Are you a newer homeschooler doubting your decision to start this homeschooling journey? Maybe you are a veteran homeschooler who is just so tired of doing all the things. Let me remind you of some of the benefits of homeschooling; five ways that homeschooling will help your children thrive. Because that’s what we all want for our children – we want them to learn, excel, be happy, and thrive.
Homeschooling Can Help Your Children Thrive! Keep Reading for All the Info; All the Ways Homeschooling Can Benefit Your Kids and Family!
Homeschooling Will Help Your Children Thrive by Recognizing Each of Them as a Unique Individual
Your children are unique! Each one of them is an individual. Trust me, that’s a good thing! While your children may share some characteristics and personality traits, each child is individually unique. Homeschooling allows you to work within their uniqueness and individual qualities to provide them with the best education.
Individual Learning Styles
Every child does not learn the same way. As a home educator, you can tailor your child’s education to his unique learning style. Does he learn better visually or audibly? Does he work better in the practical realm or the theoretical? What motivates your child to succeed? How can you capitalize on those motivation factors? Does your child pick up new concepts quickly, or does he require lots of review and reinforcement? Homeschooling allows you to tailor your child’s education to reflect those individual learning styles.
Individual Interests
Is each of your children interested in all the same things? Probably not! Use those differing interests to tailor your children’s education uniquely. Let’s say you are studying Medieval England for history. Have your musical child focus on musicians and instruments of the time. Let your future farmer study the agricultural methods in use at the time. And your budding engineer? Have him research period architecture. Then, have each report on or display their findings for the others. They all learned about Medieval England and demonstrated research and reporting techniques, but each focused on his interests. Be creative and consider your children’s interests in the assignments you create. (Yes, you can make additional assignments outside the textbook’s recommendations!)
Individual Academic Challenges
Which of your children have unique learning challenges? While your kids’ academic challenges may not fall into any “official” category or name, some kids have a more challenging time learning certain things. As a homeschooling parent, you have an excellent opportunity to focus on helping your child conquer those academic challenges. You can devote extra time to that challenge, try to teach the concept in different ways, or experiment with different approaches to the material. Keep trying until you find something that works! Be inventive in your efforts.
Individual Schedules
Do all your kids keep function well with the same schedules? Do any of your kids have naptimes or rest times? Create your school schedules around those routines. Save your most “Mom-Intensive” subjects for naptimes when there are (possibly) fewer distractions. Do any of your children have medical issues that affect their daily routines? Homeschooling will allow you to accommodate those scheduling needs. Set your schedules according to what works best for your kids and family!
Homeschooling Will Help Your Children Thrive When You Incorporate Flexibility and Adaptability into Your Routine
Opportunities for flexibility and adaptability are some of the best benefits of homeschooling. You can set your calendars and daily routines based on schedules and dates that work best for you and your family. Disruptions, interruptions, and unplanned events don’t need to derail your plans. Learn to work with and around them. When your schedules align with your family’s needs, everyone in the family will do better!
Daily Routines are more Flexible than Schedules
Have you ever attempted to run your homeschool days according to a strict schedule? I’m sorry; that will doom you to discouragement or possible failure. Instead, I encourage you to consider daily routines. A routine will still provide structure for your days but also allow for flexibility. Kids thrive with structure, and having an established routine will provide that.
Homeschooling Will Allow Much Flexibility to your School Calendar
Flexibility in your school calendar will reap great benefits for your family. Are you hoping to take a great family vacation and avoid peak tourist season? Plan your school schedule accordingly. As a homeschooling family, you can work your calendar around family activities, holidays, work schedules, whatever. You have that freedom! Sure, you still must do the schooling – some states require a certain number of school days, while others require a specified number of school hours – but you can make those fit your schedule instead of having to make your schedule around certain calendar days.
When your kids see how well you adapt to interruptions and plan changes, you are teaching them valuable life lessons!
Adaptability and Flexibility Will Prevent Interruptions and Disruptions from Derailing your Educational Efforts
No matter how well you plan your life and your homeschooling, interruptions and disruptions will happen. It could be a phone call that you must take, an illness, or even a power outage. You can’t plan everything! Stuff happens! So, use your homeschooling superpowers of flexibility and adaptability to work around the disruptions. And, when your kids see how well you adapt to interruptions and plan changes, you are teaching them valuable life lessons!
Homeschooling Will Help Your Children Thrive Because It Is Portable
Being able to take your classroom anywhere has definite advantages for your kids. When kids see that learning can happen anywhere, their learning potential will soar! Homeschooling provides educational benefits outside of a traditional schoolroom!
Take Your Home School Anywhere!
Education can happen anywhere. And everywhere you go provides learning opportunities. So, take your classroom to the road! Is someone studying marine biology? Maybe a trip to the beach will enhance their learning experience. A visit with a mineralogist may encourage interest in geology. A hike through the woods will significantly add to your environmental studies unit or a chapter on biomes or local habitats. Think outside the textbook and classroom box, and watch how your child’s enthusiasm for learning increases!
