Homeschooling – Pros & Cons

Let’s talk a little more about homeschooling.
Everything that is kind of unknown causes skepticism and uninformed judgements.
My daughter’s school is worried about the socialization part of this process. I see this in every meeting we have.
Even if it is more talked about, people still don’t know much about homeschooling. Specially here in Portugal.
Always the question: what about socialization? Do they really work at home? What do they do all day? Won’t they become weird kids?
Well, I will try to answer these questions mentioning the pros and cons of homeschooling.

Freedom

The big advantage I see is the freedom we have. I can teach my daughter anywhere I want. It doesn’t have to be in a classroom all day. She has her classroom, but, learning about nature is so much more fun if we can actually be there. We can make school trips any day we want, and with whom we want. We can travel wherever and whenever we want, and not have to wait for school breaks. The schedule is made according to what works better for us. It can be mornings, afternoons, evenings, weekends, we choose what is better for us.

Time

My daughter can take her own time to learn. She doesn’t have to rush. We can practice, try different methods, you name it. She learns at her pace. And it works SO much better. And because the teaching is 1:1 we can do a lot more in a short amount of time, leaving he more time to play and enjoy her childhood.

COVID – Pandemic

Baring in mind that the pandemic was the main reason our homeschooling adventure began, not having to deal with the restrictions is wonderful. She doesn’t have to wear a mask (she’s 7 now), even when we go out, no covid tests, no disruption to her daily routine. I can just imagine how it’s complicated for kids when they have to stop going to school because someone tested positive in their classroom. Not to mention the online learning for such young children. And another great thing is not being exposed to this virus.

Strong family relations

One thing that really worried me was how little time I spent with my child when she would go to school all day. And for me, being a teacher, meant that my weekends would be spent doing house chores and preparing lessons for the following week. When would I spend time with my daughter? Do parents really know their children when they spend more time at school than at home? I just love the time I spend with my daughter now. It’s so wonderful to be able to be really be present in her life at such a young age. I feel blessed. And children need their parents’ presence more than everything when they are so young.

Society is organized for parents to work all day and children to be at school as much time as possible. I don’t agree with that. When I was 7 I would go to school in the morning, come back home, have lunch and play the rest of the day, while spending time with my family. Today, parents have less and less patience with their children. And who can blame them? They are too tired from work. With the pandemic, in some countries, some parents had to stay home working, and the bond they formed with their children made them change jobs. Now more and more people want to work from home. In the USA, the majority of job offers includes a remote working option. This says a lot about the happiness people discovered when they got to enjoy time with their family.

Minimal negative influence

Everybody talks about socialization. Well, what type of socialization do we want for our children? I want control to what she is exposed to while she is this young. Critics might say that we should go through some situations in life to properly grow, like bullying. I don’t agree. Bullying today has nothing to do with the kind of bullying I saw when I went to school. If an adult stills something he/she can go to jail, because there are laws that forbid this behavior. Stilling has consequences. The same goes with violence. These days, children can do all of these things in school and nothing happens to them. Sometimes the student that is the victim is the one that has to leave the school because nobody protects them. The school system protects the bullies. Even teachers are victims of that. This is not a good representation of society. Schools should teach students that every behavior, good or bad, has consequences. They don’t do that anymore. I speak as a mother, but also as a teacher that knows what goes on in schools.

People seem to forget that school is not the only place a child can socialize. Homeschooling is practiced for decades. Homeschooled children grow up heathy and very social. There is a big number of places where children can meet and interact with other kids. The good thing is that parents have more control over what kind of influence their children are having. And this is important.

Saving money

There is an incorrect notion that you can only homeschool if you have a lot of money. No, no and no. The amount of money saved by not having to buy  clothes all the time, shoes, bags, school fees. I don’t think people realize how much money they really spend per child for them to go to school. I am seeing it now.

Let’s not forget off-season vacation and travel rates. We can do so much more for less. Sometimes one of the parents has to stay at home and cannot go to work. But, this can easily be overcome by working from home, which is something a lot of parents do.

Amount of work

Besides being the parent, you are the teacher as well. And there is work there. A lot of it. Adding to it you have the domestics responsibilities and your own work (if it’s the case). You have to be organized to deal with everything. But it’s doable, despite being very tiring, specially if you have more than one child.

Less time for yourself

As said before, you have more work, and, as a consequence, much less time for yourself. Having your kids in school makes it easier to find time to do other things. But it all depends on your organization skills. And, sometimes, family can help. Family always comes in handy, homeschooling or not.

Criticism

Homeschooling is growing across the world, but a lot of people still like to criticize it. I understand. It’s normal. For many is the unknown. And every time someone does something different from the mainstream criticism follows. It’s difficult for some to understand that there are people that think for themselves, and not just follow the stream.

I was delighted to discover that in Kenya homeschooling is practiced for decades and with brilliant results.

Curiously, very often, one of the parents is a school educator. There is something about knowing how the system works that makes some parents think that maybe they should try something different for their children. Kudos to them.

More and more parents are choosing to explore homeschooling. Here in Portugal the numbers increased so much that the government had to change the law to adapt and limit some choices.

The pandemic made something really clear: those who could stay at home with their children, help them learn and enjoyed the experience, realized that homeschooling might a possibility. For other parents it was really difficult.

Homeschooling is not for everybody. And it should be like that. It’s good to know that there is a choice. That we can choose what’s best for our children. Nobody knows them better than us. And everybody is different.