What Is Homeschooling?
A variety of technological solutions and applications became available to smooth the transition from traditional school and to facilitate effective learning. Such a surge in demand for homeschooling and its modernization raises a lot of questions about it, which we aim to address in this article. Homeschooling is a movement around the world and a type of education where learning is taken away from school and brought home under the supervision of children’s parents. The parents determine the educational path of their children, depending on the child's personality and strengths, while following government regulations. Families decide to homeschool for different reasons: dissatisfaction with available educational choices and traditional school structure, various religious and educational philosophies, and simply if they desire to be actively involved in children’s development.
4 Advantages Of Homeschooling
1. Flexibility And Freedom
Parents can define the pace of learning (i.e., how long is spent learning different subjects and material), depending on the child's capabilities. The timing and order of classes can be changed so that material is taught when the parent and the child are ready for it.
2. Personalized Learning
A homeschool setting allows you to focus on each child and adjust your teaching methods to individual learning styles.
3. Focus On Learning
Freedom from external issues such as bullying, peer pressure, and boredom helps to focus on the learning process entirely.
4. Strong Relationships
Homeschooling allows more space for bonding and family relationship building, in comparison with limited time together during weekends or holidays.
3 Disadvantages Of Homeschooling
1. Too Much Work And Inability To Go To A Job
Organizing the learning process and deciding on a curriculum, keeping children occupied, tailoring lessons to their needs, and grading their academic performance can be time-consuming. Moreover, it can be extra challenging if you are not a teacher. It may take up all of your time and put you in a position where you are unable to pursue a job.
2. Missed Opportunities
Organizing socialization with children of the same age can prove to be challenging for parents of homeschooled children. Your child may miss an opportunity to take part in team sports, сompetitions, and other extracurricular activities offered by traditional schools.
3. Less Time For Yourself
Once parents take on the new role of teacher, this may lead to a limited time for themselves, which will be a major adjustment.
Modern Homeschooling Best Practices
Adjust Your Timetable
Take into account when your child learns best. While traditional schools don't take into consideration children’s best performance time, as a homeschooler you can use the freedom and flexibility to adjust the schedule to the times when your child works best.
Review Your Goals
Setting realistic goals can help motivate your child and give them a sense of accomplishment. Therefore, it makes sense to review and adjust your goals as the academic year progresses. You can set a bunch of them in different fields: personal, physical, educational, and character goals. Print them out and check them once every two weeks, keeping in mind that adjustments can be made in the process.
Try Volunteering
Volunteering is a great teaching tool as it exposes children to different parts of the community (i.e., homeless animal shelters, nursing homes, or food banks). You can offer your kids a choice and explore what interests them the most.
Add Life Skills To Your Curriculum
By teaching children how to clean, do laundry, or cook you can engage your kids in the cleaning process of the house. Younger students can be taught how to help to tidy up or how to fasten buttons or tie laces. These kinds of skills can be as beneficial as those learned in the classroom.
Top Apps For Homeschooling
Since we live in a technological age, a great variety of organizers, planners, time and portfolio trackers, coursework resources, and study aids are developed to simplify and support homeschooling. We did our research, and have shared the best of them with you:
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is among the most popular and successful homeschooling apps. It includes instructional videos, practice exercises, and a tailored learning dashboard, which encourages learners to study at their own pace. This tool can be used by children autonomously or with parents' involvement.
Habitica
It is a gaming-oriented app that develops one’s ability to stick to schedules and develop healthy habits. It offers a video-game-like approach, where users create characters and enter a different world. Children progress through the game by completing to-dos, dailies, and habits to gain points.
Evernote
This is a tool that allows you to take notes, photos, create lesson plans, to-do lists and make them searchable. Moreover, it includes such features as a handwriting scanner and portfolio templates and gives users an opportunity to upload PDF, audio, and visual files. Finally, the files are easily shareable through email, making such duties like end-of-the-year evaluations very easy.
To Conclude
Homeschooling is a viable alternative to the traditional educational system since homeschooled students score between 80% and 90% regardless of their parent’s level of education, according to ThinkImpact. However, it should be kept in mind that it is a demanding process that requires adjustments from both sides, which takes time and effort. There are also many applications and websites worth making use of to advance the learning process. Although homeschooling is time-consuming, it gives freedom and flexibility, which if used appropriately can lead to outstanding results.
