The 5 Smartest Reasons for You to Choose Homeschooling

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Maybe you are casually searching or you are looking to begin your homeschool start-up for the first time. No matter where you are in your journey, I am so glad to meet you. This blog a close transcript of our new homeschool podcast In Due Season. It is full of resources for you and your family. I know you’ll find plenty to give you confidence in your ability to make the best choice for your family.

Is homeschooling for you? Maybe you are struggling with whether you can continue homeschooling. Can you create a plan for a better year of schooling at home? Yes, you can. I will help you find the resources, tools and clearly affirm your core reasons for homeschooling your child.

Parents of Struggling Students are Looking for More than Passing Grades

Right now, it is spring in Iowa, but maybe you are on the other side of the world and are looking at the beginning of a new school year. Two common things are happening in the lives of students and parents at this time of year that are causing you to search for homeschool help.

One, your struggling student is showing signs that they are not improving in this second half of the school year. Dread is beginning to set in. I know the thoughts. You might be asking, “Are we going to waste another school year.” The thought of losing another year including all the course work that is piling up is overwhelming.

The System isn’t a Fit for Every Child

There are great schools out there and teachers are not given enough credit for the work they are doing, but some kids don’t fit the system. The truth is that there are some systems that aren’t living up to their own standards too. Maybe your district is not making the cut for your child.

After you’ve jumped through all of the hoops, had all of the meetings your child is still failing. You know they are capable of learning more and even thriving in their school work. Homeschooling can look like a bright ray of hope or a life preserver you are hoping to reach in time.

Take heart dear parent, I was a “second-semester blues” student. I was removed from public school (involuntarily) in the middle of this same second-semester slump of my sophomore year. Be assure that, I understand firsthand, the struggle in the transition from public school to homeschooling for the parent and the student.

Did You Start Homeschool for an Urgent Need

The second reason for searching up “homeschool help” is due to burn-out. We all experience some form of it. Late winter, February in the US, is the peak season for parents to consider giving up on their homeschooling ideals. The struggle can feel overwhelming. As parents, we carry the weight of our children’s education personally and every set back can feel like a personal judgement on your abilities as a teacher and as a parent.

Many times parents have to skip planning and move right to homeschool start-up because of an external factor. If the necessity of the moment made planning impossible, you could find yourself struggling. Be encouraged; a few minor adjustments could have you back on the way to a great school year.

The problem could be a simple one, like choosing the wrong type of curriculum. It takes time to figure how you and your students learn best. Stepping back to reevaluate your progress is a great way to gain clarity and plan for a better outcome next semester.

Homeschooling Through Difficulty

Maybe you are experiencing major life changes. A move, financial upheaval, illness or a new baby can throw off the best of intentions for a productive school year. There are deeper reasons why school at home could not be working, suffering with postpartum depression, leaving an abusive relationship, navigating an unwanted divorce, trauma or the tragic loss of a family member can send your school year into a tailspin.

For some families, these are times to fall back on traditional schooling and rebuild as a family. Healthy relationships means raising children who know that our first priority is their health and well-being. This goes far in telling kids about their priority in our life.

I will never advocate for homeschooling at the cost of your relationship with your child or at the cost of your health.

That said there are times when choosing homeschooling has the greatest benefits for family growth. The individuality it offers gives opportunities for building resiliency and giving space for recovery in a loving and nurturing environment. Homeschooling allows a family to have a flexible schedule, to travel or maintain academics throughout travel, sickness or other disruptions.

Take School with You When Disaster Strikes

I was so thankful for the fact that we were homeschooling when we experienced a six month long displacement during a whole house renovation. In fact I wrote a longer blog post about what helped us homeschool while displaced to share families suffering from the recent major hurricanes. I’ll leave the link to it in the show notes for the companion podcast episode.

Focus on What Really Matters

Another point of pain I hear from parents is in the relationships with their children. Often when a parent brings a struggling student home for school, there is already frustration on both sides. You child might have a preconceived disposition toward “school.” This can create a struggle when parents give up paying jobs and personal goals to help their struggling student.

Gratitude is not often the common language of the teenager. Understanding that this is a difficult transition for your child is key to listening to their heart. This is a time when the full scale school model might need to move to light duty to give space to strengthen relationships, building trust, love and mutual respect.

Rebuild Parenting from the Foundation

If the early work or creating strong boundaries, schedules and clear expectations has not been done, by twelve, you are going to have a struggle. There is no way to fix this but by humbly acknowledging that there is going to be a rebuilding of your family as you know it. I highly recommend reading anything by Dr Henry Cloud and John Townsend; the authors of Boundaries and many other books, as well as Jim Fey from the Love and Logic institute; author of Parenting Teens with Love and Logic.

Whatever is causing the struggles in your homeschool, know that you are not alone.  You’re not the first homeschool parent to feel like they were failing their kid.  You have to remember your goals.  It will help you get back on track and remember the reasons you chose to homeschool. 

What Do Families Who Start Homeschool Look Like?

