Introduction
When it comes to homeschooling, it is a completely strange world for some people. Owing to the fact that they have been used to the corners of classrooms or lecture halls. Truth be told, homeschooling is another world in its entirety. If not properly, efficiently and effectively run, it might end up being futile. What does homeschooling entail and how do you get started as àn homeschoolers? Also, what does it cost to efficiently homeschool your children and what is the average success recorded compared to attending schools? These, and several other questions would be answered in this article.
Homeschooling; What is it?
For financial or personal reasons, some parents decide that their children shouldn't go to any school. This can take place from their early stage of life or at some point in time. That is, the child can start schooling from home and then resume school at a later age. Otherwise, the child attends a basic school and then ends up getting homeschooled. In most cases also, it can take place throughout the learning stage of such a child. This can result from financial inability of the parent. Whatever the case may be, homeschooling is simply the act of teaching children at home instead of sending them to school.
As simple as it looks, homeschooling goes beyond the short given definition. It spreads across the child/children being babysitted, trained, and imparted with the right knowledge following the exact curriculum used in school. Like every other thing, homeschooling comes with advantages as well as disadvantages. The benefits derivable from homeschooling your child include:
- Achievement of a more focused result due to flexibility in lecture schedules and curriculum;
- Quality learning process due to the fact that the parents teach exactly what the child is able to understand at each stage of his/her life;
- The relationship between the child and parents regain more strength than ever as they become closer;
- Individualized learning is observed, even if there are more than one child, it's a child at a time;
- Safe learning environment away from peer pressure, influences and abuse.
However, the demerits of homeschooling also include, but not limited to:
- Overwhelming pressure from the society on both parents and homeschooled children.;
- Lack of adequate learning aids, resources, and facilities. Take for instance, how do you explain the reaction between acid and base to a homeschooled child? No pipette, No burette;
- In most cases, homeschooled children find it hard to interact with others in the society;
- There are more than reasonable interactions between the parents and the child, which can bring about lack of focus;
- Special training needed for some complex subjects which might not be known by the parent, thus, unavailable to the child;
- Learning requires a professional; if the parents are not, then the homeschooling process potentially fell through.
It is noteworthy to mention that about 80% of individuals are of the opinion that homeschooling is a better option as far as public school is concerned. This is because of some reasons among which include flexibility of learning curriculum and schedule, lack of violence, effectiveness of learning, fun-aided education, and proper social development.
Furthermore, it should also be noted that homeschooling doesn't necessarily mean that all the training takes place at home with the parents. It can take place in some remote places like museums, beaches, and even a public library. It also can involve a tutor other than the child's parents. Most importantly, the key element of homeschooling is that; it doesn't have anything to do with school, be it private or public.
Cost of Running an Homeschool
More than anything else, financial incapacity is one of the major reasons why parent resort to homeschooling. Yet homeschooling comes with its own expenses. Starting from the simple writing materials down to the complex learning resources like typical specimens, homeschooling can also be expensive. However, most of these materials can be improvised or overlooked depending on the available money.
Conclusion
Homeschooling can be the best alternative if a serene, self-paced, and quality learning environment is all you want for your child. However, it comes with its own pros as well as cons. While the former include flexibility of schedule, quality learning and secure environment, among several others. The demerits of homeschooling include; requirements of advanced training, lack of adequate learning materials, excessive interactions, among others.
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