As you may well know, homeschooling is the fastest growing form of education in the United States. If you’ve been contemplating homeschooling, you may be wondering what the pros and cons of homeschooling are.
Or maybe you’ve been homeschooling for a few years and are checking in with the world wide web to figure out if it’s still worth it after all the sacrifices and challenges. Either way, let’s look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of homeschooling.
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7 Pros and 7 Cons of Homeschooling
1. Time Freedom
One of the biggest pros of homeschooling is time freedom.
You can adjust your homeschool schedule to fit seamlessly into your overall family schedule, and you are not at the mercy of when traditional school starts and ends. In other words, homeschooling can be adjusted any way you need it to to fit into your life and not the other way around.
My older girls were in a charter school for a year and a half when they were in elementary school. Although it gave me some time freedom in the sense of having more time to do things while they were at school, I still had two littles to take care of at home, so it’s not like I had “free time.” My day, and in fact our family schedule, revolved around the time we had to get them out the door and when we had to leave to pick them up.
Since we were also in church leadership at the time and would often have late Wednesday evenings at church, it was a struggle to get them up on Thursday mornings.
Now you may be thinking, ok, so what? I’m used to the way school works.
If your kids are currently in school, you may be used to being locked into their arrival and dismissal times. It’s hard to grasp the kind of flexibility and time freedom you have once you homeschool, but when you get a taste of it, it’s hard to go back.
2. Priorities
Aside from following the homeschooling laws for your state, you have the freedom to tailor your kids’ education to what you as a parent see as a priority for them to learn. You also have lots of time to focus in on the things you want your kids to learn.
In our home, for instance, we want our kids to learn how to have a relationship with God and how to walk in truth. So we take time to teach them these things alongside their regular academics. This is part of their overall homeschooling experience.
It is also a priority to me that my kids learn conflict management skills and how to get along. This is a part of their overall homeschool experience as well, both my husband and I take lots of time to teach them how to resolve conflicts.
3. Relationship building
Being at home with your children all day puts you in a prime position to focus on developing quality family relationships. I believe that building connections with your kids is the #1 way to gain influence in their lives, especially with everything else in the world pulling at them.
With busy school schedules, it can be hard to find time to connect with each child and to give your kids the conflict management tools they need to work things out with each other. Homeschooling provides the environment to not only do these things, but because you’re always with each other, you have the ability to build strong family relationships that will set the foundation for your children’s success.
5. Protection
Sometimes, people think that homeschooled kids will suffer socially because they are not among peers. I can both agree and disagree on this point.
One thing they won’t have to worry about, however, is experiencing a school shooting, which has unfortunately become an all-too-common occurrence in America’s schools.
There was a school shooting at a high school recently in the city I live in. Even though the incident involved one student targeting another (and was not a random mass shooting), it still traumatized so many students at the school and they expressed that they would not be returning.
When I talk to families who have decided to homeschool, they cite this as one of the reasons they made the switch. I hate that this is even a thing, but unfortunately, these are the times we live in.
Now when I say protecting, I do not mean sheltering, which involves overprotecting your kids to try to ensure that they never experience anything bad. My kids will inevitably face evil, which is something unavoidable, and rather than shelter them, my husband and I want to prepare them.
Protecting them, in the context that I’m speaking of, is choosing to have them in a safe environment because we’re responsible for their wellbeing.
5. Curriculum choice
If you have a child in the school system, the curriculum is chosen without the input of the parents. If you don’t like the curriculum, you may be able to go before the board and challenge it. However, this is time consuming and you may not get a favorable outcome.
What our kids put into their minds matters, as it will shape who they become. I don’t want my kids being pushed to embrace a curriculum that has values that contrary to what we believe.
With so many homeschooling curricula available now, there are many options out there and so many different approaches you can choose from. You can be sure to find something that fits your teaching style and your child’s learning style. I truly feel like a kid in a candy store when I look at new homeschool curricula and see how truly beautiful and mentally nourishing my kids’ education can be!
6. Less stress
My husband works in the public school system as a behavioral counselor. In doing so, he sees the amount of stress the students are under with the amount of schoolwork they have, the pressure to perform, juggling homework with outside commitments, pressure from social media, pressure from their peers, etc.
I don’t believe we need to have a stressful life in order to be effective in what we’re doing. Homeschooling gives you the freedom to slow down, dig into what really matters, and enjoy home and family life.
7. Parental influence v. peer influence
If you grew up in the public school (like me), you likely realize that at some point, your peers had more influence than your parents.
It has become normal in our society for kids to go to school and be more influenced by those around them. Many would even consider it normal.
However, I’m guessing that you’d rather your peers be influenced by your belief system than the ones that some of their friends may carry, which may be contrary to those you hold and desire that your kids hold.
