The last ten years have seen an increase in homeschooling in the US. The number of students who are homeschooled has doubled over the past ten years, according to research in education and the US government. Overall, if the nation’s homeschooling growth rate keeps up—and some predict it will pick up speed—the number of students in the U.S. will surpass 2 million by 2018. Therefore, why do parents decide to homeschool their kids?
What Does Choosing Homeschool Mean?
Parents may decide to homeschool their school-age children if they do not want to enroll them in local public or private schools or if they do so occasionally. Online charter schools do not, in the opinion of many homeschooling parents, fit the definition of “homeschooling.”
By sifting through, combining, and customizing various homeschool curricula available on the market, homeschooling parents create their own educational programs. Most of the time, parents examine these curricula on their own and make necessary modifications until they find the program that works best for their particular child. However, they are not forced to act independently. A “co-op” is a term used to describe the larger group of homeschooling families that many homeschooling families belong to.
Homeschool co-ops are groups of families of homeschooled kids working cooperatively to achieve common goals. Coops can plan social gatherings, volunteer opportunities, and field trips for homeschooled students.
What Prompts Parents To Make The Decision?
1. Quality or Style of Education
After trying traditional schools and finding issues with the curricula, many parents decide to pursue homeschooling.
Parents frequently express dissatisfaction with the quality of education being offered because they believe the system is deficient in certain areas that they view as crucial. This perception might be caused by shrinking state education budgets, rising student enrollment, and an overall decline in educational quality.
Therefore, some parents decide to homeschool their children in order to have more control over what they are learning and the caliber of the instruction.
2. Religious Reasons
One of the most frequent reasons for homeschooling is religion.
Some families opt to home-school their children because state schools don’t always explicitly include religious ideologies and viewpoints in their curricula.
3. Disabilities And Exceptional Needs
While it is frequently necessary for children with learning disabilities or health/medical conditions to participate in specialized programs tailored to their needs, local schools may not always be able to meet all of the children’s requirements.
In order to save time and get a better education, parents who feel that their child’s education isn’t meeting their needs may decide to homeschool their children. Children who are homeschooled can follow curricula that are tailored to their individual needs.
4. Relocations And Life Circumstances
Another reason some families choose to homeschool their children is that they move around a lot rather than for educational or child-specific reasons. Military families and families whose members hold diplomatic positions within the government are two examples, both of which must relocate frequently.
Some of these families believe that homeschooling should be a regular part of their lives rather than having their kids switch schools frequently, which would disrupt their academic progress. In other words, despite other changes, the school doesn’t change.
5. Multifaceted Children
Sometimes, students themselves have unusual life circumstances rather than homeschooling parents. Some high school students juggle several extracurricular activities due to their incredibly busy schedules. Typically, these are young people who are also actors or athletes.
In that case, homeschooling better fits the child’s life than a regular school schedule with set timings ever could.
6. Overcrowded Schools
For parents who decide to homeschool their children, overcrowded schools can be a major deciding factor in some areas. For instance, state schools are likely to have a large number of students in each class if you live in a big city or a high-density area. This means that each student will receive less one-on-one instruction.
Homeschooling keeps kids out of overcrowded classrooms that might potentially impede their learning. As an alternative, the student receives individualized instruction along with extra lessons from either their parents or a trained tutor.
7. Commuting Issues
The location of a facility can also affect accessibility, building on the prior point. For instance, parents who live in rural areas may think about homeschooling their children in order to relieve the stress of the commute to and from school while also saving time and effort.
The weather in some places is particularly bad, which again makes travel difficult. Due to weather, safety concerns, or other factors, some parents decide to homeschool their children.
8. Shielding Children
It’s not uncommon for parents to want to shield their kids from the outside world for as long as they can, shielding them from experiencing heartbreak, disappointment, pain, bullying, failure, and other negative things.
Some parents want to protect their kids from reality for as long as they can, including any potentially hostile school communities. Instead, they decide to let their kids learn in the convenience of their own homes.
9. Flexibility
Our time is one of adaptability and customized experiences. There is no doubt that convenience and flexibility are both provided by homeschooling for kids and their families.
Through homeschooling, parents can modify their child’s academic schedules to fit their personal needs. It means they can schedule lessons around holidays, days out, and family visits, and parents can encourage their children to work when it best suits them – for some that are the morning, and for others the afternoon, or even after dinner
A lot of families want homeschooling because it provides the flexibility they need to strike a healthy balance between their children’s education and their personal obligations.
10. Socialisation And Groups
There is a myth that homeschooled children lack social and communication skills and are awkward or shy. That rumor has been disproved, I see.
Homeschooled students are just as articulate, confident, and communicative as other schoolchildren. Each child, family, and learning style are different from one another.
Furthermore, parents who homeschool their children don’t necessarily cut them off from the outside world. Instead, they give them “tailored” social interactions that not only uphold their values but also promote their welfare and safety.
Church organizations, community education organizations (co-ops), home-school support groups, and activities for home-schooled students are all still around today. Students can spend as much time socializing as they want because there are many options available.
How Can Parents Prepare Their Homeschooled Children For The Twenty-first Century?
The classroom of 2021 and the classroom of 1995 are very different from one another. The textbook has evolved into an iPad. We load debit cards with lunch money. Advanced AP classes, computer-aided drafting, and computer programming are examples of elective courses. Physics, biology, and chemistry are now inquiry-based and practical subjects.
When parents lack a modern teaching degree, how can they possibly expect their children to stay current on these topics at home? The easy solution is to depend on professionals. It can be beneficial to enlist the aid of professionals to build certain aspects of our child’s education, just as we would if we wanted to add on to our home.
If parents are unable to teach everything, why do they homeschool? Even qualified public school teachers are unable to teach everything. Herein lies the value of Futuclass. Children who are homeschooled can learn physics, chemistry, and biology in their own homes without the expense of a lab! One of the most frequently cited benefits of homeschooling is safety.
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