The Pros of Home Schooling

Schools anymore are becoming very, very strict about the behaviors and maturity levels of children. Case example: At the local school which I went to, they now expect at 5 years of age a child to be a young adult and leave behind the world of fantasy and creativity. Atop that, they now have a morning program that's mandatory where they promise to get along and treat each other equally. It eerily resembles a brainwashing session, if you think about it long enough. However, it also seems that more parents are doing the homeschooling option. Below are some of the pros that can come with homeschooling your children.

Time is on your side

Homeschooling means that you can pace yourself a little more in teaching your child, especially since you can determine how long each day, how many days a week and how many weeks a 'school year' you wish to teach your child. Most, as I have observed, opt to go year round and the children honestly don't seem to mind. This is definitely a good thing when a child can sometimes need longer periods of time to grasp onto certain subjects. They don't end up pressured to fake their way through a chapter or lesson schedule in order to meet up to state standards. This also means that they may get higher grades overall in each of their subjects. Being able to pace a child on an individual level is generally something only done in homeschools or special education classrooms.

Field Trips

Remember when you were in school and you had to have your parents sign a permission slip to go to on a field trip? You looked forward to the one or two scheduled trips a year where you packed your lunch, rode a bus with somebody's parents who volunteered as chaperones and wandered around a zoo, planetarium or museum for a few hours. But sometimes, the parents just refused outright to sign the papers and you were stuck in school in a study hall, basically. This is one of the BEST things about homeschooling. Every day if you want can be a field trip. You can make them weekly, especially if you go year round. You can make it a point to go to a museum one week, the zoo the next and even in another week go observe fall foliage and turn the day into a chemistry lesson. Even better yet, there's never a parent slip for your child to sign because you are in charge. You drive them to and from the trip and even determine if it's going to be a few hours or all day. This can give time to even learn a bit about whatever your subject for a trip is about.

Lunches

You never know if your child eats their lunch in public school. Kids trade things, throw away parts of their lunch that they don't want to eat and even more nowadays, schools are offering pizza daily, especially to older students. This can be any parents nightmare. Your child not eating healthy at school and then the school blaming you for your child putting on weight. With home schooling you are in charge of all of their meals. This means you can guarantee they eat all their lunch and definitely work your lunch menu weekly around what you know your child will and won't eat. This makes it easier to make sure they're getting what they need and not hoping they do in school. Who doesn't like being certain to get a menu item each day that they like? Even better - no overly mean or cranky lunch lady that takes offense to everything you say or do. Plus, you can make sure your child is fed when they are hungry instead of when a school deems they should be.

Snow Days and recess

Snow days don't exist to the home schooled. However, most parents can understand the lust to go play in the snow and allow them to play. Besides, with homeschooling you can have recess whenever you want and for as long as you desire, too. This can give the child ample time to run about and exercise, just like a gym class. One above this, you can incorporate yourself into the childs freetime and spend quality time with your child while exercising for yourself.

Gym classes can be rather unfair and in larger schools, quite ineffective. At least with at home you and your children can go for a walk during the day or spend part of the day in a national park learning and running.

There are many other reason why homeschooling is a good idea to some parents. While it may not seem perfect for all, some just don't see the positive side to being homeschooled. But whatever your reasons are to decide between homeschool and public/private school, it's yours and yours alone to decide what you feel is best for your family and their learning.