Some benefits of homeschool…

Some benefits you may not have thought of…

You decide exactly what the kids learn, and if you have any complaints about the syllabus or their progress you address them. Not enough drama lessons? No problem, arrange them! Want your kids to excel in public speaking? Find some courses!
No school entrance exams or end-of-term assessments, so life is a lot less stressful. You just have to get the kids to pass their public exams, and that’s it.
If you have a late night, the following day the kids can get up late.
No school run and stress in the morning to get out of the house by a certain time.
You can go on holiday when you want. And when you have visitors staying over the kids can take as much time off as needed.
Teachers you hire are personally selected for the kids, and you can ensure every minute of the lesson is being used effectively.
No class projects which are a waste of time, and the parents do half of it anyway. And if you think class projects are important, you can find homeschool groups that do them.
Kids have so much time it’s ridiculous. It means they can do whatever they’re passionate about. Reading, sports, technology, rock climbing, horse-riding.
Kids learn to socialise with people of different ages. I’ve noticed my kids are able to get on with kids both older and younger than them, and enjoy chatting with adults. My own view is that modern day school, where a bunch of, say, 10 year olds constantly spend all day with each other, is not good.
It can be great fun for the parent that stays at home. Ensuring the kids socialise can be by having a coffee with friends that also homeschool. Not exactly hard work!
The kids stay away from negative influences at school. We choose the kids our kids spend time with, and they’re all decent kids we think ours can learn from.
No bullying. Being bullied kills a child’s confidence. If my kids went to university and were bullied, I doubt they’d just shrivel up and die on the spot. It might be a little more difficult for them, but they would manage, especially if they’ve been made aware of it in advance. Humans adapt fast.
The family unit becomes very strong. I feel our family is a lot more closely knit than most. We feel like one team with a common goal, and homeschool makes us feel different and special. I guess if everyone did it, it’d no longer be the case!
Healthier diet. Schools, like restaurants, mass produce food with focus on keeping costs down. That means processed food, high in salt and refined sugar – a diet that studies show causes development problems and shortens life expectancy. Homeschool can address that. And it also means that if your child has special needs, such as being overweight or underweight, it’s easier to provide a customised diet.
Compared to a private education, you save a lot of money. I’ll break down our costs in another post, but we are spending around US$4k per child per year without making any effort to save costs. A good private school in Malaysia costs around US$20k per annum. Hopefully we will take 5 years to do what schools do in 12 years, so we’d be saving US$220k per child.
And let’s not omit the obvious, homeschool kids do way better academically than school kids. See this, which comes from a major US study.