The Benefits of Homeschooling

Some parents forced into “crisis schooling” for most of this last semester may suspect their recent experience can’t be what homeschooling truly is. Others whose children haven’t reached school age yet and not liking their current options may be seriously asking what types of benefits homeschooling families commonly see. We have just completed our seventh year of homeschooling, with a one-year break where we tried out a private school. In it for the long haul now for many reasons, I uncover more benefits all the time from our homeschooling lifestyle. At this point I’m very reluctant to give any of them up!

I realize how overwhelming the idea of homeschooling can be for new parents who have never tackled this challenge before (for more on some practical steps to start, check out my other blog post). I started on this journey eight years for one set or reasons. Now I’m continuing on this journey for all those reasons, plus another several added on that I’ve uncovered since then.

Our Initial Reasons For Homeschooling

I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of public school from the start. We couldn’t afford private school tuition on one salary alone. So I had a choice to make: I could either go to work full-time to pay for private school, or I could homeschool and work a part-time job from home. As Damien’s job involved very substantial travel (often 50% or more), and I didn’t have any family help available, I was alone with the kids a lot. Like super quite a lot.

I imagined the exhaustion and stress of trying to get up early every morning, get the kids to school, run to my job, and work on my career all day. Then pick the kids up, cook dinner, do homework, do any evening extracurricular activities, get them to bed, and prepare to do it all over again the next day. (And I know a number of single parents that do just that!) If I had a choice, though, that was not going to be the one I was going to make.

Part of my initial decision for homeschooling was thinking it would be less stressful to keep my kids at home and me work a part-time, remote job (much less pay) than to send my kids to school all day. Although we ended up more financially short than we would have had I gone to work full-time, I have never regretted that decision. As stressful as it was with small children and not much support, it would have been all that much more stressful choosing the alternative.

The Start of Our Journey

I started out homeschooling one first grader and was nervous enough about that. I had no idea if I was doing things “right,” not fully realizing that there are many ways “right” can look in the homeschooling world. Although initially stressing about everything, in time I began to relax more. We fell into a pattern of playing in the morning and then hitting our core academic basics in the afternoon while my younger son napped. That system worked well for us for the first few years.

My mindset grew more comfortable as the first few years passed. I realized how much I liked picking out the topics we would study and the specific curricula we would use. Having increasingly strong preferences, I found I could change something when it wasn’t working. I could make easy adjustments by throwing things out or adding things in. The public library had loads of supplemental material and resources that I had never noticed before. Being interested in languages, I decided to tackle Latin with my son in second grade and found it to be easy and fun (at that level anyway). I liked the academic side of homeschooling more and more.

One thing I noticed right away was that individual subjects took less time than they would in a classroom. And my kid would have to answer ALL the questions during discussion time–huge bonus! He couldn’t hide like he maybe could in a big classroom. There was no getting out of the fact that he had to know the material.

Vacations and Field Trips

Further benefits continually cropped up. Our family took all or most of our vacations on the off-season (meaning not during summer, Christmas break, or spring break). Enjoying cheaper prices on most everything, we had no hot summer sun baking down on us at crowded tourist attractions. We far preferred traveling in the spring or fall when the weather was often beautiful and the crowds minimal. Setting our own schedule without getting approval from any school was also a big bonus.

And the field trips! I remember during my school years each grade took one field trip per year. In contrast, we were constantly booking field trips of all types, some by ourselves and some with friends or co-op groups. I felt my kids were getting a richer and more varied experience than I had ever had.

Customizing Our Schedule

I learned to take advantage of the weather forecast. At the beginning of the week I’d look at the weather forecast. Sometimes the forecast predicted the weather would be beautiful during the week and raining miserably all day on Saturday. If I could, I’d switch our week around. We’d go to the beach or plan more outings during the week and hit the books on Saturday. I grew to love more and more that we could fully customize our schedule.

Participating in numerous extracurricular activities didn’t stress my kids out because we had ample time available. We didn’t overschedule ourselves by any means (or at least not the majority of the time). However, the kids were able to take part in a wide variety of activities and still have plenty of free time to just to be kids.

Being at home together so much meant we had lots of TIME for natural conversations to just spring up. We’d talk about anything and everything. I was able to share the world from my perspective and be the primary influence in their young lives. Although sometimes I truthfully didn’t feel like having long, drawn-out conversations, I realize now how valuable they truly were.

In addition, we could hit school hard when my kids were “on” and back off the pedal when they were “off.” Some days they just didn’t have it (or maybe it was me who didn’t have it). Occasionally I remember us curling up on the couch and listening to a fun book on audio. And that counted as school too.

The View Ahead

Of course we had bad days. Many bad days in fact. I’ve made mistakes along the way and have had to do course corrections. Our journey has not been akin to strolling through a fragrant rose garden sniffing delicate petals. At times it has felt more like a steep mountain climb dodging obstacles and avalanches and searching for precarious footholds.

But I look back now and realize I would not trade it. I don’t feel I have shortchanged my kids (or myself) at all by homeschooling. Views from a mountaintop are usually incredible. Although we’re not there yet, I am beginning to get glimpses through the fog of the top.

Choose How Homeschooling Will Look For You

One final thought for now. Homeschooling looks radically different from one family to the next. It is in no way a cookie cutter thing. Trying to copy how another family homeschools may only lead to frustration and unhealthy comparison issues. I have gleaned helpful elements of homeschooling from other moms that I respect and trust, but in the end we have come to navigate our own unique rhythm.

How big families homeschool is going to look way different from how smaller families homeschool. Extroverted moms will probably homeschool differently than introverted ones like me. Artsy, fun-loving moms from more serious ones. Any special needs the children have will be a major deciding factor too. No single homeschooling way is going to be perfect (as no traditional school is going to be perfect). Each system, though, can be effective in its own way and lead to success. Our kids are not cookie cutter; therefore, it makes sense that their educational paths should not be either.

Now soon entering our eighth academic year together, I’m constantly recognizing new benefits of homeschooling each season that hadn’t occurred to me before. Share in the comments below any I left off the list that you have enjoyed in your family.