“But we can’t protect our kids from what they hear,” you may say. And it’s true, your kids are inevitably going to be exposed to things you’d rather them not. I think the question we have to ask ourselves is, are they really mentally ready to wrestle with the kind of things they’ll hear in a traditional school setting? Especially when they’re very young?
I want my kids to be bold and courageous in the world, with enough grounding from their upbringing to help them withstand what they’ll face. But right now, we are taking the time to cultivate these mindsets.
Cons of Homeschooling
Each of the following is a common con of homeschooling. However, as I’ve had to face each of these, I’ve provided some alternative solutions to help offset some of these cons.
1. Cost
If you want to homeschool with good curriculum, you’re gonna have to fork over some money. And if your full-time job is homeschooling, you may not be making an income to compensate for the amount of money you’ll likely need to spend.
There are definitely cheap and even free options out there. In fact, if you decided you wanted to start homeschooling today, Google and your local library could have you covered for a good while.
If you’re easing into homeschooling and prefer an online approach to homeschooling that’s a bit more traditional but doesn’t break the bank, check out Acellus Power Homeschool. My older girls took a few subjects from there a couple years ago and really enjoyed it.
2. Lack of breaks
Homeschooling still involves parenting, and parenting can be non-stop. Because of the continuous nature of homeschooling and parenting, it’s important to make sure you’re getting regular breaks. If you don’t, you’ll quickly burnout!
Personally, I like to take a break during the day, take a day off every week, and take longer breaks every few months with my husband.
3. Management
I’ll be honest-this was one of the hardest parts of homeschooling for me. I realized that I was not only my children’s academic teacher, but I was also the manager of a home, family life, and my personal life. It was my responsibility not only to make sure they were doing math and handwriting correctly, but also to make sure toilets got cleaned and laundry got washed regularly.
I realized early on that if I didn’t create some sort of management strategy, especially for all the home responsibilities, I would drown, mentally and emotionally, in the chaos of all the things. If you’re in need of a home management plan that will enable you to stay on top of things for your home, check out the Quick SPIN Home Management System.
5. Opinionated people
Whether it’s family or friends, people will inevitably have something to say about your decision to homeschool.
When we first started homeschooling, people were very opinionated about what I was doing. “That’s great, but you’ll want to put them in school in about the 8th grade,” one father told me. “So they can get socialized.”
Oh socialization…I’ll leave that topic for another post 😉
I had to hold my tongue plenty of times when people tried to convince me that I should do something different for my childrens’ education. However, fast forward about seven years later and there are millions of children across the United States who are homeschooling. Now, when I tell people I homeschool, rather than receiving judgmental comments, I hear families who overwhelmingly express a desire to do the same.
5. Less options
When your child goes to a public school, they have the option of so many different classes by teachers who are usually well-educated in their field. When they’re homeschooled, it’s up to you to find teachers who can teach them what they need or want to know if you aren’t able to.
However, I will say that this is less of a con than it would have been in the past. Because homeschooling has grown so much and is continuing to do so, there are many options for our kids, whether online or in-person. If you do a bit of digging into homeschool groups in your area, I’m sure you will find a plethora of options that can work for your family.
6. Financial challenges
Obviously, if you are homeschooling your child(ren), it would be difficult to hold a full-time job unless you work from home (and even then it would be a lot). In the economy we live in, people are needing additional income more than ever.
If you are in a single parent situation, it would be nearly impossible for you to homeschool and work full-time unless you had some outside help.
While you may not be able to hold a full-time job while homeschooling, it is possible to still work while you’re homeschooling your children. This is what I do and have done for years! I run this blog, my digital product store, and work as a freelance copyeditor. It takes some self-discpline and good management, but it’s possible!
7. Constantness
You’ll want and need a break from the constantness of raising kids and always being present. No one can truly be present at all times without it challenging them mentally and emotionally.
Again, this is where the importance of breaks comes in. All the demands of homeschooling require that you give your mind and body time where you’re not available to meet needs, resolve conflicts, or solve problems.
When creating a homeschool routine, create one that allows for breaks. This may look like you giving your kids time to watch shows, play on tablets, have quiet time or play time, or hiring someone to come in for few hours to watch them so you get a break. Whatever you need to do, be sure to build in some rest to your schedule.
Homeschooling, like anything else, has many pros and many cons. If you’re considering homeschooling, I encourage you to pray about your decision as well. The Holy Spirit will always lead you into what is best!
Related Pros and Cons of Homeschooling Posts:
How to Homeschool and Work from Home
What You Need to Know Before You Homeschool
Homeschooling Schedules: What’s Realistic and What’s Not