Homeschooling: Weighing the Benefits and Challenges

Deciding on how to educate your children may be one of the most important choices you make as a parent. Their social, emotional, and physical well-being need to be taken into account, as does the quality of their education, and their unique learning style. While some parents seem to have known the answer to this question from day one, others are struggling with what to do as their children inch closer to school age. Homeschooling, the practice of educating children at home rather than sending them to a traditional public or private school, has grown significantly in popularity in recent decades. This rise in homeschooling has sparked debate about its merits compared to conventional schooling. As a parent considering homeschooling, you want what's best for your child. However, the decision to homeschool is not one to be taken lightly.

The Rise of Homeschooling

Homeschooling has become increasingly popular in recent years, with about 3.1 million students being homeschooled in the United States during the 2021-2022 school year. This represents roughly 6% of school-age children, a significant increase from 2.5 million in 2019. The trend shows that homeschooling is growing rapidly and is now considered a mainstream educational option.

Academic Benefits

One of the most frequently cited benefits of homeschooling is the ability to tailor the educational experience to each individual child. Because of the nature of homeschooling, you can tailor your studies, your schedule, and your teaching style to fit your student’s needs! Your child is the focus of the homeschool process, and the benefits are limitless! In addition, there are so many options with homeschooling. From co-ops to help with difficult subjects to internships that prepare your high schooler for their future - it’s the perfect way to put success in the hands of your kids! For advanced learners, homeschooling provides the opportunity to accelerate their studies and dive deeper into subjects that fascinate them. I can meet my children where they are, and work with them to progress at their pace, instead of an arbitrary timeline. I have sons with learning issues (dyslexia, dysgraphia and auditory processing disorder), and having them at home with me has allowed them to soar.

Multiple studies have found that homeschooled students, on average, outperform their traditionally schooled peers academically. For example, Martin-Chang et al. (2011) found that homeschooled students scored higher than public school students on standardized tests even after accounting for maternal education and family income. Parents can individualize instruction to the child’s needs, and also have the flexibility to make up their own schedules and vacation at off times of the year. Teaching one-on-one means adapting your teaching method to the child’s individual learning style, which makes for more effective learning. If the child is visual, you can include photographs, graphs, and charts in your teaching to help them absorb the material more easily. 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. 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.

Instilling Values and Character Development

For many families, a key reason for choosing to homeschool is the desire to instill their own values, beliefs, and worldview in their children’s education. I chose to homeschool for the purpose of having more quality time with my children and making sure that they were learning to live by our values. That is a huge benefit in my opinion of being not only a guide to your children as a parent, but an instructor as they are working on their academics. In contrast to public schools, which must maintain religious neutrality, homeschooling allows parents to freely incorporate their faith and moral principles into the curriculum and learning environment. After 10 years of homeschooling, I think my husband and I would agree that homeschooling is one of the best decisions we have made. The biggest Pro for me is that I have been able to spend all this time with my kids. I’ve had the privilege to build a closer relationship with them because of the time homeschooling has afforded me. I’ve been able to instill our beliefs and values into them, instead of someone else.

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Homeschooling can foster strong character development and work ethic, as students learn to be self-directed and take ownership of their education. The tutorial-style instruction enables parents to provide immediate feedback and guidance to shape positive behaviors and habits. Daily interaction with parents and siblings also strengthens family bonds.

Socialization and Community Engagement

The impact of homeschooling on children’s social development is probably the most common and long-standing concern about the practice. However, research has not substantiated these fears. Multiple studies have found that homeschoolers score as well as or better than conventionally schooled students on measures of social and emotional development. Your children are not confined to the four walls of a building, but are out and about, interacting with children their own age, adults, and older people, gaining insight and experience in the real world into which they will enter as well-rounded adults. Homeschool children tend to participate in many activities outside the home, such as field trips, scouting, church groups, sports teams, and community service, providing ample opportunities for social interaction.

Some argue that homeschooling actually provides superior socialization by fostering interaction with a wider variety of people, not just same-age peers as in a typical school. Homeschoolers “tend to be more socially engaged, active in their communities, and less peer-dependent” than other students, according to Brian Ray, a homeschooling researcher. The world is your schoolhouse. One pro about homeschooling is that it is totally flexible and exactly what we want to make it. We get to adapt everything we do to our schedule, our abilities, our interests, and our passions. We study maps and globes, but we also visit museums, national parks, landmarks, and even other countries and continents. Sure, we get our math assignment done and learn to spell words, but we also get to go talk with engineers who are using the math and write to real authors who splash those words across their pages. We read about science and health, but we also 3-D print, pretend play on kids teepees and build drones, volunteer at zoos, and shadow real dentists. The world is our classroom and our lessons are unforgettable.

