The Pros and Cons of Home Schooling
Home schooling certainly has both pros and cons. For those who are trying to decide, it helps to look at a list and some discussions of the various positive and negative aspects of home schooling. Here are some to consider.
Pros
* You make the decision about what your children learn. Some parents have reservations about what is being taught in public schools, and want to protect their children from certain information they deem inappropriate. They also may see a lack in what is being taught in public schools, and want to enrich their child’s learning experience.
* You make the decisions about how your children learn. There is no way a public school classroom can tailor its teaching style for each child. Yet each child differs. As a home schooling parent, you can teach your child in the style that best fits him or her, and you can tweak your teaching style as needed.
* You get to choose the curriculum. This ties in with the “what your children learn” note listed above. You can decide how many books, worksheets, crafts, and so forth that your student does. You can reject or accept aspects of various curricula and/or design your own.
* Your child gets one-on-one instruction. Time and again, studies have shown that children learn well with individual instruction.
Cons
* Home schooling takes time. Not only do you have to commit to the actual teaching time; depending on the curriculum, you may have to research and prepare lessons, copy or print out worksheets, maps, exercises, etc., and keep careful track of your child’s progress. This all means less time to run errands, clean the house, cook meals, work at a job, and so forth.
* Depending on the laws and regulations in your area, you will have to present a portfolio or submit your child to standardized testing. This means you have to keep careful records.
* Home schooling can cost money. It is not just the curriculum – while some curricula are very expensive (over $1000 a year just for the study materials), others are based on free resources like library books. So the expense is not necessarily the materials, although it can be. The expense also extends into loss of income – the parent who is teaching usually ends up spending less time at work.
* Criticism and even contempt from others unfortunately comes with the territory of home schooling. Those who tend to doubt themselves or who are overly concerned with what other people think may find this aspect of home schooling stressful.
As you can see, there are trade-offs to home schooling. There are pros and cons to sending your child to public or private school, too. So the key is to figure out what works for your family.
Check out the latest homeschooling titles in the Printables store to help you with your homeschooling efforts.