First of all, you may hear that not many people homeschool but it is a growing demographic.  You’re in good company.  Homeschooling growth is exploding.  There were are 2.3 million homeschooling children in 2016, with five year annual growth of 6%.  It is the fastest growing model of education right now.  So if you’re thinking of homeschooling you are not alone and NOT weird. 

So what does this growth mean to us as a homeschool community? 

Well, it means quite a few things.  One thing it means is more support for homeschool families like you and me.  Companies are creating tools that we can use.  Communities are growing, not just online but in the world around you.  Homeschool Co-ops, community groups and support is readily available in your own state and likely in a town near-by.

Five Reasons Homeschool is the Best Model of Education

I recently read an article by Business Insider.  It cited 5 reasons why homeschooling is the best model to educate your child.

1. Personalized learning is the best method to teach a student

What does that mean in real life?  It means that in our homeschool, we can direct our learning experience to make sure that it fits each individual student. This is something that a classroom can never offer. 

Not only do I homeschool but I homeschool ten children.  Now, my students are very different in not only in the way they learn but the way they communicate and the way that they’re like to express themselves in their education.  By homeschooling I have been able to use the same curriculum in dynamically different ways to meet each one of their educational needs without losing my mind. 

Now every time I tell people that I homeschool 10 kids they think I am highly organized or very structured.  I am not the most organized. I struggle with our ever changing structure. Still, I am glad to be able to homeschool because it meets my kid’s educational needs in the best way that I know how. 

In our homeschool we can give our kids the opportunity to study the things that they’re interested in which brings me to the number two reason that Business Insider said homeschooling is the best choice. 

2. Homeschooling lets your children go deeper in the subjects they care about

I have seen it in our own homeschool and I’m sure you can imagine what that would look like if you let your child’s interests become creditable.  What if they’re interested in coding, computer sciences, games technology.  Could you give school credit for your child learning how those things work? I have!

What if they could get credit for their interests? Are they interested in music, gardening, design or art?  If you’ve read Outliers; by Malcolm Gladwell you’ll be aware of how many leaders like Bill Gates who were able to help or have a large window of concentrated studies in their area of interest.

Our daughter is a writer.  We were able to explore online communities, and a Nanowrimo had all kinds of different ways to get her interested and engaged beyond writing reports.  When your students are learning about what they care about they’re willing to go further and dig deeper than they ever were before. 

3. Social Media gives kids a way to create and develop friendships. 

This is an area where I was hesitant to allow my children to explore.  I’m not saying that I would turn over a digital device and let your child talk to anybody online.  But, what I am saying, is that the online community world is growing and changing.  And it is a place where your kids can actually meet other homeschooler and teachers. A place to make tangible relationships and lifelong friends. 

• Be sure to subscribe to the email list because I am creating a blog post about the kinds of online tools we use in our homeschool life, and I will go deeper on this subject there •

Now, it’s an area where I went hand in hand with my students.  We have lots of instruction and ground rules, but online friends and communities were a part of the experience.

4. Students don’t have to deal with cliques and bullying

I understood having sensitive students and how difficult it is to have them form relationships and thrive in the public school setting.  There are times that leaving public school all together is the only option.  Homeschooling has been a great way to help those students create vibrant and healthy relationships with people who are their peers in a way that the public schooling pace does not allow. 

Are we shunning friendships? Isolating our children? In our home we are making room for real relationships. I would like to help dispel the socialization myth.  As adults when is the last time that you sat in a room with 30 other 42 year old’s and were forced to become best friends? 

From the Huffpost and more studies I’ve read doing research online, I’ve discovered that homeschoolers are better adjusted socially than their peers on entering college. This is greatly due to larger amounts of time spent with adults doing research and connecting with others in their communities.  They’re actually more adept at talking with their professors…better at communicating and better prepared for their coursework.  In fact, even in national surveys, homeschool students do better than their public school peers in college retention rates (even outranking parochial/private schools.)

I can definitely advocate for the 5^th reason that homeschooling is the best way to lean… 

5. Schooling is not set apart from the real world

Unlike public schooling where you’re children are in a building from 8am-3pm everyday homeschooling can be done in a multitude of ways, locations and experiences.  You’re not stuck in the middle of four walls. 

What has homeschooling allowed us to do? 

So many opportunities happen between the hours of 8am-4pm.  The advantage for us is that we can take those field trips when the crowds are away, museum visits where adults have time to talk with our kids about the exhibits, classes, extended lessons and opportunities that we can fit in because we’re not cramming everything into one day or visit. 

What are other reasons families choose to homeschool?

Relationship building is the FOUNDATION of our choice to homeschool.  Honestly, education comes second to building a relationship with your child(ren).  If this is an area of struggle for you I constantly give the advice to parents bringing their kids home from public education to spend the majority of their time on rebuilding their relationship with their child.  If you spend the time and do the work to lay this foundation and recover the relationship to build, love and respect between one another and good communication that will go far in your homeschooling experience. 

Advice for New Homeschoolers?

Many times I read questions from parents who are having trouble with their 12-15 year old who won’t listen, won’t respect or do the work that their parent is requesting of them.  And often I wonder if they invested the time to develop the foundation within their relationship that is necessary.  If I could go back in time I would tell those parents to spend the early years building mutual respect and love with their child.  Practicing discipline in a way that creates trust develops better relationships.  This is the greatest thing about homeschooling is that you can build a relationship with your child that will last FOREVER. 

