Cons and Pros of Homeschooling

This is a very long blog, so we will jump right into it...

Cons of Homeschooling

Con #1

It can be taxing on your ‘me-time’ and spousal time.

Like most traditional school teachers, I’m pretty sure, home school teachers are both teaching daily and prepping at night to make sure the next day goes as planned. This time could take away from a possible, well-needed and deserved break from all that happened during the day.

You could become overwhelmed with both maintaining a home and a home based school. You may even have to put off plans to recalibrate or revamp ideas that didn’t work out so well during the day. Again, homeschooling takes a lot of your time and dedication to be sure your child’s education is top notch.

This next con is if you have more than one child with a big age gap.

Con #2

Younger siblings can be a distraction.

I have a 5th grader and a toddler in my home. She is very active and loud and gets into everything, and it only takes minutes for her to destroy an entire room. So homeschooling a child who may need your undivided attention and guidance while also parenting a toddler who needs even more of your attention may not be such a good idea.

But hey, some kids are incredibly independent and may not need but a little bit of instruction time per subject and then they can work alone. So it truly depends on your child.

Con #3

Possible sacrifice of a second or third form of income.

Let me tell you, when you home school, you have to be the ultimate facilitator. From buying books, science tools, sports equipment, field trips, all meals and snacks, and if you plan to use sites like Time4learning or Education.com, it can become a great financial burden on the breadwinner of the home.

So even if you start a side hustle, home schooling could take a big chunk out of your time and energy to fully commit to anything else.

Con #4

Fulfilling any special needs your child may have could become another financial burden.

Let’s say your child needs speech therapy. There are trained speech language pathologists available in public and private schools who understand how to create the right curriculum and have access to many tools to help your child succeed in communication and speech. Otherwise, this may become another homeschooling expense that can be avoided with a traditional school.

Con #5

Socializing and making lasting friendships may not be as easy with a child who is homeschooled.

In the state where we are located, the system in place, in my opinion, sends a clear message to homeschoolers that "You aren’t welcome." and "We want to control your child’s future." The Boys and Girls Club in our area (I’m not sure if this is the case everywhere.) and the YMCA do not accept children to register or join their program if they are not a part of the school district. It’s unfair and cruel, but it’s their rules. I will say this; do not call yourself a community organization if you do not accept ALL children from the community.

So, staying close to family and friends, heading to your local library to enroll your child in community events, a church or linking up with other homeschoolers may provide the peer-to-peer socialization every kid needs to grow and learn and have fun.

Phew!

Now! My favorite part: THE PROS!!!!

Pro#1

Customization and flexibility for you and the entire family. Oh yes.

If your child is interested in coding or making video games, there is more time to dedicate and nurture those interests during the day. ELA, Science, Math, History, Extracurricular courses and field trips can all be customized to focus on your child’s interests. Have a very hyper child? Want to focus on mindfulness? Kid’s yoga and meditation can be how you start your child’s day.

If there are mindfulness retreats, perhaps that would make an awesome field trip for your child and the entire family. If a family member has unfortunately passed, your child does not have to miss days out of school to travel to see them. Let’s say your child is too sick to work on assignments, you can make it up on a weekend or come in right where you left off, whereas in a traditional school or setting, in some cases, you child will not be given the time needed to catch up nor the one-on-one teaching they need to understand a new concept they may have missed. Customization, time and flexibility are important.

This next pro to me still piggy backs off of pro number one.

Pro #2

Students are able to move quickly through subjects already mastered and spend more time on subjects that need more attention.

There is no one size fits all when it comes to children and how they think and learn. In a traditional school, with classrooms that have 20+ students to one teacher, there is no way that every child’s learning style and needs are being catered to. This allows for some intelligent children to be deemed unintelligent, and they get left behind and fall through the cracks, as a result.

Pro #3

There are many opportunities for enrichment.

You can change the learning environment when needed. Maybe you want to home school at an aquarium while discussing marine biology. Or maybe you want to go teach a subject about money, branding and entrepreneurship at a restaurant. You could have your child write a report on everything they observed at a business and ways that they can improve… or maybe even do a compare and contrast assignment on a mom and pop shop versus a franchise. YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Changing the learning environment is a great tool for enrichment and for creating a lasting and fun experience that is cherished for a lifetime. For the past 2 years my son has attended traditional school, I am seeing less and less of field trips and enrichment programs.

Pro #4

More family and sibling bonding and deeper, more effective communication.

We are able to have more in depth discussions and talk and eat and spend a lot more time together honing the art and beauty and joy of communication. I recently discovered that the children in my area aren’t being allowed to talk during class, at lunch nor on the way home on the bus. That is no way to create bonds among children and get to know about people.

Conversations among children could even let them know if the person they are talking with is someone to befriend or watch your wallet or book bag around LOL!! My son didn’t let me know that was happening until the second semester of school. I wondered often why he was getting off the bus looking so tired, down and bored and why I would look up and the kids on the bus had the same look.

It was as if he was getting off of a prison bus. I just thought, “Hey, maybe they all had busy days at school.” But every day, though? Nope. They are not allowed to talk on the bus. When I once road a bus to school, this, more than any other time of the day, is where you discovered who to be around, what was the next big thing happening after school, where to meet up, the exchange of phone numbers, etc..

Someone might say, "Well, they can talk at recess." Well, most kids are focused on playing tag or swinging or chasing and just the general outdoor play. When I was growing up, the real connections were being made when there were opportunities that allowed you to communicate the most: lunch time, during idle time in class and dismissal. I was informed that those opportunities to talk were rare or completely not allowed.

How does that teach communication skills or socialization? Not sure if it’s the schools way of trying to cut down on bullying, but look at what you are creating: a generation of children who don’t know how to communicate effectively nor affectively.

Our son loves to talk about game ideas and coding, and we provide him with feedback on those ideas. He also reads books to his younger sibling. This provides the opportunity to be a leader and helper. Now I know that there are more cons than pros. But you have to decide which is worth its weight in gold.

Can you afford to make the sacrifice?

We sort of can’t, but after what we have learned about the school system here, we are certainly going to give it a try for the 2023-2024 school year. We saw a lot of success homeschooling our son for the 2020-2021 school year. He entered the 2021-2022 school year above level in ELA and Social Studies compared to other students.

So we will see how it goes this time.

I hope this list of cons and pros helped you in some way. Do what’s best for you and your family.

Great luck to all parents.

Kindest regards,

Penesha Joseph

Clay + Stone