Top Secret Homeschool Benefits
- rstinson10
- Oct 5, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 11
Hello! We are veteran homeschoolers. We invite you to browse our website for more articles about navigating the homeschool world, encouragement when making friends, limiting screen time for your family and more.
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Homeschooling can be a very enriching experience and there are many great benefits we enjoy. You have probably heard that homeschooling is about freedom. This is true. We have a lot more control over the education of our children and we are able to make the right choices for each child on an individual basis, rather than fitting forcing them to fit into an arbitrary system. And this also means we have control over other aspects of our lives like our calendar, our children's social circle and our children's teachers.
Freedom over your schedule and calendar
Homeschooling gives you the gift of time. What would you do if you had more time? Fly to paris? Visit family more often? Knit more? You can choose to do all or none of these.
Kids can rest and take breaks when they need to. Young children can nap in their own beds, developing a consistent sleep schedule. They can have recess.
Time for hobbies and healthy play time. Their hobbies can become an education experience in of itself. A hobby can easily develop into a career as they get older.
Flexible schedule: sometimes school is just not the right priority. There is room to adjust your schedule for life, because "life happens", often without regard to your scheduling. Welcoming a new baby, bereavement and family emergencies are some times when you can easily take time off of school and handle life as it happens.
The school day can be shorter: depending on your child's age it normally takes just a few hours to homeschool. Your kids aren't wasting time in the classroom.
Sleeping in! Slow mornings where everyone sleeps for as long as they need and not rushing out the door when it's 10 degrees outside.
Inexpensive off-season vacations: You will save money on flights and hotels. Theme parks and resorts have low crowds and there are low wait times on rides and attractions. We have walked right onto rides at Universal Studios before because there was no line.
You can take advantage of nice weather. Imagine, it is March. The warm weather is back. It is not too hot, sun is shining and wildlife is coming back out. As homeschoolers, you get to enjoy the sunshine. Do school outside. Play with the bubbles or plan a day trip.
Your homeschool teen will be more appeal to potential employer's. Because your teen that is looking for a job is available during the weekday, employers are more likely to hire them. Some employer's even recruit on homeschool forums for this reason.
Freedom of Association
Sibling love and a close knit family. The best place for your kids to learn how interact with others and build social skills is with their siblings first, rather than in the arena of a playground that is filled with bad actors (misbehaving children).
You chose your friends. There are no bullies or bad influences in your child's life because you have freedom of association.
You pick your kids' teachers: tutors, grandparents, nannies, soccer coaches can all be “teachers” in your child’s homeschool education.
Homeschooling is the budget friendly education option.
The fact is that homeschooling is inherently budget friendly when considering the options for education. Private schools and preschools have tuition. Public school is paid with tax dollars and is not "free". Homeschooling can be done on a shoestring budget. Teacher discounts are usually extended to homeschool families.
Freedom over your curriculum
Extracurriculars count towards instruction time: your family would be doing these activities any way. For example, sports, art classes, dance, music lessons. You can chose your children's teachers
Field trips rock! Many businesses offer tours for small groups. Places like the post office, police station, fire department, and many others. If you are not in a homeschool group, make one. Get a few families together and plan a field trip. spending a day to go to museums or the zoo is so much fun. Click to see our article about field trips.
Our kids have an “adult palette”: they are foodies, not picky eaters. One reason is because homeschool children have access to a fully stocked kitchen which includes spices, buffalo sauce, a blender to make smoothies, a microwave, pesto sauce, fresh fruit, their favorite snacks, parmesan cheese and salt.
The children are exposed to many different careers. For example, we are home to watch a company remove a tree, Instal new gutters and plumber come fix our sink. When driving around the neighborhood, we can watch a welder fix some exterior fire escape stairs.
Character building is part of the curriculum. Honesty, practicing acts of kindness, taking turns, sympathy, conflict resolution, and self care can all be an important part of their education.
It is individualized: if your 5th grader is ready for 6th grade math, so be it!
Knowing life skills: like fixing things in the house and cooking.
Honorable Mentions
You can live anywhere: your family can live near your job or be near family. You can live in a boat or RV full time and travel the USA.
Home conveniences are available: things like their favorite toy or blanket, being able to walk around barefoot, being with pets, their favorite snacks, band-aids, insect repellant, sweatshirts, and your child's change of clothes are right there with you.
Medical freedom. Link
78% of peer-reviewed studies on academic achievement show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in institutional schools (Ray, 2017) .
More homeschool academic performance info can be found here. Link
Ready to take the leap and homeschool? Read these tips.
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