this morning, ellie was just not herself. she wanted hugs and to be held for a good 20 mins after i got her dressed, before breakfast. not having a bus to catch or a place to go, i was able to just hold her, rock her and tell her how much i love her.
after breakfast, nate decided he wanted to build a camp, he spent a good hur outside, with ellie "helping" him, creating, gathering and making his fort. he has the freedom for free play. i put the girls to nap and said "nate, 5 mins and ill be back" his reply? "sure mom, ill meet you upstairs" meaning he knows its time for book work, no fighting, no arguing, no attitude. he knows when he's done his book work, he's free to go back outside...
just another reason why i truly love home schooling
orig linky
http://www.mariannesunderland.com/2014/12/08/why-homeschooling-good/
Homeschooling is Good for Kids
1. No continual comparison to other kids their age. We all want to be accepted and liked. Without the continual comparison afforded by being in school all day, 185 days a year, kids are more free to be themselves.2. Limited peer pressure. I don’t think we should put our kids in a bubble but I like being able to allow my kids the freedom from living under peer pressure day after day.
3. Time to explore interests. With the one-on-one tutoring style of the homeschool environment, kids are generally able to finish their studies much quicker – allowing more time for exploring interests.
4. One-on-one teaching. One-on-one teaching allows individualized instruction that meets kids where they are at allowing them to push ahead or stay back, if necessary.
5. Lots of time to play. I always say that young boys should dig for at least 15 minutes a day. Seriously though, young kids learn SO much through play.
6. Lots of interaction with adults. This speaks directly to the issue of socialization. Kids who are socialized by all ages, including adults, are exposed to much richer experiences.
7. Lots of opportunities during the day. No day is the same in the homeschool. Taking field trips are a natural progression of the homeschool lifestyle.
8. Learn at their own pace. We homeschool with mastery in mind. If a child misses half of their spelling words, we review them until they are learned rather than skipping ahead to the next list of words. It is not uncommon to have a 5th grade homeschooled student in 5th grade in one subject and a higher or lower grade level in another subject.
9. Outperform their peers on standardized tests. (source) Not that I’m big into standardized testing, but this fact does impress the homeschool naysayers.
11. Homeschooled kids tend to think more independently. We want our kids to be independent thinkers, better able to discern truth.
12. Individualized education means less boredom. Not that my kids are never bored but teaching them in ways that they learn best do tend to keep their interests more than a dry textbook approach.
13. Work for knowledge and not for grades. We don’t give grades in the elementary grades. We are working more towards laying a foundation for future learning than for performing on a test.
14. Homeschooling methods often instill a love of learning.
15. Homeschooling encourages the growth of authentic social skills.
16. Homeschooling allows kids to be sheltered from some {unfortunate} realities such as school bullies, weapons and violence, illicit sex and troubled kids.
Homeschooling is Good for Moms
17. Can really know their kids. This can sometimes be a bad thing in the sense that our kids’ character flaws tend to mirror our own flaws as parents. Painful as that can be sometimes, being around our kids all day long does afford us a unique vantage point to view their hearts.18. Can teach with the methods that work for each child. I am all about the freedom we enjoy as homeschoolers. Varying our teaching methods is not only good for kids, it is good for moms, bringing more effective and enjoyable teaching.
19. Can teach with real life. It’s hard to raise animals in a classroom or to do many of the hands-on projects that homeschooled families have access to.
20. Can teach with interest-led learning. Completing the 3 R’s can be done fairly quickly in the homeschool, allowing kids to pursue their interests in the afternoons. Our kids have bred animals, traveled extensively, pursued sailing, internships and careers long before they graduated from high school.
21. Can relax and learn together. In true one room school house fashion, younger kids learn alongside the older kids and many older kids are natural teachers of the younger ones. This is indeed good for moms!
22. Can observe kids’ talents. The day-to-day time spent together as a homeschooling family allows parents to observe budding talents and interests at an early age. I’ve already mentioned how the shorter school h0meschool day allows for more time to pursue those interests.
23. Can observe kids’ faults and correct. Spending all day together gives parents the unique {albeit tiring at times} ability to see and correct their kids’ character faults consistently.
