A friend of ours has decided to homeschool her child. She did try day school for a few years but it just isn't working for them. She arrived at the decision because she feels that she'll do a better job, especially since she works from home. Of course, she's talked to other parents who are homeschooling their kids.
Working from home and providing homeschooling are two things that work together really well and it's fortunate that in today's society, we have the opportunity to do both more easily than before. We did consider at one time for our son, but didn't follow it up too seriously. If you've thought about either of these, there are many benefits that come from homeschooling, especially if you are working from home.
Many parents choose to teach their children in the comfort of their own home, rather than enroll them in school. With homeschooling, it's the parent's full responsibility to ensure that their child is given an education that will enable them to go on to have a successful career in whatever field of study they wish to go into. Of course, there are arguments as to why homeschooling may not be a good thing; however, it's certainly becoming more popular across the world.
So what are the benefits of homeschooling your kids and is it something that's right for you and your child?
It's One-On-One Tutoring
When in a classroom setting with 20-30 other children, the chances of your child or children getting one-on-one attention is fairly minimal. Then there is the problem of children who may cause trouble in class and therefore disrupt the rest of the classroom's learning. The smaller the class, the more time a child gets to spend with the teacher, asking questions and getting help with something they're struggling with. Homeschooling provides a unique opportunity where every bit of their learning is through one-to-one tutoring.
More Tailored to Their Educational Needs
One of the best things about homeschooling is that you may not necessarily need to teach your child every subject in the curriculum. Of course, it's good to stay along the same lines, but with homeschooling, you can tailor the classes and subjects to what your child enjoys or is passionate about. You can focus more on their needs, rather than give them a blanket education of all subjects like they'd have in a public or private school. Not everyone enjoys taking exams, and there's a severe amount of pressure to get the right grades. With homeschooling, that's something that doesn't need to be part of the education at all and allows the child to learn without pressure.
There's A Safer Learning Environment Provided
With homeschooling, it's a much safer environment to learn in. As mentioned previously, there are often one or two troublesome children who'll disrupt classes, and that can stop the rest of the class getting that education. What also comes with homeschooling is that your child won't be exposed to teasing, bullying and negative peer pressure from the bad influences. Of course the argument for this is that the child will learn about tackling real life; but then, there are plenty of other situations to teach them this through peer interaction meetings when part of a homeschooling community.
Builds A Closer Relationship Between Parent and Child
One of the greatest satisfactions of homeschooling is the relationship between parent and child. Parents who spend more time with their kids are able to watch them grow, and therefore you don't miss out on those special moments throughout their childhood and their journey to adulthood.
It's important to know some things though before you decide to homeschool your child or children.
Firstly, check what's required to be able to homeschool within your state or location. Patience is important, especially as you are dealing with your child in an educational environment. You need to do your research and make sure it's something you're capable of doing and really want to do. You need to be certain that you will be able to teach your children the knowledge they need to pass any exams or tests where they can be graded by an educational body.
Homeschooling is also not for everyone so you may want to trial it out first and discuss it with your child before pulling them out of their current learning environment.
The environment is right, though. As more businesses offer flexible working, working from home has certainly become a more stable and secure option as a career. There's now so much that you can do to work from home and along with homeschooling, it's the perfect scenario to be able to do both. I'd be the first to endorse the benefits of working from home!
You Are Your Own Boss
When you have a career at home, you are effectively your own boss, and that can be really beneficial for some people. Everyone works differently and some just don't like taking direction from others or having a boss themselves. And there's certainly nothing wrong with that because if we all liked the same things, we'd be boring! So one of the benefits is that you are your own boss, so you decide how hard you want to work and what you want to achieve. You set your own goals and your own deadlines.
Choose Your Working Hours
Being your own boss also gives you the flexibility to choose your own working hours. This is really ideal if you decide to give homeschooling a go as you can work your job around your teaching. You also might want to take a holiday or finish a few hours earlier and guess what? You can, because you're the boss! As most businesses these days are trying to offer flexible working hours, it's no wonder that working from home has become a convenient option. Sure it takes discipline, but once you've had a taste of working from home, you'll want to do it full-time.
There Are More Opportunities to Learn
Working from home can offer you an unlimited amount of opportunities, and you may have more hours in the day to take on something new. For example, how about getting some extra education and taking an online course? Some of the best NNP programs can be done online now, along with many other courses, relating to a variety of subject matters. So depending on what you decide to do from home to earn a living, having the ability to gain qualifications online can help you build your skill set and knowledge.
Your Earnings Could Rise
In any contracted job, you'll have set hours, and the paycheck is likely going to remain the same. Perhaps you'll be lucky to get a bonus or rise every so often. However, there's probably a limit to what you can earn. When working from home, you get as much out as you put in and so depending on the work you do, your earnings could rise considerably. For example, if you decide to set up an online shop, the more awareness and customers you bring to the shop, the more money you can make. The potential is endless and that can be exciting for many people as money certainly helps for things in life. There's also the option of having multiple streams of income.
Doing Something You Love
Work satisfaction is something that can be hard to achieve. Of course, we all have our bad days, but you are lucky if you truly love your job and wake up every morning excited to go to work. One of the best perks of working from home is that you're likely going to do something you love and if that's the case, then it won't even feel like work. As work takes up a majority of our time, it's important we enjoy it. It can also have a big and positive impact on our mental health and wellbeing. Less stressed and more excited about what's to come for each new day.
No More Commuting
If you live in the city or drive from your home to work, you're commuting. And commuting can really suck. Whether that's stuck in traffic for an hour or nestled under someone's sweaty armpit on public transport. When working from home, you don't have to do any of that and what's more, is that you'll save a lot of precious time and money that can both go to the more important things in life - your family. Very few people enjoy commuting, and the appeal wears off very quickly, so imagine not having to commute to get to work. The only travel you'll be doing is from your bedroom to your office. Now that's everyone's idea of heaven!
A lot has changed, even in the past fifty odd years, so much so that it's opened up opportunities that many older generations wouldn't have dreamed would be possible in their lifetime. The allure of working from home is certainly attracting more and more people as new opportunities and careers become available. Homeschooling is also becoming more accepted due to what is happening with the job industry as a whole. It's changing and becoming more fluid, so it's only a matter of time before the school curriculum will have to change and adapt to move with the times. Otherwise, it ends up becoming outdated and could harm the future generation's ability to get the career they want.
If you're thinking of either homeschooling or working from home, do your research and think about it: if it's something that's best for you. The worst-case scenario is that you try it and it doesn't work. At least you tried, and that's better than living with regret or what could have been.
When I see other parents making the decision to homeschool their kids, I think, given a chance, I'd love to do it now, even though I didn't have the guts back then.
