For many parents, the daily routine of convincing their children to wake up, get ready and leave the comfort of their homes to go to school is a dreaded task. Most parents would happily do away with this daily battle if they could.
Most parents prioritise their child's education, and increasingly, families are questioning which schooling model and learning environment best suits their unique child.
The home is a child's first school, and parents are their first teachers. Many homeschooling parents believe their home is the best place for educating a child due to the familiarity and controllable environment.
Many great thinkers have promoted the concept and benefits of homeschooling. They believe that a traditional classroom environment displaces the child from their natural surroundings and confines them to education. For these reasons, homeschooling has become a popular modern alternative to conventional schools.
The difference between homeschooling and online schooling
Homeschooling places the responsibility on parents to educate their children. When homeschooling, parents can select a curriculum and purchase lessons from an external provider, but the primary duty of teaching lies with them or a tutor they may employ.
If their child follows a specific curriculum, parents will typically be responsible for grading their child's assignments, tests, and exams using a provided memorandum. As a traditional school is not involved in this process, report cards are typically not issued.
In contrast, online schooling transfers the teaching responsibility to a designated teacher who conducts lessons virtually and evaluates tests and assignments while providing detailed feedback. In this case, the school can also issue report cards, which parents can use to easily enrol in another school for the following year or university admission purposes.
Benefits of choosing homeschooling
This goal of education can be achieved through homeschooling as children are encouraged to think critically and truly understand the concepts and theories in their courses. Homeschooling is also legal in many countries, making this education level available to most children. While the level of education is one of the main reasons many parents choose to homeschool their children, there are also several other reasons parents opt to provide their children with a more personalised approach to their educational journey.
Many parents who are ignorant of the benefits of homeschooling may believe that this method of schooling may deprive their child of receiving an internationally accredited education or that their child may lack in areas of socialisation, when, in fact, this is very far from the truth.
In today's world, homeschooling is considered an alternative; however, it was once the primary means of education in all households. World-famous personalities like Abraham Lincoln, Virginia Woolf, Rabindranath Tagore, and Mozart were homeschooled. So, never think your child will lose out on anything if they are schooled at home.
Some of the benefits of homeschooling include:
1. One-on-one teaching
This is the most significant benefit of homeschooling: your child gets complete, undivided attention throughout the teaching phase. One-on-one teaching allows the child to receive individual attention, which is impossible in traditional classrooms, where the child often has to share the classroom with many other students with diverse needs.
Therefore, children can ask questions without interruption, receive more comprehensive explanations, and feel confident expressing their concerns and struggles. This also allows for the teaching method to be tailored to the student's unique learning style so that they may understand concepts more quickly.
2. Flexibility
Sending your child to a traditional school means rushing about every morning to get them ready and drop them off at school on time. In contrast, homeschooling allows parents and children to create schedules and keep them flexible. If you are busy in the morning, you can arrange to teach your child in the evening. Your schedule is entirely up to you to decide.
If you choose online homeschooling, the benefits are that your child's homeschooling structure is supported by teachers who can access it immediately. It also means you can finally take that family holiday without the guilt of racking up days absent or missing out on critical topics. Therefore, your child will never fall behind or miss out on their education as they would in a traditional school.
3. Eliminates unnecessary competition among peers
While attending a traditional school allows a child to develop peer groups and teaches them to socialise, it can also birth unnecessary harmful competition. The race for grades can develop a negative attitude toward learning, and the immense pressure to perform can affect students' mental health and social values. Children can also experience intense cases of bullying and might develop trauma based on this, which could affect their confidence throughout their lives.
Homeschooling eliminates this kind of intense negative pressure and lets children focus on their subjects rather than their grades. This allows them to develop an in-depth knowledge of their subjects and an appreciation for them.
Children can also develop healthy friendships and bonds with peers by engaging in extracurricular activities that supplement the social interaction they would have experienced in a traditional school.
4. Control over the matter
Christopher Oosthuizen, a CambriLearn Student and Mensa member, says, "I like to be taught how to think and not what to think." Homeschooling empowers you to teach your child according to your preferences, instilling confidence in your teaching methods. This also means you have greater control over which topics and content your child is exposed to.
This increased control allows you to focus on specific methods of teaching or the subjects your child is weak in. Online homeschooling lessons will enable you to pick and choose what you wish to teach your child, thereby incorporating them into a larger teaching scheme. You can also fix the duration of their study to give core attention to areas in which they are weak.
In homeschooling, the lessons you provide your child are tailor-made according to your vision and your knowledge of their personality, ensuring their education is personalised and engaging.