24. Unique opportunity to help form their character throughout the day. I try to look at my kids misbehaviors as opportunities for character training. We have lots of these opportunities!
25. Forced to handle behavior problems so that the home is a peaceful place. When I was a young mom, I yearned for time alone, away from my family. Now, 24 years later, that myth of ‘me time’ has been blown away. It simply does not help! What does help is to face behavior issues straight up. The result? A more peaceful home.
26. Able to be with kids all day and not leave them in someone else’s care. I know that there are some amazing teachers out there – even teachers that are way more talented than me. However, know one loves and cares for the well-being of my child like me.
27. Can walk kids through difficulties they face. Of course all parents are able to do this but helping kids within the more intimate homeschool community is awesome because like-minded parents can model conflict resolutions that really work.
28. Experience the ‘firsts’. Not only first steps etc, but reading their first word, losing their first tooth, and other life milestones.
29. Stretches us to grow in knowledge. I have learned so much from homeschooling my own kids. Although I would be okay if I never had to teach another person to solve for X and Y!
30. Stretches us to grow in grace. Kids tend to mirror our own weaknesses. Boy is this humbling! Thankfully, with some humility, we can learn to bear with one another and grow in grace.
31. Stretches us to grow in humility. See above!
32. No high pressure mornings trying to get everyone out the door to go to school.
33. Kids’ fresh insights and ideals are inspiring.
34. I am learning to appreciate the everyday.
35. Seeing the lightbulb go off when your kids really ‘get’ something and knowing that it was you who taught them.
Homeschooling is Good for Families
36. Siblings are best friends. It’s true. Watching our kids develop strong relationships with one another was an unexpected blessing of our long term homeschooling lifestyle.37. Kids learn what it means to serve out of love. Our kids have had ample opportunity to help teach and care for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. It can be hard at times but also very rewarding and life-changing.
38. Kids learn to cook. This may have occurred out of sheer necessity but the benefits are still there! I could barely cook when I went off to college and neither could my roommates. Top Ramen and rice were the extent of our cooking repertoire. This could also fall under the ‘good for moms’ category.
39. Kids learn to care for one another. Schooling family style necessarily means that everyone pitches in to help. This fosters a strong sense of love and care for one another.
40. Kids gain experience with many ages – not just their grade. This fits in with numbers 30-33 above. Homeschooled kids are comfortable and compassionate around kids younger and older than themselves.
41. Fathers have more opportunity to be involved in sons lives. In our own family, our teen sons go to work with my husband and learn our boat building business. Both of our oldest sons have been competent in the marine and yachting business before graduating from high school.
42. Can create our own schedules that work for our families. From daily schedules to yearly schedules, homeschooling allows families to structure their days, weeks and years to suit their own unique needs.
43. Can transfer family values and beliefs. I know that for our Christian family, passing along biblical values to our kids is super important and one of the main reasons that we homeschool. Homeschooling provides the opportunity for us to pass a long a Christian worldview in the day to day of life.
44. Necessarily limits negative influences. While people are people no matter whether you homeschool or not, homeschooling provides more freedom to choose who your family will spend time with, or not.
45. Provides a safe learning environment. With the increase in bullying, drugs and school shootings, homeschooling provides a safety for our kids to learn and grow.
46. Can take vacations during the school year. Many homeschool families take advantage of the inherent freedom in scheduling and take family trips in the off-seasons when travel is less expensive and less crowded.
47. Relationships are stronger with parents resulting in parents being more influential than peers.
48. Families can learn together.
49. Kids have a natural sense of wonder. Homeschooling allows families to explore new things together
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50. Homeschooling means parents are available. Parents can be ‘there’ for their kids when they need to talk.
Homeschooling is Good for Learning
51. Students can study a wider variety of subjects than is offered in school.52. More in depth studies. When something in of particular interest, it can be studied in depth – no mile wide and inch deep learning here.
53. Younger kids observe and learn from older kids.
54. Everyday life is all about learning – from trips to the grocery store to fixing plumbing, caring for babies and preparing meals.
55. Kids learn to think, discuss and explore thoughts without fear of being laughed at or ignored.
56. School hours are for learning. When you are done, you are done, even if you finish early.
57. Learning about running a home. Our kids can practically run the entire house by the time they are 10 meaning that they can cook, clothe and care for one another and the house.
