The pro's and con's of homeschooling

We have had such a lovely summer here on the lake and now we are nearly half way through August, which means the beginning of school is on our minds lately!  Every year about this time, I start to make sure I have all the curriculum we need for the upcoming year ordered, school supplies refreshed and organized, and we start to work on a rough schedule for the school year.  This will be our 5th year homeschooling, and I am just now starting to feel like we have a good philosophy for our family when it comes to learning and how we learn best,  as well as a good understanding on this amazing journey of homeschooling.  I learn something new every single day, and I am definitely not an expert but I thought it would be fun and interesting to share a bit about the 'pro's & con's of homeschooling' for others that are curious as to what we homeschool mama's do on a daily basis!  While I write this from an obvious place of being 'pro homeschool' I want to be completely honest with the hard parts too, because we all know that there is no way of schooling that is perfect and not every day will be sunshine and rainbows no matter what kind of school you go to ;)  Homeschooling works for our family right now, and we truly love and enjoy it, but as you read on know that we are totally open to other ways of schooling also and we know that every family has their own journey to follow!

Here are some of the Pro's:

Flexibility,  This is by far one of my most favourite things about homeschooling,  Not only can you do 'school' anywhere, in a school room, at the kitchen table, in the backyard or at the beach to name a few examples.  You can do it any day of the week you want also!  If you have a husband that works weekends and has his time off during the weekdays, you can switch around when you do school to have the most amount of family time.  You can do longer days of school and have longer weekends, or do shorter days of school more often.  You can school on a road trip, and take family vacations any time of year and travel during non peak times.  If someone is sick you can take the day off and make it up another day.  You can start early if you have a family of early birds and be done way before lunch, or start late if you all like to sleep in, the possibilities are endless!

Family Bonding,  Another one of my favourite things about homeschooling is how much time the kids and I get to spend together.  They are young for such a short time, and all the concentrated time we spend each day is an absolute blessing!  To learn to love each other and be together during every good day and every hard day is building our family bond through every up and down, and I couldn't be more thankful that I have the option to stay home with my kids!  Of course the kids bicker or get frustrated with one another but they have no choice but to get along and make it work, because they are each others classmates and friends as well as siblings.  Seeing them play and laugh together and share jokes warms my heart, and seeing an older child help a younger child with some school is also an awesome way for them to learn to teach and be a helper.

Freedom,  Along with the flexibility also comes freedom, educational freedom!  Being homeschoolers in Ontario at the present time we can teach what we want to teach!  I count this as a real blessing because it allows us to do individualized lessons for each child and their personalities and the way they learn best. They don't need to fit into a box, and they don't need to sit at a desk for a certain amount each day.  If they have got a concept down, we can move on, and if they need more time we can take all the time we need!  This is a beautiful thing, especially for families with children who have any learning or behaviour challenges, as we do.  We also love that we can do character building with a focus on the morals that matter to us as a family, including spending time talking about our faith every day.  We can do as much art, music, or nature studies as well want, and if we need to stand up and have a dance party to get those wiggles out, (which happens frequently) we can easily take the time to do that.

One on One learning,  some kids need more of this then others, and in our family the one on one time is crucial to being able to focus, and grasp new concepts.  I am so grateful to have the time each school day to spend some one on one time with each of my kids and work with them on what they are struggling with and cheer them on with the things they are excelling in.  Because of all the one on one time, we don't need to do much testing, as I am able to get a good handle on their strengths and weaknesses on a daily basis and know what we really need to buckle down on.  The one on one time I am able to give each day also serves to give each child the confidence and assurance that we can work through things together and know that I am rooting for them and here for them.

Rewarding, when you put the time and effort into homeschooling your children every day, the little successes you see are so rewarding!  I love teaching them and watching them learn and grasp something and see them grow and succeed.  To watch them enjoy learning something is also a big blessing, when you see them devour a book, or delve into researching more about something you know the love of learning is growing.  We also learn together, if there is something I don't know (aka. had to do a big re-fresh on a long division last year) we work on it together, and I do it along side of them.  We are in this together!  When we complete a productive week at school, that feeling is so rewarding and encourages me to keep putting in the hard work and time!

