Pros and Cons of Educating Children at Home - Honest Commentary

By Lynn Schott
Homeschsooling is growing by leaps and bounds as more and more families are choosing to educate their children at home.

Our family chose to homeschool for fourteen years, and we graduated all three of our students from high school homeschool.

The choice to educate your children at home is not an easy one. It is definitely a lifestyle choice as much as an educational choice. Homeschooling families are quick to recount the positive aspects of schooling at home, but as with any major life decision, there are some challenges to consider as well.

The Cons of educating children at home include:

The pressure is on

Homeschooling is still foreign to the older generation. Family members, especially grandparents, may not understand or agree with your choice to educate their grandchildren at home. This difference in opinion often spills over into the larger family dynamic.

Family members who are unfamiliar with home education may envision your child sitting in the house alone for days on end. They will express their concern by arguing that your child will not be properly "socialized".

Parents who decide to home educate commonly feel extreme pressure for their child to over achieve just to prove their decision to the family critics.

Time Management

Because homeschooling is a lifestyle change, parents often struggle to adjust to the new routine. Moms especially seem to struggle with time management, and the feeling that they never get enough done in a day. Even though they may be doing a great job being a teacher, they realize that they have less time for housework, errands and time alone to pursue their own hobbies.

My Teacher is My Mom

Students and homeschooling parents both can struggle with the boundary lines of these life roles. Parents often forget to put on the compassionate parent hat when their kids need extra encouragement. Instead, mom or dad really want to enforce completion of the lesson plans, so it seems easier to be strict "teacher" instead.

The Pros of home education include:

Family Bonding

Because we are home with our kids each day, we have a rare opportunity to bond with them in a way that is not possible for parents of children who attend a traditional school. We are there to help them read, discover historical events, and create great art. We are there to solve the squabbles and to help them discover what God wants them to do with their lives.

Educate According to their Needs and Interests

The biggest advantage of home education is the ability to encourage your child's strengths and help them in their weak areas. It is not possible to address each child's individual needs in a classroom setting. Homeschooling parents can spend all the time they need to help a child who is struggling to read. Parents can also allow a child to immerse himself in a subject or activity without interruption.

Don't Miss the Milestones

Traditional school setting require our kids to be away from us for many hours each day. This means that we will miss a lot of milestones. Educating our kids at home means that we will experience all the "firsts" with them. We will be the ones to teach them to read, to accomplish math, or to write that first chapter story. We have the opportunity to introduce them to museums and great art exhibits and science exhibitions. Parents have the opportunity lead and guide children through the stages of adolescence and the newness of the boy-girl dynamic.

Whatever your reasons are for exploring home education, it is important to make an informed decision. There are challenges that every homeschool family must face. Our family definitely believes that the pros outweigh the cons.

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A Morning Routine For Homeschooling Families That Works

By Donna Pravel
One of the biggest challenges facing homeschooling families is trying to get everything done. Time management and home organization are probably the two biggest concerns for homeschooling mothers outside of actually teaching in a home school. If a homeschooling family does not stay on top of the housework, laundry, meals, and other day-to-day tasks, it can become a chaotic, disastrous situation very quickly. Here is a suggested schedule and tips for a morning routine that has been time-tested and proven to work.

1. Be the first one up in the morning, and rise early. If the school day begins at 8:30 A.M., plan to roll out of bed at 5:30 A.M. This may mean less time on the computer at night, but it is important to put the family's needs ahead of virtual social time. This early morning time is the perfect time to pray, read scripture, meditate, and plan out the day's activity before the rest of the family gets up. If there is a nursing baby in the house, this is a wonderful time to have a quiet feeding together.

2. Work out. Even with only 30 minutes a day, a homeschooling mother can stay in shape. Women need to fit exercising into their schedules in order to stay healthy and have enough energy for the long haul. Exercise not only provides physical health benefits, it stimulates endorphins, the "happy" hormones. If the children wake up, they can be directed to watch a DVD or they may join in on the fun. Babies can be placed in a swing or playpen right next to the mother as she works out.

3. Get dressed for the day at about 6:30 A.M. The older children can help dress the younger ones. A quick shower only takes about five minutes, and if the laundry is under control, everyone should have clothes available to choose from without much drama. Simple hairstyles are easy to fix. There are plenty of makeup videos available on You Tube that show makeup routines that only take five or ten minutes to apply.

4. Put the baby down for a nap if she needs it, then start breakfast at 7:00 A.M. Older children can certainly help with breakfast preparations. They can also help watch their younger siblings. If some young children need more sleep, then this might be the time to wake them up and get them dressed for the day.

5. Serve breakfast at 7:30 A.M. If the father of the family likes to have breakfast with the family before he leaves for work, then the family can adjust to his schedule by getting up earlier and going to bed earlier. Good communication is required at all times so that the family routines can run smoothly.

6. Do a morning devotional at the breakfast table while everyone is still seated. This does not have to be long or all that "spiritual." Just reading a few scripture verses or possibly some Proverbs is enough.

7.Get the morning chores done about 8 A.M.. Everyone who can walk can help in some way. Morning chores are individual for each family. This isn't the time to get the house ready for a magazine shoot. This is just time to get the house presentable. Toys get picked up, the kitchen is cleaned up, the toothpaste is wiped out of the bathroom sink, the beds are made, the towels are hung up, the animals are fed, and the laundry is started.