Homeschooling Is Even Vacation-Ready
Imagine this: You can homeschool and go on vacation. Even at the same time! Homeschooling allows you the freedom to travel when it works best for you. Even if you haven’t built vacation days into your school calendar, you can go on that trip and continue your schooling. Take your textbooks and workbooks along on the trip. School in the morning; hit the beach in the afternoon. Add in some trips to local places of interest and increase the learning opportunities. Have your kids document the places you go, the people you meet, and the things you see, and you have the makings of a great project! Take those textbooks and hit the road!
Homeschooling Lets You Take Field Trips on the Fly
Homeschooling allows you to take unscheduled field trips—no waiting for permission slips or hiring a bus and driver weeks in advance. Pack your lunch and go! Planning and field trip prep is excellent and advisable but not always essential. Is everyone having a bad day in school? Put away the books and hit the nature center instead. Is the weather just too fantastic to stay inside? Either take the books outside or close them and take a hike. Learning will happen either way.
Homeschooling Will Help Your Children Thrive Because Homeschooling is Changeable
Is homeschooling not working for you the way you hoped? Are you not happy with some of the books you are using? Are your kids not responding favorably to some of your methods or materials? You can change it whenever you need to! No board meetings or department meetings are required! The changeable nature of homeschooling will help your children thrive!
Change Your Curriculum If It’s Not Working
No curriculum is perfect. No set of textbooks works well for every child. So, if what you have is not working, change it! Now, I am not advocating switching curriculum every time a child complains about it, but if no learning is happening, or your current textbooks are making everyone miserable, consider a change. Maybe you need only to change the assignments. Perhaps adding some supplemental materials will solve the problem. But maybe you need to switch to something completely different. That’s ok! You have that freedom! When you find something that works for your children, they will thrive, and everyone will be happier!
Homeschooling Allows You to Supplement with Extra Books and Materials Easily
No worries if you aren’t satisfied that your textbooks delve deeply into any subject. Add additional books and materials to your studies to enhance your kids’ learning. If your children seem particularly interested in a particular study area, increase their learning by adding additional books or materials to their studies. Homeschooling gives you that freedom!
Change Up Your Assignments to Enhance Learning
Assignments are necessary evils; they serve a purpose, but kids don’t often enjoy them. But if your assignments are always the same – rote answers to questions from the book – consider different ways for your children to demonstrate their learning. Learn to vary assignments and projects and watch your children increase their knowledge. As a homeschooler, you have endless opportunities for creative and varied assignments!
Yes, You Can Change Tests and Assessments
Many textbook publishers provide tests to go along with their textbooks. And using those tests is a convenient option for homeschoolers. But if you are homeschooling on your own and independently, you are not required to use those tests. Maybe you emphasized different aspects of the material than the text did, and the provided tests will not give an appropriate assessment of what you wanted your children to learn. Create tests that better fit with what you taught, then. Or, if your child does not do well with written tests, give them the option of answering oral questions to assess their grasp of the content. You have options – Use them!
Homeschooling Will Help Your Children Thrive Because It Will Benefit Your Family Relationships
Families choose to homeschool for many reasons, but one of the common reasons is so they can spend more time together as a family. Good family relationships build strong bonds between family members that should last through good times and challenging times. Homeschooling can help to develop and strengthen those important bonds.
The Complicated Maze of Sibling Relationships
Dealing with all the varying moods and dynamics of sibling relationships can sometimes feel like walking through a minefield maze. You never know who will blow up, for what reason, and when! Part of a homeschooling parent’s job is to help our children work through those complicated relationships, defuse the minefield, patch those relationship injuries, and build strong bonds between siblings. Fostering good relations between siblings is a goal well worth the turbulent and trying efforts required to reach that goal.
Your Children Will Benefit from Intergenerational Relationships
Intergenerational relationships foster a sense of belonging, family, and a particular connection that will benefit your children. Everyone, child or not, has a longing to be connected and belong. And extended families can fill that desire. I understand that no family is perfect. Every family has “skeletons in the closet.” But you can use those stories to teach your children valuable lessons. Families can give us history, a sense of belonging, connections with different generations, and people who made mistakes. We can learn stories of redemption and stories of failures, each of which can teach essential values and lessons to our children.
Does Anyone Know Your Children Better Than You?
You know your children. You know their strengths and weaknesses, character deficiencies, wishes, and hearts. Homeschooling allows you to take that knowledge and tailor your education to meet those needs best. Challenge them daily to become the best they can be, meet high goals and standards, and become what God wants them to be! Use your time with your children to build strong character and a firm moral foundation as a basis for their lives!
Build a sense of curiosity and a love of learning, and your children will have the tools they need to learn anything.
While homeschooling brings many benefits and advantages for your children, these five benefits of homeschooling will help your children thrive and succeed. Build a sense of curiosity and a love of learning, and they will have the tools they need to learn anything.
Comments? Questions? Problems? Let me help!
Or, check out the homeschool coaching services I offer: Help With This Homeschool Journey
These other blog posts will give you additional help with some homeschooling basics:
5 Essential Tips for those New to Homeschooling
And, don’t forget to sign up for my weekly emails. Get additional homeschooling encouragement and suggestions right in your inbox!
