What Are The Advantages Or Disadvantages Of Homeschooling?

What Are The Advantages Or Disadvantages Of Homeschooling?

Homeschooling is a very rare way of providing education to children around the world. Homeschooling in the UK still constitutes a very small 0.1-0.5% of all forms of education. That’s a small percentage, primarily because many people are unaware of the clear advantages and disadvantages of homeschooling in the UK. However, there’s a silver lining in favour of homeschooling, as it has seen a dramatic rise of 40% over the last three years. Keeping that in mind, let’s take a look at some advantages and disadvantages of homeschooling so that parents can make an informed decision regarding this matter.

Advantages of Homeschooling

Homeschooling can be beneficial for parents in many ways as discussed below.

• A healthy parent-child relationship as they get to spend more time together.
• Since children are always under parents’ watch; parents don’t need to worry about their child adopting negative habits or influences.
• Parents can freely teach their children the ideologies or topics they believe in without facing social criticism or backlashes.
• Unlike in a school, there is a lot of flexibility when it comes to teaching schedule.
• Following the previous point, there’s no time limit for a child to improve on any particular topic, i.e. if a child is weak in one subject more time can be allocated to ensure improvement.
• Devoid of any social pressure, children are free to focus on learning things which they find interesting.
• A healthy diet is very important to a growing child. When children go to school, they may develop a tendency to indulge in junk food and snacks. When homeschooled, parents can ensure their child gets a healthy diet.

Disadvantages of Homeschooling

• As children grow older, they require time for themselves. This can become a bit difficult with homeschooling, as parents are constantly around.
• Being socially active, when homeschooled, can be more difficult as children do not get to interact with other children belonging to diverse backgrounds like in a school.
• Memories made with friends during childhood and in school are cherished by individuals throughout their lifetime. However, homeschooling deprives children of this very special privilege.
• Not everyone is a good teacher; thus for homeschooling parents should have an adequate understanding of the subject.
• Homeschooling children is a full-time job. Hence it makes parents more committed and sometimes, parents may feel like managing two full-time jobs
• Homeschooling is still considered to be a widely unorthodox method of education. This means that the perception of homeschooling is still met with mixed reception. There will be many naysayers, and facing them is a social pressure that homeschooled children, and their parents will have to bear.
• Since children who are being homeschooled aren’t in an environment where many children are competing to get higher marks, the element of competition is missing. This can result in a lack of motivation in children.
• Schools host many extra-curricular activities that hone student’s skills in areas other than education. Sports and other extra-curricular activities are difficult to get into, which eventually hinders a child’s growth.