Home Schooling

With all the advances in education and teaching methods over the last hundred years, are there really any good reasons why children should not be sent to school but be taught at home? Are there any home school advantages? After all home schooling is as old as mankind - till a few hundred years ago most children never went to school and learned everything they needed from their parent at home. Is there a sound reason why some parents should choose the turn their backs on the modern system of education and stick with something that has been around for thousands of years? The answer is first that parent who choose home school for their children are not turning their backs on modern education, they are simply choosing to impart it in their own way and secondly, that home schooling today has little relation with the informal home education given in the past.

Even the best of teachers are limited by the size of the classes they teach. They have to work to the average requirements of the children and do not have the time to focus on the special needs of each child. Parents understand their children and their special requirements and so are able to tailor the teaching they do so to the child is able to perform to his or her best.

School curricula does offer choices in the subjects student takes but these are limited and based on popular demand. One of the many home school advantages is that parents can focus on the specific talents of their children and provide them education to develop their special skills, some thing that a school cannot do for one or two children. Additionally, there are important life skills that are best taught by active participation, such as shopping for healthy foods or home repair that schools cannot provide but which can be learned home.

Much of the time spent in school is not on learning, but in waiting. Children sit in the bus, sometimes for hours to get to and from school. In school itself they wait for a teacher to finish a subject they have already completed, wait for other students to finish their work, wait for lunch and wait in lines for just about everything. Among the other home school advantages is the fact that children educated at home do not have to waste time in this manner and even while working at their own pace, can finish a day's worth of study in about half the time it takes in a normal school environment. This gives them time to other things that may not be part of a school curriculum but are still import for their futures.

Many people regard the extended time a family spends together as the most important of all home school advantages. The more time a family spends together, the strong are the bonds that develop. These bonds and the greater influence that the parents exert make it easier for the children to absorb the values the parent hold important and reduces the chance of negative peer pressure having a harmful influence on them.