Inside: There are many benefits of homeschooling your child even in more difficult subjects like science. There are many opportunities for your child to direct their own learning, many materials are found at home or are easy to access. Even if more depth is required, there are lots of on-line and subscription services available for hands-on science learning. *There are affiliate links in this post but always at no cost to you.
Many parents are concerned about the education of their children. What are their kids learning? What is being taught? How early should our offspring enter the education system? With all these questions, another one that we may ask ourselves is whether we should homeschool our children. Some subjects are harder than others to teach at home. Some families might find science challenging to approach especially when kids get older…finding materials to do more complex experiments can be difficult. However, there are solutions to every problems and there are many benefits of homeschooling your child. Lets look at some of these benefits of homeschooling and see whether it’s for you and your kids.
Child Led Learning
Child led learning is possibly the number one reason people choose homeschooling over sending kids to school. Learning about stuff you actually want to learn about is a huge deal. It keeps your attention and you actually enjoy it. Science for younger kids is much easier to approach. Everyday materials can be used to teach science concepts. The great outdoors is a wonderful science teacher. Math, literature, reading are all easy to approach for the young student.
There are plenty of resources available for young students but also for the older student as well. If your child loves chemistry, physics or medicine, Mel Science subscription service provides everything you need kits to stimulate young minds. If you would like a structured, instructor based on-line learning experience for your child’s science education, try Juni Learning. They have a number of courses with 1:1 learning with a qualified instructor. Follow your child’s learning desires and move at your child’s pace.
Wondrium is a Netflix for the mind and has high school level on-line programs that would make a wonderful addition to a homeschool science program and covers other subjects like history as well.
Let your child take the lead in their own learning.
Image by Daniela Dimitrova from Pixabay
Flexibility
Next on our list of benefits of homeschooling is flexibility. There are no set hours of learning. If your child struggles in the morning, utilise the afternoons to learn. Visit a museum in the morning or go for a nature walk. Talk about the different plants and animals you see. Have the kids take pictures or draw what they see on their hike. Take soil samples to look at more closely at home. Bring a net to capture some insects like butterflies to carefully look at them more closely before you let them go. Some of the best education on offer in this world is the great outdoors. You can also go on holiday out of traditional school holiday times, meaning you’ll pay less for your travels. That also means that there is no dreaded countdown to the new school year.
On a sunny day, homeschool allows the flexibility to learn about nature.
Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay
No Fighting School Traffic
How many hours a week do you spend sitting in school traffic or standing in the playground waiting for the kids to come out. If it’s an hour a day, that’s five hours a week. That’s 20 hours a month! Imagine if you could use that time to do something else. Play chess with your kids to teach decision-making, strategy and patience. Go for a walk, write a story. Try an on-line home learning experience for science like Juni Learning. There is so much other stuff you can do with that time.
Homeschooling means not rushing to catch the bus.
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
Create Your Own Timetable
Whilst you will need to hit certain subjects and follow a curriculum if you are wanting to put your children in for exams like GCSEs, you can create your own timetable around the subjects. Flexibility in timetabling is much easier in the early years but there is room for it in higher grades as well. In science, certain skills and concepts must be learned if post secondary education is desired. However, the experiments and content can be tailored to the child’s particular interests. There is so much that our education system doesn’t teach that you might want to help your children learn. How to apply for a mortgage, how to swim, how to cook a proper meal can be included in a homeschool timetable. Creating your own timetable is one of the big benefits of homeschooling.
Create your own timetable when homeschooling.
Image by Darkmoon_Art from Pixabay
Fantastic Support
Some people, particularly grandparents with a traditional view of schooling, might use the ‘lonely’ card. They might suggest that kids who are home schooled never have any interaction with other children. There is so much support for homeschoolers. You can find online groups that share advice and offer support. There are even groups that meet regularly in different locations so friends can be made that way. If your child adores science, find a group of like-minded kids or start your own science support group. Of course, making friends isn’t just a school thing. Your kids can still attend Scouts or sports clubs in the evening.
Create a homeschool network to enrich your child’s experience.
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
Enjoy One-to-One Learning
How much personalised teaching are kids getting in a class of 35 or more pupils? When you get one-to-one teaching (or whatever ratio it is with the number of kids in your family), many homeschooling parents report that a full day of teaching can be done in a couple of hours. Remembering what they have learned and the amount of information they absorb improves so much when learning is individual or in very small groups.
One-to-one learning also frees up time for kids to be kids. As a kid, my passion was examining aquarium water under the microscope and drawing the huge number of tiny creatures I discovered. Other kids may prefer learning through play in the garden or even learning to code on their laptop. In any case, the free time available to homeschooled kids allows them to spend time on their passions.
Homeschooling allows time for kids to explore their passion.
Image by Architect and artist from Pixabay
Confidence Boosting
We all learn differently and have subjects that we struggle with. For many kids in regular school, science is a struggle and is often not a major focus of classroom curriculum in lower grades. Working alone with a caregiver or in small groups, boosts their confidence in asking questions when they don’t understand. When kids are able to be open and honest without the worry of peer pressure, they can boost confidence by asking for help. You can also structure the lessons so they are still learning the things they struggle with but are gaining confidence through excelling in other subjects.
It Doesn’t Have To Be Forever
There are many benefits of homeschooling but remember, it doesn’t have to be forever. Some parents believe that starting education early through homeschooling helps kids have more of a childhood. They might still opt to send them to a senior school or high school if their kids express interest. Homeschooling allows you to choose the education journey you want for your children.
There are many benefits of homeschooling your child even in a tougher subject areas like science. The early years are much easier for every subject. But even with a tougher subject like science, there are support groups and subscription services that make homeschooling possible right through the high school years. And keep in mind, homeschooling doesn’t need to be forever. If you find it is getting to difficult to cover necessary curriculum especially if your child desires a post secondary degree you can change your mind and enroll in mainstream education. Homeschooling provides so many benefits you might not have access to in a public school education but nothing has to be set in stone. Use your own child as your guide as to what they need to best prepare them for an independent life.
