10/29/2007

HomeSchooling Advantages And Disadvantages

People new to the idea and concept of homeschooling often have thousands of questions to ask. Here is some helpful information to guide you in weighing

The Pros and Cons:

Some homeschooling advantages are:

- Allows for quality time, providing individualized attention and instruction to your child. Homeschooling parents can better understand their children; observe how kids progress, what areas they find difficult and help them out.

- Children learn at their own pace. Homeschooled children can progress when they are ready, not when everybody is ready. He/she can remain focused on subjects that pose more difficulties without pressure that others are already moving on.

- Parents pattern their teaching style and curriculum in accordance with the child’s learning curve and style, allowing him/her to successfully understand the subject matter, thus better knowledge retention and results are achieved.

- No peer pressure. At a homeschool, age classification is not a factor, therefore children not only associate with children their same age, but with children of different ages and adults as well, so they can decide on their own without the influence of peers.

- “Hands on learning”. Activities which are outside the context of books and are very much essential to the child’s learning process. Trips to the park, the museum, the zoo, going fishing with dad can be a great time to spend an afternoon educating your child.

Homeschooling disadvantages:

- For the homeschool parent, much time and effort is required for preparation of teaching materials, lessons and managing the child’s opportunities in order to cultivate friendships and expand on the child’s interests.

- Parents who homeschool do not have enough time to spend for themselves when kids are constantly at home. This frequent time of being together can be at times suffocating and, therefore, can not work in certain families.

- Homeschooled children do not have a lot of opportunities to bond and develop friendships with peers. For many families, this really is not a problem and is supplemented by taking the kids out to play in the park, attend lessons in ballet, jazz, join a soccer or baseball league, etc. However it takes a lot of effort on the part of parents to insure that their kids have these opportunities.

Homeschooling or traditional school learning, depends mostly on you, as a parent. How much are you willing to give your child. On top of all the learning materials, the field trips and the special perks, homeschooling entails more of love, patience and encouragement.

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