I homeschool my children. Why? All the perks that lead to a better overall development for my kids:

1. Family Relationships - if your kids attend traditional insitutionalized school they are away from home for anywhere from 6-8 hours of the day where they are surrounded by people who are not their family. Although external relationships are great teachers for the outside world, why give up your kids to public or private school strangers when you can build a loving, familial foundation.

2. Flexibility of Curriculum - Our family follows the interest based curriculum - aka if it interests my kids I teach them based around that subject. You can integrate math, language, social studies, etc. into one thematic unit and really impact your childs learning by focusing on what they want to learn - at other schools you just get the general consensus of what should be learned with little personal impact.

3. Following your natural biorythyms. In homeschool you have the flexibility to sleep in. You don't have to get up in time for the school bus, there is no need to be on someone else's timetable - you set your own.

4. Dress for comfort - not code. You can learn in your pj's, wear whatever is comfortbale to you, grow, color and style your hair in any way shape or means you choose. You are not binding your child's creative clothing expression to preset rules and guidelines.

5. Field trips with meaning. You can choose where you go, and how long you stay. Traditional schools are forced to get back for buses, whereas a homeschooling family can spend an entire day at a museum, fair, gallery, manufacturing plant, etc. without having to worry about getting back so kids can catch a bus. You also can build lessons around the fieldtrips for extended learning - public and private school teachers typically don't have time for that and field trips are a "break" not a learning opportunity.

6. Peer control - parents can decide who their child spends 6-8 hours of their day with, rather than having a geographical boundary do it for them. You can keep your kids with like-minded individuals or expose them to new cultures and peoples - but be there to help them interact and learn about each other, rather than be stuck with kids at random.

7. Life as education - many homeschool families have the opportunity of offering hands on training in their vocational field, whether the family owns their own business or works for someone else, often homeschooled kids are involved in real world applications with what they are learning much sooner than traditionally schooled children.

8. Catering to special needs with one-on-one attention. If you have a special needs child, the best thing you might do for them is homeschool where they can get one-on-one loving attention from their parents and an education that accomodates their health concerns.

9. Domestic skills - homeschooled students are more likely to be well versed in domestic skills such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, and other daily living skills because they are there when they happen - then at an external school like many other students - so they get to learn about household duties as part of their schooling from day one, instead of choosing it as an elective in middle or high school.

10. Learning that to be different is not a bad thing. Homeschooling is growing as a form of education worldwide, and it encourages your child to be the one thinking outside of the box and sow their own oats much sooner than traditionally schooled students who must behave according to standardized guidelines, tests and norms.

Learn more about this author, Lauri Jean Crowe.
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