Flexibility and Freedom

Homeschooling is flexible! You get to choose the schedule and style that is best for you, your child, and your family. If you are a stay at home mom homeschooler, working homeschooler, working at home homeschooler, traveling homeschooler etc. you can find and design a schedule that works for you! Perhaps the biggest advantage to homeschooling is FREEDOM. We are free to homeschool in the style or method that works for our family. Most importantly, I can adapt what we’re doing to my children’s individual special needs.

The Investment of Time and Energy

Homeschooling requires a big investment and it’s not money! As with anything that is worth doing, homeschooling requires an investment from the parents. The responsibility of education rests on the parent, however, today there are many resources that help to lighten that load. It takes a lot of heart to work with your children every day, and it’s important to take steps to ensure that you don’t get burned out!! The biggest con to homeschooling is that nearly all of your non-homeschooling friends, family members and neighbors think you have all this free time all day and have nothing to do, so they frequently ask for your help with their errands and projects. And generally, you help them because you’re demonstrating a servant’s heart to your children. So it’s a win-win. One con about homeschooling is that it fills our lives in big and sometimes exhausting ways. It’s all the joys and hardships of parenting doubled up. It takes real patience and more heart than you can imagine, You need a team of people who are cheering you on.

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Potential for Isolation and Burnout

One of the cons is that it can be hard for homeschooling parents to spend so much time with their children without the benefit of adult interaction. It is so important to have a network of other homeschoolers so that you can have friends to talk with who understand your lifestyle. My con would also be time spent with my kids! when you homeschool, you spend all of your time with your kids and this can become exhausting when a tired mom doesn’t get a break. A con that is a byproduct of homeschool is I do not get much time to myself.

Homeschooling can be demanding on parents, leading to burnout and stress, especially if they are balancing other responsibilities or lack support. It’s difficult for me to think of a con when there are so many pros! If I had to give a con, it would be that it can be hard on a mom depending on her circumstances, the pressure and expectations she is burdened by, and even her own personality. The homeschool moms who really thrive are the ones who learn to not look around them at what others are doing, and just stay steady at their own pace in their own unique style.

The Importance of Structure and Accountability

In homeschooling, the level of structure depends on what the parent puts in place. Some homeschools are very organized and rigorous, while others are more relaxed and open-ended. You need to stick to this schedule that you just planned! Making sure it is if flexible enough for any emergencies that may spring up, and for when “life” gets in the way. There is a risk that without the external accountability of a school, homeschooled children could have gaps in their learning or fall behind academically.

Resource Limitations

Homeschools typically cannot match the resources and facilities of a well-funded public or private school, which could limit educational opportunities in some areas. Homeschoolers may not have access to expensive equipment for science labs, computer and technology classes, art and music studios, and sports facilities. However, many homeschoolers take advantage of community resources, like libraries, museums, colleges, parks, and community centers to enhance their children’s education.

Addressing Concerns about Socialization

Even if homeschoolers participate in many outside activities and have regular social interaction, they may still have fewer close peer relationships compared to children who spend 6+ hours a day together in a school classroom. As a mom of an only child I get questioned quite a bit about whether homeschooling is the right choice for a single child. For my family homeschooling is absolutely the right choice for our only child. The biggest con, however, of homeschooling an only child is that mom becomes his partner in all areas of learning where a child needs to work with someone else. Therefore, I become his lab partner, his exercise partner, and have to try to converse with him for his foreign language study. Therefore, there is often a huge time constraint and learning curve to act as an educational partner for my only child. Homeschooling has allowed me to develop close relationships with both of my daughters. I don’t feel like I am behind when new experiences happen in their lives because we spend quite a bit of time together.

Ideological Concerns and Criticisms

Some critics object to homeschooling not because of its educational or developmental impacts but because of ideological concerns. These critics fear that conservative Christian homeschoolers want to withdraw from mainstream society and indoctrinate their children with narrow religious views. However, critics should be cautious about making sweeping judgments.

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