Here are some advantages of educating your child at home:
You love your child more than any other teacher, which counts for a lot. Your child is more significant to you than he/she would be to anyone else. Therefore you will take more interest in their learning.
The teacher-student ratio is ideal – whether it’s one to one in your home or one to five. I educated all ten of our children, but were never teaching all ten at once. I believe the most I was ever teaching at once was six. And even then, certain subjects were still taught on a one-to-one ratio.
No wasted time on busy work. When your children are done their assignment, they can immediately go on to something else – they don’t need “busy work” to keep them occupied until the whole class finishes.
Time to linger – if your children are caught up in a subject, they don’t have to stop and go on to the next thing – you can let them continue with what they are doing. Or if you are reading a book to them and no one wants to stop – you don’t have to.
Tailored learning. You have the freedom (because of the small teacher-student ratio) to use different learning methods according to how your child best learns (auditory, visual, kinesthetic.) If your child doesn’t understand something, you generally are aware of that immediately and can back up and take another approach. In a conventual classroom, they might get lost and the teacher might not be aware for a while (days? weeks? months?) that your child doesn’t understand.
Freedom for your child to pursue their interests. Your children will have more time (as mentioned, there is no “busy work”) to pursue their interests and passions.
Growth in your relationship with your children and in their relationship with each other. Because you are spending time with your children, and they are spending time with their siblings, those relationships naturally flourish, and if they are not flourishing, the setting is ideal for working on them.
It will be natural for your child to interact comfortably with people of all ages and not just their peer group. Rather than being in a class with only children of their age, homeschooled children are in a setting with a variety of ages, and it is normal for them to be comfortable interacting with children of all ages as well as adults. (Note that school is the only setting where children are with only people of their age. Once they get out into the real world, that doesn’t happen.)
Age appropriate learning. They will not be taught about abortion at age five (they are currently learning about abortion (as a positive thing) in public schools at that age) or be sexualized in class. You can teach them all that they need to know when you determine they should know it.
If you want more encouragement and practical tips, you can purchase my book: “Stress-Free Homeschooling: Getting It All Done and Enjoying It” – by clicking the link of the “My Books” section on this site.
