Home is where work and play belong. Creating an environment where everyone can thrive is at the core of the homeschooling life. Home education is about learning, but not just about learning those subjects that have made it into mass education. Learning as a family cultivates deeper relationships through work and play.
Part of that “work” is gaining knowledge in the common school subjects, but there are many other types of work at home that homeschoolers have the opportunity to focus on and build up. Quality family time happens as you grow and mature together — siblings along with parents — as you build meaningful relationships, and as you work and play together.
One of the common benefits parents share to encourage other parents to choose homeschooling is the strong relationships to be had between parents and children, and between siblings. The separation of families in our current culture makes deep family bonds more difficult. Children sent to an institution for the majority of their childhood and both parents working full days away from home allows little time for relationship building.
The more time siblings spend growing and maturing together the more likely they will have a strong relationship that lasts into adulthood. In a similar manner, the more time a parent spends with their children, the easier it is to parent effectively. Experiencing the educational life together helps everyone in the family to have stronger bonds and know each other better.
Ten Reasons Home Education Works for Families
In the last 50 years, home education has been making a comeback in homes across the globe. Throughout the ages, parents have been guiding the education of their children with minimal assistance outside of their local connections. Today, parents have a massive selection of support, materials, and educational approaches to teach their children—even much more than the homeschooling pioneers of the 1970s.
More parents have been choosing to fully take on the education of their children almost every year since the 70s as they realize the many advantages of this high-quality form of education. Here are ten of the common benefits of parent-led education related to the strengthening of families:
1. Enjoy more ‘field trips’ together and more contact with the real world.
Whether it’s an outing to the park, a homeschool group meeting, or a trip to a museum, homeschooling allows families to interact more naturally and freely with the world around them.
2. More time for parents to really know their children.
More time together doing various activities and talking about a wide array of topics will naturally allow both parent and child to know each other better.
3. More meals prepared and eaten together.
That old cute saying, “a family that eats together stays together” isn’t lost on homeschooling families. Neither is the opportunity for children to be more involved in preparing and serving meals. Homeschooling families have the freedom to make every part of mealtime a family affair.
4. Families aren’t tied to the agenda of an institution.
Whether it’s the time-based agenda of attending school during specific hours or the agenda of the curriculum and social situations, homeschoolers are free from having to put their family life around the timing and values of a schooling system.
5. Children get more play time which enhances cognitive development.
As many home educating families will attest to, formal learning through curriculum really just takes 2-3 hours a day (a bit less for younger years, and a bit more for older years). This allows children to have more free time to play, explore, and experience their curiosities.
6. Homeschooling is relationship-based as opposed to product-based learning in the public school system.
Yes! Homeschooling is about relationships and honouring the way each child learns. A quality education is measured by how well the brain is developing in all areas — not just memorization and learning facts, but learning how to read well, write well, and think well. All this is a product of a customized education that cannot be offered in a mass education system.
7. Parents have more ways to relate to their children as they grow and develop.
Guiding and leading every area of their children’s lives means parents have various opportunities to walk alongside their children or encourage them in different experiences and challenges.
8. Siblings have stronger relationships with each other.
As is the case of the parent-child relationship, siblings who spend more time together doing various activities and talking about a wide array of topics will naturally allow them to know each other better.
9. Children have the freedom to learn on their own, have rich conversations, and mature without pressures to ‘join the crowd’.
Children feel little need to conform to the leading of their siblings — even if a brother or sister is trying to lead them in the right way! In the home environment, children feel much more relaxed and sure of themselves, especially with the support of a parent close-at-hand to build them up in their areas of weakness.
10. Parents can realize the important influence they have over their children.
When parent and child are separated for hours in a day, influencing behaviours and values can’t be done consistently. Children have parents to raise them up and that becomes difficult to do when there is so much of their development that the parent isn’t around to see over time.
Many parents still consider public school the only educational option for their children yet with just a bit of a shift in priorities many families have embraced the homeschooling lifestyle and all the benefits it brings to their family time, as well as the superior education. As parents understand the teaching part is a skill to be learned, just like any other skill they have already attained, the individual family benefits of homeschooling win out. Families thrive when they work and play together.
