Homeschooling has been around a very long time and very often gets a bad rap. The schools don’t want it, why would they? It shows them up, and they lose budget money if you don’t go. However, you do have to make the effort to teach your child, you can’t just say homeschooling, hand them a book and leave for work. Your job as a parent is to make their lives better and give them the best tools they can have for the future. Here are a few things to know about homeschooling you might not realize.

Many teachers homeschool

It’s true, ask some teachers sometime. We have never met a teacher that didn’t have their child in private schools or home taught. That ought to tell you something about our schooling system. We are not saying our system is bad, but if teachers aren’t using it, then to us, that says enough.

Freedom to learn

In homeschooling, you can devote one on one time for learning and your child will learn faster. There is a flexibility to learn. They are free to learn anything. They are not forced into a curriculum in a room full of kids, and a teacher that can’t spend the time to make sure that they all understand what’s being taught There is nothing better than one on one teaching.

, you can devote one on one time for learning and your child will learn faster. There is a flexibility to learn. They are free to learn anything. They are not forced into a curriculum in a room full of kids, and a teacher that can’t spend the time to make sure that they all understand what’s being taught There is nothing better than one on one teaching.

You don’t always have to be the teacher

If you are worried that you didn’t have the time to teach every day, there are many homes schooled support groups. Though if you get involved with other parents in support groups, make sure they have the same philosophy as you do. Parents can volunteer to take groups of children out of museums, or other learning things, just as you can volunteer the same. You are not alone.

You don’t need to know everything

You suck at history, so how are you going to teach history? Well, you don’t have to know everything. As long as you have access to information. The internet is a wonderful thing. The difference between a child that soaks up information and you is you have learned to find what you need to know.

You can get teachers discounts

Funnily enough, if you homeschool you can often get discounts on educational materials. Teachers discounts. You will have to check each place but more often than not, you can do it, and that makes life a lot better.

You learn as well as your children

You will find that you learn more yourself, and improve your own life by learning to teach your child. There is an old saying that you never learn so fast as when you teach.

You get closer to your children

You will spend a lot of quality time with your child. You will learn to understand them better, and how they think. Much more than if you just hang out with them or play with them. Teaching them will teach you more about them and the memories you make will last forever.

They are not isolated

Very often people say that homeschooled are isolated as if they are locked in some back room of the house never to be let out. This far from the truth, they go out, have friends, can do things just like any child. Kids are kids. They play sports, or ride bikes and make friends. The friends don’t care if they are homeschooled. And will probably envy them that they are. If you worry, there are always homeschooled get-togethers of other homeschooled kids in the area; you just have to look around.

Well adjusted

Homeschooled kids tend to be fairly well adjusted, as well as learn to act better with other adults. When you are in school our major peers are other kids the same age, this is not always the best, but if your kids are used to talking and associating with adults you will find they act more like adults in social settings but can still be a kid.

It’s not all about tests

Most schools these days base their funding off test performance, that is not learning, that is learning to take tests. We do not believe that is what school is about. School is about learning. Taking information with you to the future, finding out what you love. Help your children grow, not to become a statistic.

Find out local state laws

Every state has different laws for homeschooling, so it is best to find out what is right in your home state. All states allow it though and it is legal.

Teach them to love to learn

The most important lesson that you can teach them is to love to learn. Kids are full of questions and ask many things all the time, think about it. Isn’t that what learning is? You need to encourage that, make them love to learn and it will feed itself. Soon they will be teaching you.

Organize, not micromanage

Kids are notoriously all over the place, but that’s part of growing up. You are best to be loosely organized, and not to micromanage. If math is not working today and they want to talk about animals, then change over to animals, help them learn for themselves, don’t try and force feed them.

The library is your friend

The library, which is forgotten by many in this day and age of the internet, is an amazing resource. You can get a lot of learning tools, as well as experiments and such at the local library. If they don’t have it, they can order it from the main library. There are also great textbooks you can get there too. Teach your child about the library, and they will find wonder for themselves.

Flexible curriculum

You don’t have to teach the same things every day, you don’t have to go through maths, english, biology, art, etc. every day in order. You can flow with what is exciting and fun for the day. If maths are difficult for you, there are actually video games that are quite fun that help work through the maths, so let them play the video games. That will never happen in a normal school, but your child will learn faster than any normal school if you flow with them.

We are a great believer in homeschooling. You don’t have to be a genius or a professor to teach your children. You have had a full life and learned to survive, so teach your child. You probably know more of the basics that you believe, so it is not as difficult as you think. Just remember, you DO have to make the effort and teach them. It is family time, you should look forward to it, if you look forward to it, they probably will too. Make it all fun and a game. You will find you might have forgotten how much you love learning as well.