Homeschooling comes with extraordinary benefits for the whole family! I’d heard about some of the amazing homeschool perks before we started home educating, but after eight years schooling at home, now we’ve experienced them for ourselves and come to passionately embrace some of these benefits of homeschooling.
Make no doubt about it – there are always positives and negatives to any decision. Sometimes, the grass seems greener on the other side and the road looks easier, but there are always costs to consider. So, let’s dive in and look at some of the benefits of homeschooling. Next post, we’ll consider some of the drawbacks.
Jump to:
- The Gift of Time
- Flexible Priorities
- Flexible Academics
- Flexible Schedule
- Flexible Opportunities
- Social Emotional Needs: Faith & Family
- Flexible Subject Matter
- College Readiness & Life Success
8 Benefits of Homeschooling
Homeschool Benefits #1: The Gift of Time
Perhaps one of the greatest blessings of homeschooling is the gift of time. Tired of rushing? With homeschooling, you can live life at a slower, more leisurely pace. It is more than just an educational system, it is a lifestyle that prioritizes time to play, time to wonder, to create, and to imagine. It blesses the family with time to enjoy one another, lazy mornings to sleep in, and time to snuggle, wonder, and learn deeply together about God’s good creation. Or, if you like to wake up early and watch the sunrise, you can do that, too! The nature of homeschooling means you can minimize wasted academic time like waiting in line, waiting for the bus, class bathroom trips, and waiting on others to finish. Instead, you can re-imagine your time and use it in the most beneficial way.
Homeschool Benefits #2: Flexible Priorities
Homeschooling also provides the blessing of flexible priorities. Parents can consider the needs of the whole family and differentiate learning to meet the unique needs of each child whether academic, emotional, physical, or social. Not only does homeschooling provide 1-on-1 targeted support for students but allows parents to modify learning to best accommodate children where they are, whether the child is gifted and needs to be challenged, struggling to learn, or needs accommodations for ADHD, dyslexia, or other special needs. Homeschooling also allows parents to consider other fundamental needs such as incorporating rest, healthy eating, spiritual instruction, and physical movement into a child’s daily routine.
Homeschool Benefits #3: Flexible Academics
Another tremendous benefit of homeschooling is the academic flexibility it affords. When you strip away the rigid, prescribed school parameters, families can branch out from traditional academic pursuits to best meet the needs of their kids. Parents can choose to slow down instruction when a child is interested in a topic but also when the child is struggling or needs reteaching. Conversely, a learner can jump ahead and make quick academic progress when warranted. In homeschooling, there is less focus on grades or tests, and more on learning with the freedom to loop back as necessary to master the material.
Flexibility in academics also allows families to teach subjects in a different sequence than the public schools. For example, you can teach about sexual education on the parent’s terms when the child is ready instead of in 4th grade or whenever it is traditionally taught in your state. Also, you have the freedom to teach in many ways such as through hands-on learning, field trips, firsthand experiences, real life mentoring, exploration, or however your child learns best.
Academic flexibility also allows families to learn together across grade levels. It is common for siblings in elementary, for instance, to all study the same history or science, but complete assignments at their respective grade levels. When it comes to academic flexibility, the choices are all left up to you!
>>>READ: Where to Find Free Homeschool Curriculum Online
Homeschool Benefits #4: Flexible Schedule
A flexible schedule is another hallmark of homeschooling! Homeschooling allows such a huge variation of possible schedules, that you can easily mold it to become whatever you need it to be. A four-day school week instead of five? No problem. Wake up early or do school late in the afternoon or evening? You got it. One of our favorite perks is getting to take vacations in the off-season – it’s amazing! There’s nothing like walking around a theme park or popular tourist site and being practically the only ones there! Another benefit to homeschooling is knowing that the flexibility in the schedule means we don’t have to stress about looming tests, deadlines, or sick days. As mentioned in the previous section, that flexible schedule also provides the luxury of being able to slow down or speed up instruction to meet the needs of each child in a completely unique, tailored way.
