Benefits of Homeschooling

In recent years, homeschooling has gained significant popularity as more parents seek alternatives to traditional education. This shift is driven by a desire for more personalized learning experiences and greater family flexibility. 

But what exactly is homeschooling, and why are so many families choosing this path? 

In this guide, I explore the definition of homeschooling, its benefits, and potential challenges to help you determine if this educational approach might be right for your family. 

What is homeschooling?

Homeschooling, just like it sounds, is an educational practice where children are educated at home by their parents or tutors rather than in a traditional public or private school setting. While very normal in the 18th and 19th centuries (and thousands of years prior), the advent of the Industrial Revolution led to the creation of what we now call “public school” and normalized sending kids away to learn in large groups. You know what it looks like… rows of desks, lots of kids, 1 teacher, grades, report cards… the whole bit. 

This approach to learning became so ubiquitous in the 20th century that doing anything else became almost anathema. Then there were some brave moms in their 80s who just did not care. Initially, homeschooling was illegal, then it was just socially stigmatizing, but nowadays, it’s downright trendy. 🙌

What are the benefits of homeschooling?

Homeschooling can be a truly amazing and transformational experience for children and parents. 

Let’s talk about the pros…

More Family Time

When you decide to homeschool, you can step away from the rat race a bit and get to live life on your own terms. So much of the park mom chatter I hear is about how busy life is and how they are constantly running kids around and barely have any time together. Sometimes I even hear parents say they could never homeschool because they can barely stand their kids.

This breaks my heart—but it is sadly predictable.

When you send your kids away all day and then put them in lots of extracurricular activities, and then make them do hours of homework, two things happen:

1. They are stressed and are not their best selves, so you are constantly getting them at their worst and 

2. You stop being their primary influence, so yes, they are going to pick up behaviors, ideas, and beliefs that you find annoying. 

When you slow life down a bit and prioritize relationships, you might find that your kids are actually wonderful humans who you love being around. 

Individualized Learning

So much of the stress around school comes from either trying to keep up when you aren’t quite getting it or dealing with the mind-numbing boredom of sitting still all day when you pretty much already know what’s being taught. Homeschooling enables every child to learn at a comfortable but challenging level and pace. It also allows kids to explore their interests and learn in more hands-on ways that are really hard to accomplish in a room of 30 9-year-olds (and no, I don’t mean 39-year-olds 😂). This all translates into academic learning that is WAY more efficient than an 8-hour school day. 

Real socialization

I know the main criticism of homeschooling is that it will make kids “weird” or “unsocialized.” You know what I say to that? Great. We need more weird kids who know who they are and aren’t afraid to be different. The culture of the youth population right now isn’t exactly stellar so you aren’t missing out here. Instead of learning how to sit still and listen, homeschooled kids learn to think for themselves and interact with adults and with their community. Win.

Flexibility 

When you homeschool, you aren’t tied to someone else’s schedule. You can wake up when you want, do school when you want, go to the library when you want, go play outside when you want. You can even travel and work some adventure into your learning. Caution! 

This all sounds great, I know, but homeschooling is not an aesthetic Instagram feed of bougie chicken coups and barefoot kids in overalls. 

Let’s talk about the cons… 

Lack of support and community

It’s easy to feel like you’re alone on a homeschool island sometimes. This doesn’t mean homeschooling is always lonely- it just means you don’t have an automatic built-in community that comes with going to the same school as other families. Creating a co-op, organizing field trips, or park days with other homeschoolers can help, but that all takes intention, patience, and effort on your part. It can also be difficult to know if your kids are learning “enough” or if they are “on track.” I’m using some quotes here since I tend to lean away from comparison-driven evaluations, but still, making sure your kids are becoming competent is a real concern when you are homeschooling. 

Expense

It is hard to compete with the price tag of public schools. When you homeschool, you’re taking on the expense of your child’s education. You should carefully consider this before you start to homeschool. There are tons of free and/or affordable curriculum options out there, and even some states that will fund your child’s homeschool experience either through your local district (if you’re ok with some of the public school requirements) or through a new funding mechanism called an “Empowerment Scholarship Account” or ESA. These programs allow you to access state funds for homeschooling without too many strings attached. All this being said, homeschooling is way cheaper the private school! 

Burn out 

Homeschooling is HARD. It’s easy to get burnt out. Once you’ve reached the point of overwhelm your ability to run a household, educate everyone, feed everyone, and still be nice can feel impossible. It’s important to realize when this is happening, make adjustments, and get help where and when you need it. There is no mom trophy for doing everything yourself. You have to prioritize taking care of yourself so you can have the bandwidth and energy to take care of others. 

Relationships

While homeschooling can be very healthy for parent-child relationships, sometimes teaching your own kids can cause a lot of tension. Children look to parents for unconditional acceptance and love, so when you’re the one saying that their math isn’t correct, it can feel very personal to them. Likewise, when you are responsible for the education of someone else, it’s easy to become stressed about their performance and work ethic, which can add additional tension to the relationship. Just something to watch out for. 😉

Are there other homeschool-adjacent options? 

If you want the benefits of homeschooling but can’t quite make the leap, think about finding a microschool.

What’s a microschool, you ask? 

A microschool is a tight-knit community of 7-10 kids meeting together in person for 20ish hours per week under the direction of a microschool “guide” who helps the kids find their personal purpose for learning, set personal goals, and stay on track. These groups are age-mixed, but the academics are personalized and mastery-based so everyone is getting what they need- kids are never bored, never lost. The kids get all the social benefits of learning with their peers, but without losing their individuality or falling through the cracks. Learning is interactive, hands-on, and social. 

If you are already homeschooling and you want a little more support and community without losing your autonomy or the time with your kids, think about becoming a Prenda guide. You don’t need to have an education background or credentials to run your own microschool with Prenda. We’ll train and support you throughout your journey. 

If you want more information about how to find a microschool or, better yet—how to start your own microschool, check out our Microschooling 101 video.