There are many parents considering their schooling options right now, because their children will be school age in the fall. Are you one of them? From the local public school, to French immersion, private school, and homeschooling, there is a lot to choose from. You may be asking yourself, “Is homeschooling right for me?”
Is Homeschooling Right For Me?
Do I have to be a teacher?
Absolutely not! Anyone can teach their children. You already are your child’s teacher! Teachers are the first to point out that every parent is their child’s first teacher. I believe any parent can teach their child. You don’t have to have any special training or education to parent, and you don’t have to have any to teach your own child – you know your child best.
Do I have to have a certain type of child?
Any child can thrive in a homeschool environment. Public school teachers would love to have the kind of one-on-one time you can have with your homeschooled child. Your child doesn’t have to be exceptional. Parents even homeschool their children with special needs, or with autism, or their gifted children. A study comparing the test scores of homeschooled Gr. 4 students who had special needs with a Gr. 4 public school class revealed that the homeschooled kids with special needs outperformed the normal public schooled kids!
Do I have to teach all the subjects?
While you certainly can – you don’t have to teach all the subjects yourself. There are fantastic curricula out there on video, online, or on CD. One example is Teaching Textbooks for math. The program gives your child lectures, lessons, and tests – it even does the marking for you. You can also find tutors or mentors for things like lab sciences. Homeschooled high schoolers can even take college or university classes for dual credit (earning high school credit and college credit at the same time).
Do I have to spend a lot of money?
You can spend as little or as much money as you wish. With the resources at your local library coupled with free resources online, you can homeschool for free if you wish. You can also buy an expensive, boxed curriculum. Most homeschoolers fall somewhere in between, with the average homeschooler spending about $500 per child per year.
Do I have to live in a large urban centre?
You may think you have to live in a large, urban centre with a big population of homeschoolers. While it’s nice to be able to get together, in person, with a community of homeschoolers, it’s not necessary to be successful in your homeschool journey. We live on an island with very few homeschoolers, and none in our rural area. I find my support in homeschooling communities online, and through my homeschooling blog. My children find friends in all sorts of places – mostly through their myriad of extracurricular activities. We are usually on the move seven days a week!
Do I have to have a homeschool room and desks?
While you can set aside an entire room if you wish, it isn’t necessary. We homeschool all over our home: the floor, the dining room table, the window seat, at the computer, on the bed, and even while sitting on an exercise ball or jumping on the mini-trampoline. We sometimes homeschool at a local cafe, or outside in the park. For that matter, we spend a lot of time homeschooling in our car, with CDs, audio books, DVDs, and games!
If you think homeschooling is right for you, check out How To Get Started for some tips.
Do you homeschool? Are you asking yourself, “Is homeschooling right for me?” Please share in the comments, below!
HOW BIG IS THAT BALL I AM ZACHERY SINGLE NOT MARRIED 21
Great post! We choose to home school b/c my son, who has autism, was being bullied so much. It has made a world of difference and we are so happy we did it.
Aww, I’m so sorry to hear your son was bullied. My son was bullied when we sent him to Kindergarten. I already wanted to homeschool him instead before we sent him, so I was more than happy to start homeschooling! Happy homeschooling, Kelly!
I love that there are so many options and ways for us to educate our children. We know that homeschooling is not right for us but have many friends who have done so successfully.
Thanks for sharing, Danielle!
So much great information. I have been thinking about whether I am going to home school. I still have some time to think about it.
It’s great to live in a place where there are educational options, isn’t it? :)
I love this article! We travel a lot, so we homeschool more by necessity than choice. It definitely has its challenges.
As a note for any Canadians out there, some provinces (BC and Alberta, but maybe some others), offer a distance education program run through the department of education. It’s free, and includes supervision by a regular school teacher. We love it!
Thanks for sharing. Glad to see another Canadian stopping by!
Homeschooling is such a hard job!!! Keep up the hard work.
Thanks, Kathy! It’s probably not as hard as you think – my kids do most of the work :)