Homeschooling Benefits for Everyone in the Family!

HOMESCHOOLING Benefits for Everyone in the Family!

By Linda Dobson

I love this time of year! With the start of school just around the corner, a rush of families who have been thinking about homeschooling get in touch; scared and confused, but also excited and eager.

Each family comes to the decision in its own way for its own reasons, much as each family homeschools in its own unique way. What is it about homeschooling that draws people from every political, philosophical, economic, ethnic, religious and geographic quarter? Some recognize a need in their children's lives - be it physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual - and homeschooling fills it. Others recognize a need in their family life so reclaim the time to be together to share what they value.

While most families begin homeschooling with firm attention to academics, it isn't long before a slew of additional benefits come to light. Here are just a few you may not have considered before. (There are many more!)

BENEFITS FOR CHILDREN

* Balance. Schools do what they can for your child's intellect. At home you can educate the whole child, body, mind, and spirit, utilizing wisdom that comes from being the person who knows him better than anyone else in the world.

* Common sense. It isn't very common anymore. This important universal life skill isn't "taught" with books. Rather, the child's continual presence in the real world guided by those who love her leads to naturally exercising it.

*Freedom from the degrading grading experience. As Alfie Kohn writes in *Punished by Rewards,* "The evidence strongly suggests that tighter standards, additional testing, tougher grading, or more incentives will do more harm than good."

* Freedom from stress. Stress in children as young as kindergartners is increasing at an alarming rate. You don't have to put your child through that.

* True self-esteem. In school, mistakes turn into bad grades and peer teasing. At home, your child can explore, make mistakes, and use them as they learning experiences they truly are.

* Freedom from burning out on learning. Haste to train children academically has been linked by researchers to vision and hearing problems, socioemotional problems, and “school burn-out.” Mother Nature doesn’t consult a calendar so all children learn the same thing at the same age. At home, you don’t have to, either.

* Pursuing happiness by pursuing interests. Using time freed up by not following the school calendar, your child gets lots of time to delve into activities and studies of personal interest. This helps the child naturally learn how to learn.

BENEFITS FOR YOU

• Abundant choices. Once you experience the reality of many ways to learn, you’ll see there are also abundant lifestyle options available to your family.

• You get to know your kids – and like them! It’s amazing what happens when you trade peer role-models for adult role-models, and your children are no longer subject to scientific behavior modification training used in schools. That which already exists within your children is richer, more beautiful and more important than anything the schools are trying to create.

• You get another education, free of charge. Children have much more to teach us than we do them. Through homeschooling, you exchange courage and trust for a life experience that fits your family like a glove.

• Time is on your side. Free of the school schedule, you make your own rules about time that are comfortable for your family.

• Homeschooling can be cheaper than school attendance. Along with being able to utilize many free learning resources online, families realize savings in clothing, lunches, health care (less stress and shared infections), and childcare.

Everyone in the family benefits from homeschooling. You’ll find many more than are on this list once you get on the learning path from home. As one mom answered when asked what she would have liked to know when starting homeschooling: "If someone had said, 'What you do does not matter as much as the spirit in which you do it,' I would have saved time and energy. Rather than trying to out-school the schools in my daughter’s first grade year, I would have spent more time laughing and playing with her, like we do now."

Linda Dobson is author of eight books about homeschooling, including the classics *The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child: Your Complete Guide to Getting Off to the Right Start* and *The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas: 500+ Fun and Creative Learning Activities.* Linda's respected blog, Parent at the Helm, features help for new homeschoolers, learning resources, education news, giveaways, frugal living info, and more for current and prospective homeschoolers.