The Faces of Homeschooling: Pros and Cons.

In today’s totally commercialized professional world, where money speaks over humanity, people have started homeschooling their kids. Distrust on educational institutions is not the sheer reason of their going in for this method of schooling, but factors like religious checks, physical abnormalities, etc are various reasons that lead to this decision by parents.

What is homeschooling? Home education or home schooling, as the term states, is the education of a child at home by parents or guardians instead of in formal public schools. It was the prevalent method of educating one’s children a few decades ago.

Are you one of those people out there with a child, totally confused about what you should go in for…homeschooling or regular schooling? Then I’m sure this article will be helpful to you…

Stating the various pros and cons of homeschooling, I’ll advise you to give undiminished attention to this factor because the future and the life of your young one lies in your hand!

Home based learning is not a new concept; rather it is the gift of our ancestors. During the pre-industrialized era, children had no means of mind development but their homes. Even today, till the age of three – four years, all the learning a child does is in his own abode. Today, homeschooling is resurfacing at a rapid tempo. Let’s note the reason.

Pros of Homeschooling

Family Familiarity!

Homeschooling means spending time with your family. You get educated at your house and that means expenditure of extra six hours with your family as compared to other children. It results in the development of closer relations with the members. A deep understanding of family norms and principles develop in the child.

Bad Manners, Go, Go, Go Away!

Since for the larger part of the day, the child is with his/her family, he/she is exposed less towards unhealthy habits that may corrupt the child’s brain. Things like gambling, drugs, violence, are distant things for the child. This upholds the purity of the child.
The child is even saved from mental harassment like bullying, mocking, eve teasing, etc. and encounters less crime. Homeschooling provides for a safe environment to dwell in.

Mold them as you want!

Home based education helps the parents to mould the child just the way they want. Parents can teach them what they want and can emit the things they don’t want the child to learn. This way, if the parents want the child to focus more on certain subjects, follow certain pattern, think in a particular way concerning religions, develop philosophies typical to them, etc, they can do it without any binding.

Take you own Sweet time, Sweetie!

There’ll be no time bounds and the children can take as much time as they want to learn the topics they have a problem with. Yes, parents do control the timing of study hours, but the timing can be set according to the parents’ schedule, the ideal time of the day for studying for that particular child, etc. And another added plus point is that the class can be held practically anywhere or at any time! The family can even plan outings without having to worry about shortage of attendance or missing of school courses.

One and Only One!

The child receives individual attention. This is a big advantage as the parents can alter the lessons according to their child’s mental status and needs. The lack of distracting company allows the child to be all ears for the materials to be taught. This leads to quick learning of matter.

The above mentioned points sure make this style of education preferable but, like every other factor, it has its own disadvantages. There was a reason why homeschooling had cleared out making way for the usual public schooled education recently.

Cons of Homeschooling

Too much of You!

Though all the time spent together forms a stronger bonding, it also leads to the limitation of time you spend alone with yourself. This, as usual, leads to conflicts that may result in serious fractures in the relationship. It does lead the parent and the child to think, “Too much of you!”

Expensive? Yes it is!

It requires a lot of funding. Parents need to organize field trips and have to buy educational material that may lead to the expenditure more than their affordability. The child needs to be provided with proper curriculums and activities. Lack of money at a critical stage can lead to a serious hindrance in the child’s future. To avoid that, parents should always check up their finances well in advance.

What’s world?

The child remains unaware of the real competition out there in the world. He is also unaccustomed to the foul ways and means as he’s bred in a proper, favorable environment since childhood. This leads to the child getting left behind when he ventures out on his own. This could prove fatal for the child’s career.
Even socially, the child lacks smartness. Unacquainted with people on regular basis, he may develop into a timid personality later on. This is an essential factor in the child’s brain development. The interaction with kids of one’s own age available in a regular school is deficient, no matter what the parents try.

Parental Procedures…are they right?

In the end of the day, parents are parents. It sometimes becomes impossible for them to provide the rigidness of a regular teacher. This weakens the child’s discipline. The fact that he/she is at home makes her accustomed to a lifestyle right for him/her. This leads to problems adjusting later on in life.

Content Correction! Are you Professional enough?

The parents need to do quite a lot of research and they need to invest quite a lot of time in order to make lesson plans that are adequate for the child. Sometimes, the lack of proper knowledge may be disadvantageous for the child’s education. So it is not always possible for the parents to educate the child the way professionals over the years do, especially if the parents are not trained in the field of education.

Like many other things, societal acceptance of homeschooling is another aspect. Not everybody will accept is as easily as you do. It is hard for most of the people out there to believe that homeschooling is as efficient as regular schooling. This could be a problem for you and your child because criticism is not the best medicine for a child’s mind development during his early years.

Like everything, homeschooling has its pros and cons. Ponder over them and remember that the future of your loved one lies in your hand! Take the right decision. Contemplate your situation. While at some instances homeschooling is the best, at other’s it is not so effective. And in the end, as John Halton says, “Think of yourselves not as teachers but gardeners. A gardener does not ‘grow’ flowers; he tries to give them what he thinks they need and they grow by themselves.”

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