The Real Benefits of Homeschooling: Customization and Flexible Learning

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As a homeschooled kid and now second generation homeschool mom, I can tell you that homeschooling is often misunderstood, with many myths surrounding its effectiveness and impact on children both in the long and short terms.

However, when we take a closer look at the hard evidence, homeschooling offers unique advantages over traditional classroom schooling that empowers both parents and students alike.

From customizing curriculum and teaching strategies to how homeschooling nurtures real social interactions and flexible schedules that fit your family’s needs and beyond, we’ll be answering all your questions in this new series from One-Room Education: The Real Benefits of Homeschooling.

Homeschooling’s Biggest Myth: Homeschooled Kids Lack Social Skills

I figured I would get the most obvious one out of the way first.

Probably the most common misconception about homeschooled children is that they don’t get enough social interaction. This stems from the mainstream and pop culture depictions of the “weird” homeschooled kid who doesn’t quite fit in when they eventually end up in public school (i.e. the movie Mean Girls).

This is a prevalent stereotype that seems to continue to haunt our society even today, when the homeschooling population in the U.S. alone has grown to over 3.7 million students, or right around 6% of the total K-12 student population nationwide.

The reality is that homeschooled students often engage in more meaningful human interactions than their public and private school counter parts.

Research has shown that homeschooled children build strong communication skills and social bonds through multi-age interactions in real-world environments, as opposed to the artificial and age-segregated setting of schools.

Now that we covered that one, let’s move on to probably the biggest advantage of homeschooling, customization.

Customizing Education to Fit Your Child

One of the greatest strengths of homeschooling is the ability to customize your child’s education in a way that suites them best.

Instead of adhering to a standardized curriculum, parents can tailor lessons to match their child’s learning style, interests and pace. This flexibility allows children to excel in areas where they show natural talent, while getting additional support in subjects they may find more challenging. Studies show that personalized learning improves both engagement and retention at all grade and skill levels.

This is the main reason we have chosen to create a Build Your Own Curriculum model here at One-Room Education, offering an ever growing variety of courses and one-off lessons for you to tailor to your student’s needs and interests.

If that sounds like something you’re interested in, head over to the One-Room Classroom and signup to get started, or use the Contact page to get your questions answered.

Flexible Schedules Foster Learning and Growth

It’s no secret that homeschooling allows for a flexible schedule, giving families the freedom to design days around their child’s and family’s natural rhythms.

This flexibility helps to reduce stress and increase a child’s ability to learn efficiently. If a student is forced into an unnatural sleep and academic schedule for them, it makes it much harder to break through those walls and achieve actual knowledge transfer and critical thinking as opposed to simple fact recall.

Fun fact: The typical school schedule, which is based on the industrial-era factory model, does not serve every child’s learning patterns equally.

For mor information on the Factory Model of education, check out our article and podcast episodes where we break it all down for you and tell you what it means for you and your students.

Contrasting the typical public and private school days, homeschoolers can take breaks when needed, travel for field trips or spend more time on topics that spark their curiosity fostering a true love of learning from the earliest ages.

This ability to take breaks when needed and start and end your school day when it fits your family best is one of the biggest, yet underrated benefits of homeschooling.

Social Interactions in the Real World

As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, socialization is one of the biggest concerns that people often have when they aren’t exposed to the homeschooling world in real life. Let me help put these concerns to further rest for you.

Rather than being isolated, homeschooled children often engage with a wider variety of individuals—people of different ages, backgrounds and experiences, with around 41% of the total U.S. homeschooling student population reporting to be non-white and non-Hispanic.

In addition to this built-in diversity, many homeschooled students opt to participate in extracurricular activities, community service and homeschool co-ops and pods that provide rich social environments. These experiences foster authentic socialization rather than forced interactions in a classroom.

This variety in their social interactions often makes homeschooled students preform better in the job market than their publicly educated counterparts. A theme you will continue to see as we dive deeper into the topic of homeschooling benefits in the future.

Final Thoughts:

Busting stereotypes and highlighting the benefits of home education is one of my greatest passions as both a former homeschooled kid and a current homeschooling mama, but I want to know what questions you have and what concerns you would like to see me address in this series. Let me know in the comments!

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