that is my reason for homeschooling… because being around my children fills me up as much as it wears me out.  Because my joy in seeing my daughter learn to read was tripled because I was the one that taught her to do it.  And because I couldn’t imagine missing any step in their childhood because their education is someone else’s responsibility. 

 So how can I help you find out if homeschooling is right for you?  Well, I can tell you what I won’t ask.  

I won’t ask if you have the patience of a saint.  Because you don’t. And guess what?  Neither do I.  

And I won’t ask if you have tons of free time on your hands.  Because I know that there are days when it’s all I can do to use the bathroom alone (and calling the plumber while helping someone with algebra isn’t high on my list of favorite activities either). 

And I also won’t ask if you love giving tests and enjoy keeping grade scores.  Because I honestly can’t tell you what my 12 year old’s grade in math is right now and I am not entirely sure I care.

 So.  How do I help you decide if homeschooling is right for you? 

Let’s weigh the different pros and cons.  

Pros: 

– You will have massive amounts of flexibility with what you teach, when you teach it, and how it is taught.  My kids and I love being out in the garden.  It’s a year round event for us and you would not believe how many subjects I have taught in the garden.  

For example:

History – I grew 9 ‘grains of the world’ and we got to study each culture they were popular staples in. 

Science – We studied plant reproduction by starting with pollination and bees (a great intro into  terminology for human biology in 5th grade.  Just sayin’.) 

Writing – we do a weekly ‘nature hour’ where the kids write in their journals outside and collect one thing they want to study for the next week.  

The list goes on and on.  And that is just one thing we love. 

Oh, and if you hate something (or even if it just doesn’t fit), no parent/teacher conferences are required before you set it aside.  Not even one. 

 – You will be able to teach to your schedule.  This was a huge one for us because my husband’s schedule changes every month.  We have adjusted it so we get maximum time off while daddy is home.  This means a lot of field trips!  

 (Oh, and BTW, we take every Dec off.  The whole month is dedicated to our Advent Activities.) 

– Your relationship with your child will grow and blossom.  Quality time  requires quantity time.  Because I am home with my kids, I get to make the most of those ‘quality’ moments! 

 – Homeschooling is budget friendly.  There are hundreds of resources out in cyberspace for free.  I built my son’s entire kindergarten curriculum for $12 and it included Oreos!  As kids get older, these things are a little harder to find and may take some digging, but trust me, you can do it for much less than any private school tuition.  

 – You will be there for every sounded-out word, cursive curlicue, and every algebra problem.  Children are all different.  Knowing where our child’s particular strengths and weakness is our greatest asset in their education.  If my daughter needs to spend a little more time on multiplication before moving on, or if my son is ready to move past ABC’s and right on to sight words, we can do that without concern for the other 23 students in the class.  It makes their lessons extremely time efficient.  You will be amazed at how much you can cover because you are only waiting for a one student to understand. 

(For more pros – watch this.) 

Cons: 

– You will be overwhelmed with the amount of information there is out there and you will have daily doubts as to if you are doing it ‘right’.   It is important to recognize when you are being bitten by the comparison bug.  Try your hardest to be on no ones time-table but your own.  Just make your goal to continue moving forward.  Good record keeping really helps with that.  

– You may become addicted to a certain subject long after your kids are ‘over it’.  You need to know where your strength and weaknesses are as well as your kids.  For example – I really love biology.  And my kids know more than their share.  However, I have a couple of kids who would really like to move on to Chemistry, which is not my favorite subject.  Like at all.  I decided to buy a box curriculum for this subject so that they get the benefit someone else’s enthusiasm since mine is lacking in that area.  You use the tools that you can to maximize your educational possibilities.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help! 

– You will be there for every sounded-out word, cursive curlicue, and every algebra problem.  Yup, this one is covered under both ‘pro’ and ‘con’.  Because the truth is, sometimes listening to a child sound out the same word for the fourth time on one page is as grating as nails on chalkboard.  

– You will not be able to teach everything your kid needs to know through high-school.  Neither can I.  But you know what?  I didn’t know how to fix everything in my house before I bought it either.  I took on each problem as it came up, researched it, and tried out different tools to see which one worked the best for that particular problem.  It is the same with homeschooling.  There are many things I teach my kids that I just learned days before.  (Like, did you know that alligators hatch all the same gender of eggs at the same time and the sex of the babies is determined by the temperature of the nest?  Yeah.  Me either… until I read about it last month in my 1st graders science trivia game.  These types of things happen OFTEN.)  You will be learning a ton as you homeschool… and you will love it. 

 – Your kids will be social mutants.  Or at least that’s the fear.  Am I scared of that?  Um, no.  Not even a little bit.  My children are happy, social creatures… as are most of the homeschoolers I see.  I do not even go the extra mile and include my child in tons of sports, scouts, or groups they would not regularly attend.  If you are concerned, get them involved in something they love outside of schooling.  That’s what the public school kids do. 

 In the end, a lot of it depends on what works best for your family.  For our family, with a very tight homelife and a very alternative schedule, homeschooling fits all of our needs perfectly.  But if another schooling choice fits your family better, then chose the one that fits you best.  In the end, the more involved you are in the choice and the process of your child’s education, the better education they will get, regardless of where they get it. 

(All of the children pictured here are homeschooled.)