Homeschool Benefits #5: Flexible Opportunities
There are many opportunities available to homeschooling families that simply cannot happen – or are much more difficult – when tied to the traditional school hours and calendar. For example:
- Traveling (vacations, living out of an RV, or special trips)
- Special athletics (gymnastics team, baseball)
- Pursue child careers like modeling/acting, etc.
- Working around an illness, medical care, or therapy
- High school students working during daytime school hours
- Entrepreneurial experience
- Daytime classes such as martial arts, theater, art, etc.
- Vocational training
- Helping others
- Community involvement
- Involvement with church
- Civic involvement
- Volunteering
- Service projects
- Work with elderly
Homeschool Benefits #6: Social Emotional Needs – Faith and Family
A strong family is the best training ground for balanced social emotional skills. The homeschool lifestyle offers abundant opportunity for parents to instill their core values, teach faith, and encourage love of family. There is ample time in the homeschool day to teach character and virtue education based on God’s morality and the Christian worldview. Homeschooled children often learn to care for younger siblings and have more time to spend on chores and other life skills such as cooking, cleaning, home maintenance, car maintenance, etc., making them an integral part of family life. Since staying home minimizes exposure to the worldliness of the current culture, kids pick up their values from their family, church, and healthy interaction with adults. Home is a low-stress, safe environment, free from bullying, drugs, school violence, and other negative social and cultural behaviors. Parents and homeschooled kids spend a lot of time together, so parents are present to assist children through adversity such as grief, recovery, adolescent issues, or whatever else your child is facing. The homeschool lifestyle naturally encourages strong family while also instilling a strong work ethic, autonomy, and independence.
>>> READ: 10 Sanity Saving Tips for Homeschooling with a Toddler
Homeschool Benefits #7: Flexible Subject Matter
Another of the benefits of homeschooling is that parents get to decide what subjects to teach! With this incredible perk, you frequently see homeschooled children pursue unusual subjects such as learning Latin in elementary school or taking a deep dive into topics that interest them. Is your child fascinated by Machu Picchu or dragon myths in ancient cultures? Take a few weeks and learn all about it! Besides covering the core academic subjects, the sky is the limit of what else you can learn! Some common topics homeschool families like to include are:
- Bible
- Multiple Languages
- Ancient History
- History of minorities or your particular cultural heritage
- Art
- Music
- Technology (coding, robotics, graphic design, photography)
- Classical studies (Latin, Greek, classics)
- Dance
- Physical education
- Nutrition
- STEM (a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)
- Vocational Courses
Homeschool Benefits #8: College Readiness & Life Success
Since parents and students get to craft a uniquely designed education for each child, many homeschooled students are more than adequately prepared for college. In fact, some homeschool learners participate in dual enrollment college courses as high schoolers and complete 15-60 hours of college credits before high school graduation. Universities today actively recruit homeschooled students. According to multiple studies, homeschool students:
- Generally have a higher GPA
- Score higher-than average test scores on college entrance exams such as the SAT, ACT
- Significantly outperform conventionally schooled children
- Have better parent-child relationships
- Have better friendships
- Maintain a better college GPA
- Demonstrate a strong work ethic
- Know how to study & work independently
What are the advantages to being homeschooled?
Many! For our family, the benefits of homeschooling have been tremendous!
Do you notice a theme here? Yes! In one word, flexibility is one of the hallmark benefits of homeschooling that just cannot be matched by any other educational option. I’m an unapologetic homeschool advocate because I have personally seen how the homeschool lifestyle changes families, but it may not be for you and your family. So, check back next week for an honest discussion of the drawbacks of homeschooling too see if the cost is worth the benefits of homeschooling!
- The Gift of Time
- Flexible Priorities
- Flexible Academics
- Flexible Schedule
- Flexible Opportunities
- Social Emotional Needs: Faith & Family
- Flexible Subject Matter
- College Readiness & Life Success
Do you want to learn more about homeschooling your kids?
If you’re ready to jump into homeschooling for the first time or just curious to learn more, snag a copy of this book. It will provide you with ALL THE KNOW-HOW YOU NEED to get started homeschooling confidently and stress-free. In fact, the content for this post is an excerpt from the book! This easy read will walk you step-by-step through your homeschool preparation. Get it today and get started!