No Homework!  When you homeschool, all work is homework, which means we don't need to spend hours late at night doing additional homework because we have already done it during the day!  The extra practice we need on certain subjects can happen during our school day, which leaves a lot of time for the kids to be kids.  We love to encourage lots of outdoor time every day, in every season, nature exploring and hikes are some of our favourites.  As well as imaginary play, and our kids love to 'invent' things, these activities are so important, and we are glad to have lots of time to do them.  In addition to this, let's be honest....we can do school in our P.J's and what is not to love about that ;)

Here are some of the Con's:

NO breaks!  As a homeschool Mom I am 'on' 24 hours a day 7 days a week, my kids are always home, no breaks.  This means that even on days when I am not really 'feeling it' I have to rally, because no one but me is going to stay at home and teach my kids.  Where many parents have the option of booking appointments during school hours or running errands while their kids are at school, those are the outings that I am bringing all 3 of my kiddos along to.  My husband often remarks how many 'lunch dates' we could have if our kids were in school.  It's definitely a sacrifice, but one I am willing to make for what God has called me to do.  There are also ways to combat this and make sure we all get much needed breaks, but that is for another post ;)

Financial, homeschooling is not free!  While there are many ways to do it very cost effectively, curriculum can be expensive.  There are also the extra curricular activities and lessons, and most homeschool families are doing this all on one income, as one of the parent needs to be home full time to make it work.  It can definitely be done, but again I feel that this subject could be a whole post in itself!

It's Not Easy!  As I mentioned above, homeschooling is not a walk in the park, it takes a lot of discipline and dedication to keep going every day in a good routine.  A homeschool Mom has to keep organized and keep the positive morale every day, even if she's not feeling it.  Many times we take our free time at night to plan lessons and get things ready for the next day.  It's hard to just 'wing it' if your not prepared.  I always tell people who ask, that you have to REALLY love and want to do homeschooling to make it happen, because if your only 'half in' it's going to be hard to find that motivation every day.

Easy To Compare,  when you are the sole person in charge of your child's education it's easy to look around and compare how far along your kids are to other kids, or how other homeschool mom's teach compared to how you teach.  This is a slippery slope, and so while it's easy to read other blogs and see other peoples pictures on instagram of their seemingly perfect homeschool days, it's so important to remember that like I said above every family has their own journey and you can't spend your days comparing to how other families are doing it.

Effort into socializing, while I do believe with all my heart that homeschool kids can be absolutely awesomely socialized, there is an effort that needs to go into that.  Homeschool Mom's need to seek out opportunities for their kids to be social with people of all ages, and it doesn't just happen by sitting at home. So if your a 'homebody introvert' like me,  a challenge in homeschooling is making sure my kids have enough opportunities to be social.  Luckily my kids are all very social unlike me, and they make it easy to remember to plan things and get out!

Second guessing, I wanted to make sure I have en equal number of pro's and con's, and so I am throwing this last one in here, as a homeschool Mom there is a lot of 'second guessing' going on.  Did I pick the right curriculum?  Am I doing too many hours of school a day? Or not enough?  Do they need extra help in this subject?  Are they learning too much or too little?  I've found over the years that there is a lot of these questions going on, especially with 3 very different children, who learn in very different ways.  Second guessing your choices is something that happens frequently in this homeschool journey.

So there you have it!  That is just the tip of the ice burg in the pro's and con's of homeschooling, and I definitely learn more every year, and try to shift things to better suit the changing needs of our family.  No matter what kind of schooling you choose, there is always pro's and con's and things that you love and things you wish you could change, so I truly feel you need to pick the kind of schooling God has called you to, and the one you feel is best for your family!  I also believe that whatever kind of schooling God has called your family to He will lead you through it, and be your wisdom and guide.  I know that I could not homeschool every day if it weren't for the strength from the Lord and the support of my family.  I know that my husband and our parents are all on board with homeschooling and that helps immensely!  And though the days can be long, the years really are short and I am so thankful for this time I have at home with my kids, I know I will never regret it.  If you have anymore questions about homeschooling, or if you are a homeschool Mom and you want to add to my list of pro's and con's please leave a comment below!  I am sure I will do more homeschool posts in the future so if there is any subject within homeschooling you are interested please ask, I love to share!

Thanks for reading ;) please share with a friend!