5. Saves time
Homeschooling is a notably efficient way of schooling, saving parents and children from mundane routines like assemblies and commute time. This allows for a better investment of time in actual learning and teaching, making the daily routine far more optimised.
This will also give your child more time to develop other skills and interests that can benefit them in the long run and help them become well-balanced adults.
6. Parent-child bonding
Homeschooling can strengthen the parent-child bond. Since the child's primary teachers are their parents, the child spends quality family time with those who care most about them.
Even in online homeschooling, parents will spend time helping their children with the online tutoring they receive, creating personal bonds that are positively nurtured through education.
Education that fosters a personal touch and an emotional bond is the most humane way and creates well-rounded individuals. It saves students from becoming too mechanical and competition-oriented, unlike those who are put under immense pressure to perform and who thus detach themselves from everything around them to secure "first in class".
The extra free time provided by online schooling also offers more opportunities for parents to bond with their children through play and socialisation. In this way, these children will build a stronger connection with their parents, leading to a more open and trusting relationship.
7. Safe learning environment
Parents unsure about their children's safety in schools could consider homeschooling an alternative. Students generally feel safe and comfortable in their homes with online homeschooling lessons. It keeps them from situations like bullying and opposing companies that may adversely affect or influence them.
Even though these issues do not occur in every school, online homeschooling remains a better option for parents who worry about their children's safety.
For those parents who worry that homeschooling will not provide enough challenges and adversity through which to grow, we say there are more than enough challenges that life will throw at your child, even while at home.
Suppose you try to create a vibrant social life for your child through extracurricular activities, volunteering, playdates, and other activities. In that case, your child will naturally encounter challenging situations that encourage them to develop specific skills.
8. Less pressure on parents
It sounds surprising, but homeschooling can lessen some pressure on parents. On the one hand, homeschooling requires parents to be at home with the child and focus on their education, which can be time-consuming. On the other hand, it lessens the unnecessary pressure put on parents to assist with deadline-driven projects, tests, homework, assignments, and compulsory extra-mural activities such as career day.
Daily homework submissions and weekly project deadlines invariably create pressure on parents who need to help their children with this work under time constraints. In the case of homeschooling, you can assist your children in creative project work at your convenience and make the learning process creative and fun instead of pressurised.
Working parents also have the convenience of opting for self-help online homeschooling lessons, which further reduces the pressure on them.
9. Focus on the child's talents
Traditional schools require students to focus only on their studies, academic ranking, and a limited assortment of extracurricular pursuits. This subdues a child's talents, and there may be no opportunity for that talent to be discovered or developed.
Homeschooling allows students and parents to focus on and nurture the child's inherent talents. For instance, a musically oriented child can be given music classes at an hour convenient to them, as homeschooling offers a flexible schedule that is not as time-consuming.
This will widen the child's education and make it a more progressive experience. Therefore, if children spend time finding their passion, they will also be more inclined to know what career path they want to pursue after school.
10. Increases personal interaction of introverted children
Another great benefit of online homeschooling is that it offers the chance for introverted children to interact directly with their teachers. Traditional schooling methods often ignore the needs and questions of introverted children who may be too shy to speak up in class for fear of being ridiculed by others.
In online homeschooling, the child is exposed to face-to-face teaching, where they may not feel as shy or intimidated to speak up. This can increase their confidence in discussing their areas of doubt and thus gain a better understanding of the studied subject.
11. Addresses the diverse needs of children
Another crucial aspect of homeschooling is addressing the child's specific needs. Schools consist of students from different backgrounds with different educational needs. Sometimes, children find it challenging to keep up in a large group environment because of their unique learning styles or needs. Homeschooling lets parents select the teaching methods that are most beneficial for their children.
Both traditional schooling and homeschooling have advantages and disadvantages. The critical thing to consider is which education model is best suited to the child's unique needs. Every child is different and absorbs information differently, at a different pace. Homeschooling allows parents to personalise their child's education to their unique needs. This helps instil a child's love for learning throughout their schooling career.
If homeschooling is done correctly, it offers academic, safety, flexibility, and exposure advantages over traditional schooling. While some parents may be concerned about the need for more socialisation and peer-to-peer engagement when homeschooling, many homeschooling families tend to enrol their children in sporting centres, eliminating that concern and allowing them to mingle with new friends rather than the same cohort consistently.
When all of the above factors are considered, and as homeschooling gains significant popularity, it would not be surprising if it becomes the future of schooling.
Take this free quiz to find out if online homeschooling is right for your child.
