Homeschooling: Pros and Cons

As many know, all of our kids are home schooled. They will usually say that they love it. They don't have to wake up early in the morning, and they don't have to do school all day long simply because let's face it, it doesn't take all day to learn when you don't have an entire class of distractions.

There are some cons to homeschooling. One of those is the time that it requires. I can't work on laundry, or clean house, or get other chores done very easily when homeschooling because I have four kids on four different grade levels, and they have a tendency to get off task if left unattended. Then you of course have the issue of the younger kids wanting your attention and time as well. We usually try to let the younger kids sit and color and work on workbooks, crafts, and things like that. Another con to homeschooling is that it is very easy to clash with your child. Depending on how you are homeschooling, if you are doing a lot of the teaching (which we are since I am more than capable of being able to teach elementary age curriculum -- use Abeka and some other curriculum), you can have issues where your child will get an attitude. This is something that may not happen as often if they were at regular school. We usually are able to work through those issues though. Most of the cons to homeschooling can be worked through, making homeschooling a very wonderful experience.

There are so many pros to homeschooling. One that I really love is that my kids are never sick. They don't have to go around kids who go to school on a regular basis with colds and other contagious infections. It is very, very nice. Also, with homeschooling, you can work at your own pace. Yes, your child is in a grade and yes you want them to be equal if not ahead of their peers, but it isn't the end of the world if you get behind. You can very easily catch up. My younger kids also have a habit of learning more advanced concepts early because they are there when their older siblings are learning them as well. Lilly and Jonathan both do BJ's third grade social studies and science if the assignment is doable. Lilly may require some additional assistance, but she picks up on the ideas and concepts very quickly. Another thing I like about homeschooling is that as a parent, I can control what my children are learning. I don't have to worry about them being exposed to values, principles, and lifestyles that are against God's Word. Do we talk about abortion, homosexuality, and other sins? Yes, in age appropriate discussions at appropriate times. We don't shelter our kids just because they are home schooled, but we also don't expose them to things that would have a negative impact on them.

Why did we choose to home school? Well, actually we were forced to do it. We couldn't get the kids in the school that we wanted them to go to, and we could not afford to send them to private Christian school. It is working out great though. Brian grew up in public school, and I grew up in a private Christian school until high school, so after discussing it, we had always said that our kids would either be home schooled or attend a private Christian school. Will they later move to a private Christian school from the home school environment? We would like them to maybe around late elementary or middle school if they want to and if we have the finances and find a school that we would like to send them to. Also, we will let our children go to a public high school if that school has classes and other courses that they could not get by being home schooled or in a private school and those were classes and activities that they would really want to be able to participate in. Who knows, maybe we will like homeschooling so much that they will just stay home schooled and be able to take college courses in high school. We are just taking each year at a time and going as God leads us.