8. Gather school books and come to the table to begin school at 8:30 A.M.. The baby can be awakened, and fed and diapered at the table while the children get started on their assignments. With plenty of toys and activities for the preschoolers to do, the school should run fairly smoothly for a couple of concentrated hours. A mid-morning snack helps control blood sugar levels and offers an interesting break, then the family can settle back down for another couple of hours of study before lunch.

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Homeschooling - The Foot Equalizer

By Camille Rodriquez
Have you ever stuck your foot out from under the blanket at night, just to cool off a bit? Sometimes, we like to be cozy under the blankets, but we also need to level off the heat a bit by sticking out our foot and exposing it to the cooler air. Everyone's done this before, but how does it relate to homeschooling? Like your body temperature, using the "foot equalizer" in your homeschooling program is a vital part of preparing your kids for their future.

Homeschoolers are typically pretty protective of the things that they do and don't do with their children. They are known for exhibiting more stringent standards of behavior and for examining their hobbies closely. This is sometimes true, and sometimes not, but one thing can be said to be characteristic of all homeschoolers. They spend more time with their children than most parents, just by virtue of their educational choice, and this leads to more opportunities to shape and train their children.

That being said, homeschool parents usually place more emphasis on family values and character training. These are fantastic things, but in some cases, homeschoolers forget to prepare for when the children leave the home. Some homeschool parents can fail to train their children for interactions with the world outside, and that leaves homeschool children a little uneasy or cautious about how to engage in the non-homeschooling arena.

By "sticking out your foot" from time to time, and looking for ways in which your children can be active participants with non-homeschoolers, you are actually helping them prepare for their adult life. This is vitally important if we want our homeschool children to grow up to be leaders and men and women of positive influence on their communities. They will have to know how to be in the world, but not overcome by situations and values that are different than their own.

When we stick our foot out from under the covers at night, the majority of our bodies are still covered and protected. Only a smaller portion of our body, our foot, is moved out to the colder air. Likewise, for homeschoolers, the "covering" of the home and family support system should still be a major emphasis of all of the daily interactions. But a smaller portion of time can, and should be spent on learning to interact with those who are in less familiar environments. This teaches homeschool students valuable people skills, leadership, and self-management. This prepares them more fully for future relationships, and it does so while they are in a safe environment from which to branch out.

So, stay warm, stay cozy, but help your homeschool children stick out their feet from time to time.

You can read more about Camille Rodriquez, author of "When I Die" and creator of "The VEEP Channel," by visiting her websites,

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How to Make Learning Fun When Home Schooling Your Children

By Lynn Schott
Over our family's fourteen years of homeschooling, we were, at times, sorely in need of some fun in our routine. At first I resisted having fun. Seriously. I believed that having too much fun got in the way of real learning. Wow! I can't believe that I really held onto that opinion. The good news for my kids is that I finally ditched that thought and we began to have some fun!

Here are three of our favorite fun learning activities:

1) Silly Story Starters

Story starter cards and games are for sale in teaching supply stores almost everywhere. However, if you don't want to spend extra money, just open your favorite book (the Bible even works well!) and put your finger down in the middle of the page. Read the first word, phrase or sentence your finger touches. Your students need to take the word, phrase or sentence and turn it into a sentence, a paragraph or a story. The length of the response is determined by the ability of the child. The response can be verbal or written.

We usually had each child take a turn making a funny sentence or story without writing anything down. It made them more likely to participate, and to think creatively. Don't require too much in the way of seriousness, though. The funnier the story, the better for all involved! Eventually, we worked up to writing these silly stories down, but right at first it's important just to get them thinking quickly and coming up with new vocabulary.

2) Spell It Out Loud

We had two struggling spellers in our homeschool. We tried it all, but nothing worked until we found Institute For Excellence in Writing's spelling program. The student listens to the daily lesson on CD, then verbally repeats the word and the spelling. Then the child takes a spelling test. If he/she misses even one, the lesson is repeated the next day until he/she passes the quiz with 100% mastery. There are no workbooks involved; there are just the CD's, your child and a daily oral review and written quiz. This method works because it is oral, and not workbook driven. Workbooks don't work for many kids. Verbal spelling forces the brain to pattern the words and store them. It is a highly effective method, and my kids' spelling improved almost immediately. For extra practice, make them spell everything they ask you for. Make them spell for their supper!

3) Many Mighty Manipulatives

My children LOVED to play with blocks, pattern tiles, LEGOs, DIME blocks, unifix cubes, etc. They love anything that they could touch and arrange. My oldest son is still a Lego freak at age 23. He credits his advanced ability to do math and think abstractly to the many, many hours he has spent building LEGOs. My younger two children struggled to read early on, and are auditory learners, so it worked beautifully for them to sit and play with manipulatives or draw and color while I read story books or schoolbooks to them. They could always tell me details about what I was reading, so I know that their little brains were processing!

In addition to these tactics, the most important thing you can do to bring fun to the learning is to R-E-L-A-X. When we are uptight and fretting about them "getting behind", or "not learning enough", or not "keeping up with the public school" we start putting pressure on our kids. As soon as we put pressure onto them, learning is no longer fun. When it is no longer fun, they begin to balk at their work, which makes us even more stressed out and upset with them, which makes them less likely to do their work. Think about it. Could you learn under those circumstances? Neither can they.

So lighten up and get out a mini camcorder and record those silly stories! Your kids are growing up fast. Have fun with them while there is still time.

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