Seymour has a great school system, but not every child or family fits into the same mold. Homeschooling is a choice that many families make across the country. This post is designed to allow you and others to discuss how you work family and homeschooling into your lives.
Pros of Homeschooling
1. Easier to teach and easier to learn
Teaching one-on-one means that you can adapt your teaching method to the child’s individual learning style. This makes for more effective learning. If the child is visual, you can include photographs, graphs, and charts in your teaching in order to help them absorb the material more easily. If the child is easily bored, you can include more activity, movement, and interactivity and take more breaks.
2. Discipline issues in the classroom are avoided
As your child isn’t sharing a classroom with 20 to 30 other children, the educational material can be studied more rapidly, as behavior and discipline issues in the classroom do not waste a significant percentage of the learning hours. This means that there is more free time, more time for extracurricular activities and socializing, and more rest/sleep time, which aids in concentration.
3. Adaptation to special considerations
If your child has a special consideration, perhaps a learning disability, physical disability or has ADHD, for instance, then you will have the complete flexibility to adapt the learning to the child’s specific needs.
4. Makes good use of time
By teaching a child at home, you can move along faster on subjects that are easier, without having to wait for other children to catch up. You can also spend more time teaching difficult concepts in order to ensure that your child understands fully, without holding up other children.
Cons of Homeschooling
1. Cost
There are plenty of free resources available as well as paid ones. However, when asking yourself the question “should I homeschool my child?” you need to take into account the cost of the homeschool educator not working outside of the home. This would mean that the family would need to live on one income, which may not be possible for every household.
2. Adapting your child to a new reality
When your child is transferring to homeschooling from a school environment, there will be a period of adaptation. They would need to adjust to the flexibility, to being with a parent all day long, to the lack of extra-curricular school activities like competitive sports, school assemblies, social activities in the playground, etc.
It will be necessary for the parent to ensure that the child has social time outside of learning hours in order to ensure that they have friends and that they develop social, intercultural, and interpersonal skills.
3. No social interaction during study time
Homeschooling means that the child is not socializing with children all day long as in the school system. They will therefore need additional activities outside of learning time in order to be with other children. Perhaps a gym class, basketball, soccer, art, music or swimming. You will therefore need to invest time making contact with other children in the neighborhood and being proactive to encourage them to socialize.