58. The birds and the bees. Learn about ‘sex education’ from parents in a way that parents deem appropriate.
59. Unhurried learning can take place.
60. Real, meaningful work. No busy work.
61. Creativity is encouraged. Ingenuity and outside the box thinking is encouraged.
62. Learn to challenge assumptions. Talking and thinking together outside of a curriculum allows deeper thought and reasoning.
63. Kids learn. Not just how to pass the test.
Homeschooling is Good for Kids With Learning Difficulties
64. Good for different learners. Some kids need to move to learn, some need to talk or see or hear. Homeschooling allows for kids to learn the way that they learn best.65. Homeschooling allows kids the freedom to figure out how they learn best by trial and error.
66. Get the help they need. As the parent of kids with dyslexia, we were able to get the exact kind of help we needed.
67. Get help when you need it. I talk to many parents of kids with dyslexia and other learning struggles. The difficulty in getting the schools to recognize their kids troubles and to get the help that the kids need can take years. When we realized that we were out of our depth with our kids reading struggles, we hired a tutor right away.
68. Progress at their own level. This is never more important than with a child with learning struggles.
69. Little or no comparison to kids who are traditional learners.
70. No medications. I know for a fact that at least 2 of our non-traditional learners would be encouraged to take medication if they were in school. We have been able to tailor their learning so that they can move, do shorter, more intense sessions and be outside more so that they are better able to concentrate and pay attention.
71. Use curricula that work. I don’t often use the term learning disability. After parenting and educating kids with dyslexia for 24 years, I understand dyslexia to be a learning difference. This difference requires different teaching methods.
72. Use methods that work. If something isn’t working, we can change it. We can choose which ever method works.
73. Provide accommodations as needed. No need for complicated and emotionally draining meetings. Just give your kids the accommodations that they need to succeed.
74. Finding what they are good at. For kids who struggle academically, it is super important that they find what they are good at – especially during the school years. Knowing what they do excel at helps their confidence.
75. Taking breaks when needed. For whatever reason, some days teaching kids with dyslexia is like going to battle. Nothing is clicking and every minute is agony. Homeschooling allows for taking a break for a day or switching out one activity for another. Usually the next day, learning is back on track with emotions and relationships in tact.
76. Can be taught with compassion. Kids who don’t learn like you do can be frustrating. Ask me how I know! I have heard way too many stories about uneducated teachers misjudging kids with learning issues and therefore mistreating them.
77. No falling behind. What does that even mean?
78. No getting lost in the system. Mom and Dad know exactly where their kids are and how they are doing every day.
79. No labeling. To read more on my thoughts on labeling – read this. My kids with dyslexia know that they have dyslexia and they are okay with it.
Homeschooling is Good for Health
80. Sleeping schedules. Research has shown that many kids today are not getting enough sleep.Homeschooling allows for plenty of sleep.
81. Sick less often. Less exposure to germs means fewer colds and other illnesses.
82. Stay home when sick without missing assignments.
83. Eating healthier foods. It is easier to have a home made, whole food diet if you’re not packing it!
84. Essential oils. We diffuse essential oils when there is cold or flu going around. We also use essential oils for our kids’ attention issues with great success.
85. School can be done outside. Vitamin D anyone?
Random Reasons That Homeschooling is Good for Families
86. Can do school in jammies.87. Can do school with pets.
88. More time to care for and play with pets
89. Lots of family read aloud time.
90. No homework and the fighting it inspires.
91. No busywork and the boredom it inspires.
92. No uniforms or other clothing pressures.
93. Taking ‘field trips’ to the beach when it is hot, even when it is a schoolday.
94. Birthdays are school holidays
95. Field trips
96. Long term travel
97. Dual enrollment
98. Work experience
99. Look at the statistics. “The trend in public schools show that the longer a child is in the public schools, the lower he scores on standardized tests. On average, the home education students in this study scored above the national norm in all subject areas on standardized achievement tests… well above the national average.”
100. And more statistics. “The average homeschool 8th grade student performs four grade levels above the national average.”
Literally, the world is your classroom.
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