Thinking about homeschooling your child? Here are some Pros and Cons to help make the decision.
What are the good and bad aspects of choosing to Homeschool?
Pros
- For me, the best advantage to homeschooling is the customization it allows you to have over your child’s school experience. Is your child better able to pay attention at night? Do school in the evenings. Is your child behind in some subjects or ahead in others? Change the grade level of the curriculum for that subject. You are in control (to some extent) of your homeschool. You get to plan what you teach, when you teach it, and when and if you go on any field trips. Just make sure you check your state’s laws ahead of time.
- Instead of teaching material that a child finds boring, you can change it up and teach using their interests. Is your child interested in Minecraft? Create some STEM activities involved with building in Minecraft. Are they interested in baking? Bake together and use that time to teach fractions, reading, and even math in the grocery store shopping for ingredients. There is a type of homeschooling called Unschooling that focuses solely on teaching based on your child’s interests.
- Another pro is that you don’t need a 504 because you can make any accommodations that your child needs. Does your child need extra time to take tests? Do they need extra breaks or to use fidget toys to pay attention? You can do all that on your own. If your child needs services, like physical, occupational, or speech therapy, you will need an ISEP so the school district will provide them.
- You can teach subjects not normally taught in school, or teach children a subject earlier in their schooling than it is normally presented. A good example is languages. A lot of homeschoolers learn a language earlier than their peers, and they have a greater variety of languages to choose from. Our co-op teaches ASL starting in 3rd grade. You can also teach things like consumer math or astronomy. My daughter struggles with logical thought so we do a critical thinking activity each week.
- When my daughter was in school, she brought home every illness she came in contact with! If there was a stomach bug going around, she was bound to catch it. One thing I noticed when we started homeschooling, was she went from being sick at least once a month, to being sick maybe once a school year. It saved me money from not having to go to the doctor- if we got a stomach bug, doctors would end up hospitalizing us- and I was spending less on medicine to help her recover from being ill.
These are just a few of the pros of homeschooling, not only for neurotypical kids but for special needs and Autistic kids as well. There are some cons though.
Cons
- Homeschool can be expensive. There are free curricula that are very good and lots of people use them. We tried some and they weren’t a good fit for us. You can use just workbooks that you get off Amazon for $10 or so. Full curriculum, though, will cost you. We use Abeka for our history and science curriculum. History was about $300 combined and science was about $500. Prices will change depending on what curriculum you use. I recommend going to homeschool book sales to be able to look through the book to see if it will fit your school, and also they are usually cheaper. If you can’t get to a sale, ask some homeschooling friends if they have a curriculum that would work for you.
- Socialization– One question homeschooling parents are asked is What about socialization? There are many opportunities for children to socialize- siblings, play dates, co-ops, church, the park, etc. Just because you’re homeschooling, doesn’t mean there is no interaction with others. My daughter is an only child, so I am doing play dates and we joined a weekly co-op on Wednesdays.
- Be prepared if you decide to homeschool for everyone to have an opinion or judge your decision. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been in Walmart during normal school hours and someone asks if my daughter is sick from school. I explained that we homeschool, and the person usually quizzes my daughter to test whether she is learning properly or not. Be prepared for your family to question you as well, and to have opinions on what you teach and how you teach it.
- It may take time, and some trial and error, to figure out what works for your child. You might buy some curriculum, then realize after a few months your child hates it (been there). They might have different styles of learning- some kids are visual learners, some learn from doing hands-on activities, and some learn from traditional textbooks. It may take some time to learn what best suits your child, and if you’re experimenting with the curriculum, it could cost you some extra money if you decide to change it up. Don’t be afraid to try something new, if the old way just isn’t working anymore. In third grade, my daughter learned best from reading textbooks. Now in seventh grade, she hates textbooks and we are still trying to find a style that works well for her.
- This may be a pro for some, but once you start homeschooling, your kids are home with you all day. Some parents don’t mind the extra time spent with their children. I enjoy teaching my daughter because I love being able to witness when she gets excited when she finally understands a topic, or she does well on a test. You will have very little downtime, especially when they are younger and need more hands-on instruction. As they get older, they tend to get a little more independent, which frees you up to do whatever you need to do during the day.
Think about the pros and cons of homeschooling before you jump in. While it’s a good fit for some, it doesn’t work for everyone. Carefully consider your child’s needs before pulling them out.