When I homeschool I like to remind myself I am raising my peers. 

From raising the people that I will work with someday I am raising the people who will be around me.  These people will relay the news, share their insights, who are going to develop my future.  These are the kinds of people whom I want to be around.  When I deal with my small children I want to remember I am raising my peers.  How do I want them to treat me when we’re side by side?  I understand that I’m a parent and that discipline within that relationship is important.  But if we can cultivate loving respect between one another it will go far in your homeschooling future. 

Honestly, I believe relationship building is the greatest opportunity availing homeschool parents today. 

– Amber Smith, 200fingersandtoes.com

Homeschooling Lets You Build Your Life

Another important aspect of desiring to homeschool is that it can fit your lifestyle.  We have been in the restaurant business for 25 years.  If you’ve worked within that field you understand that the hours can be borderline ridiculous.  My husband was a busy Chef.  Many of the early years of having children he would be gone from 6am-midnight.  It wasn’t uncommon for me to load up 5 kids and go sit at the tables at the restaurant at 9:30pm and hang out with dad while he closed down. 

The beauty of homeschooling was not having to have everyone ready for the bus at 6:30 the next morning.  We had the flexibility to live life on our own terms.  Hours in the day were whatever we needed them to be. 

In fact, isn’t that exactly what entrepreneurial families are trying to accomplish? 

To break out of the 9-5 narrative and live life on their own terms.  It makes sense that homeschooling is an extension of that very mindset.  It flexes according to your needs.  We are developing within our children to think outside of the box and find creative ways to problem solve. 

Another reason to choose to homeschool is the educational outcomes.  

Even though I  am an ardent Christian/blogger that is not my reason for choosing to homeschool.  My core reason for choosing to homeschool is based on my educational experience. I do want my children to inherit my beliefs and I don’t believe the public system is the best place to instill the heart that I desire for my children, but I chose homeschooling because the public system did not work for me.

Even though I was a smart kid I failed out of high school.  I did not succeed within the public system.  When my kids were old enough to enter the educational system themselves I knew I would most likely have some who learned like I did.  I did not want to see the same failures handed down to them. 

Yes, I could be involved and yes, I could guide their education.  But I knew by homeschooling that I could create an environment that would give them the best opportunities to succeed and excel. 

With ten students I have run the entire education gambit.  I had children who learned to read as early as three and as late as nine.  There is no standard for learning.  There are goals and outcomes that we hope for.  But to determine that a child must learn a certain skill set to exit a grade level or time frame is not always conducive to their education. 

Do you want to learn more about who is choosing homeschool?

Homeschool families are…

• A broadly growing demographic of caring parents
• Concerned about the development of their kids, top being peer influence and academic success
• As diverse as their kids
• Excited about educational choice and the opportunity to study subjects that are of interest
• Ready to escape an environment of clichés and bullying
• Want to go deeper within educational models
• Desire to create deep and lasting relationships with their children, friends and family

All of these are common ties among homeschoolers.

Your relationship with your child is your number one priority.  Homeschooling provides an excellent environment to repair/develop your relationship with your child. 

Maybe fitting your lifestyle is necessary and homeschooling provides a place for that. 

Perhaps you are hoping to achieve educational outcomes that are different from your personal experience.

Follow to the In Due Season Homeschool Podcast for More to Come…

I created a mini-capsule series on the new homeschool podcast, In Due Season just for you. We are going to explore the fast track to homeschooling setup and re-start. 

In this first episode we talked about the reasons a parent would choose to homeschool.  Episode two will talk about what to do before choosing a curriculum.  The kinds of things that you need to know before you start and what you can wade through and discover. 

In episode three we will talk about what you physically need in order to homeschool. Pencil and a notebook, check. We will share our favorite resources and tools.

Are you overwhelmed with the decisions that you are trying to make? 

Do you think that it will be too expensive or detailed?  You can do this. I will encourage you along the way.  Any family living on any income can choose to homeschool affordably.  I will show you how we have done it and other tools/opportunities as well. 

In the fourth episode of our homeschool podcast, I will share how high school is nothing to fear.  One of the biggest reasons that causes many parents reject the idea of homeschooling is teaching high school. They are afraid they will get through elementary ok, but hit high school and not know what to do. 

Listen, I am a high school dropout.  I made it halfway through my Sophomore year, yet I successfully completed my college degree. You won’t have to teach rocket science. High School teaching is not an insurmountable obstacle. There are curriculum out there that will make giving your child the education that your child deserves and you want to provide easier and obtainable. 

Episode four will provide the tools and encouragement that will let you know beyond a doubt that you can succeed in teaching high school without fear. 

Could you identify with one of these reasons. Did this podcast stir up that desire to explore homeschooling deeper or encourage you to dig deeper and reset your school year. I hope so.

Stay tuned for the next three episodes of our fast track startup and we will get you started. I hope you are encouraged. Feel free to ask me your questions, maybe I’ll create an episode just for you.

– Amber Smith