The Ugly Side Of Home Schooling: Disadvantages You Must Consider

It has always been accepted that parents have an inherent right to determine how to raise and educate their children. These days, the latter decision is made more complex for the simpler dichotomous decision of private versus public schooling is given a third rival: homeschooling. Homeschooling holds an obvious advantage over the other two, that of the fact that as a parent, you are given an opportunity to be completely hands-on with your child’s education, from schedule, to curriculum, and to the sort of development you want imbibed in him or her through that education. While these advantages may hold true under any circumstance, it is important for you as a parent to also understand the disadvantages in the system as well. Only then can you be certain that you are indeed making the right and educated decision in choosing homeschooling over the other two.

The first obvious disadvantage is the amount of investment you have to make as a parent. Why? Homeschooling leaves the responsibility of educating your child completely on you. This means you’re going to have to research and collate a curriculum for your child, as well as determine on your own supplemental activities that will enhance this learning experience. Moreover, this means having to invest greater time in your child than a normal working parent would. Homeschooling may require either parent to stay home and be the teacher, or may put greater stress on parents who both work for a living.

This also means doing away with the expertise of an accredited teacher. Trained teachers are equipped with the knowledge to teach a wide range of topics as well as strategies in order to stimulate greater learning and active participation. As a parent without this training, you may find it necessary to do much more research, especially as you determine what you want to teach your child.

The classroom setting provides inherent benefits of socialization to your child. Homeschooling obviously takes away this opportunity for your child to interact with other children in the learning environment. Although your child may have siblings to interact with, this may translate to your child as not being exposed to a wider gamut of ideas and perspectives. A classroom with children from different backgrounds and personal beliefs provides your child with ideas that may stimulate his mind to think and criticize.

Visit and talk to people who have undergone homeschooling. This may help you get to know more about these disadvantages, and perhaps, help you learn how to appropriately respond to them to make homeschooling work for you.

Home Schooling: The Advantages And Disadvantages

People new to the idea and concept of homeschooling often have a thousand of questions to raise. Here is some helpful information to guide you in weighing things out:

Some homeschooling advantages:

1. Allow quality time, providing individualized attention and instruction. Homeschooling parents can better understand their children; observe how kids progress, what areas they find difficult and help them out.

2. Children learn in their own pace. At homeschool, children can advance at any time, not waiting on others or if the kid is a slow learner or having difficulties in a certain subject area, she/he can remain to focus on that area without pressure that others are already moving on.

3. Parents pattern their teaching style and curriculum in accordance with the child’s learning style, allowing him/her to successfully understand the subject matter, thus better results are achieved.

4. No peer pressure. At a homeschool, age classification is not a factor, therefore children not only associate with children their same age level, but with children of different ages and adults as well, so they can decide on their own without the influence of peers.

5. “Hands on learning”. Activities which are outside the context of books are very much essential to the child’s learning process. Trips to the park, the museum, the zoo, going fishing with mom and dad can be a great time to spend an afternoon educating your child.

Some homeschooling disadvantages:

1. For the homeschool parent, much time and effort is required for preparation of teaching materials, lessons and managing the child’s opportunities in order to cultivate friendships and expand on the child’s interests.

2. Parents who homeschool do not have enough time to spend for themselves when kids are constantly at home. This frequent time of being together can be at times suffocating and, therefore, can not work in certain families.

3. Homeschooled children do not have a lot of opportunities to bond and develop friendships with peers. For many families, this really is not a problem and is supplemented by taking the kids out to play in the park, attend lessons in ballet, jazz, etc. However it takes a lot of effort on the part of parents to insure that their kids have these opportunities.

Whether to homeschool or not, it all depends on you, as a parent, on how much are you willing to give your child. On top of all the learning materials, the field trips, home schooling entails a lot of love, patience and encouragement.