August 11, 2007
5 Advantages Of Homeschooling
Tip! There is a significant distinction between ?Homeschooling? and ?School-at-Home?. One of the concepts of homeschooling is that it carries out standard lessons and schoolwork at home, and ?home? definitely becomes a part of the schooling itself.
What makes homeschooling better than traditional schooling? Lately, there is a rising trend in families choosing to homeschool their child than send their child to a traditional educational institution.
Let’s look at some of the benefits of homeschooling over traditional schooling:
1. Flexible Schedule
Homeschooling enables a flexible schedule. For example, the child does not need to wake up at 7 every morning. With homeschooling, your child can start homeschooling at 9am or later depending on your preferred schedule. You can schedule your child’s homeschooling education as you see fit with materials or subjects that may be not available in a traditional school.
You can tailor the homeschool curriculum to suit the needs and interest of your child.
2. Individual attention
In a traditional school setting, thirty to forty students are assigned to a teacher in class. Therefore usually, the teacher cannot devote 100 percent attention to any child since it will not be fair to the other children. Plus, it is quite impossible to provide individual attention to all students.
Tip! Less Distractions - Homeschooling programs enable students to solely focus on the task at hand. They can pay 100% attention to their studies, without any worries, social distractions or pressures of a regular school setting.
With homeschooling, your child gets all the individual attention he/she needs. For example, if your child is weak in mathematics, you could devote more time and energy into teaching mathematics.
Your child’s homeschooling schedule can be adjusted to crater for that. For example, if your child is better at science than at mathematics, simple devote more homeschooling hours to mathematics and cut back on science. With homeschooling, the choice is yours. Traditional schools can’t do that.
3. Family Activity
The schooling of the child can become an extended family activity. Examples are field trips and experiments. Plus, the child also receives more quality time with his/her parents. There is more time for family bonding. The child is also free of any negative peer pressure or influences.
Tip! Know what your state’s law says. Read the applicable statutes for yourself, talk to other homeschoolers, and join a state homeschooling organization that monitors the regulations affecting homeschoolers.
4. No peer pressure
With homeschooling, the child does not need to prove his/her abilities to other children. Parents are able to deeply understand their child better with homeschooling and therefore are able to plan the learning program according to his strengths and weakness.
Parents can also change the curriculum to suit the learning style of the child. For example, some children learn better from reading while others need to write. Some children even learn better from experiencing or seeing things in action.
5. Religion Learning
Religious learning is a sensitive issue hence most traditional schools shunned it. However, with homeschooling, parents can take control over the moral and religious learning of the child. Parents can impart their ideologies and deep beliefs into the child rather than let the school dictate what moral and religious education the child will be receiving.
Homeschooling is the best way to educate a child as you can see from the advantages listed below. If you have the time, the interest and the ability, why not give it a try?
Ricky Lim is the founder of http://www.homeschooling-guide.info where he regularly write homeschooling articles to help educators and parents. Visit his site for more Homeschooling Resources, Tips and Information
