Homeschooling: Benefits and Top Tips for Success

Due to our current situation, education will have to change faster than any other time in our lives. With school closures and the surrounding uncertainty around how to safely reopen campuses, many are considering homeschooling when they most likely wouldn’t have before. What you might be surprised to learn is that there are many benefits to homeschooling that we’ll share with you here along with our top tips for homeschool success. 

The benefits of homeschooling

1. No homework- you probably won’t hear any arguments from your kids on this one. Because you’re setting the pace, you can take your time to ensure your child understands and gets sufficient practice within an eight hour day. 
2. Flexibility – The optimal pace and time spent on a subject will depend on your child. In a public school setting, this is merely broken up into one hour blocks. So whether your child is behind and needs more help or is ahead and could benefit from moving on, they still spend an hour covering a subject: no more and no less. At home though, you’re able to set the schedule to their needs, strengths and weaknesses.  
3. Increased efficiency – Because of the flexibility in curriculum and scheduling, you’ll be able to cover more material in less time. Since you can make adjustments when homeschooling, if your child is ahead in one area, you won’t have to spend as much time on it. Consequently, the entire school day or term could be shorter or you could cover much more material in the same amount of time. It’s up to you!
4. Time to be human– You can give your kids back things that schools have been cutting. For example, schools have been drawing controversy for years by cutting recess even though doctors have been recommending that children get 60 minutes of exercise per day. 
5. Homeschooled students perform BETTER on standardized tests – This piece from Business Insider cites some encouraging statistics on homeschooled children. It found that they perform better on standardized tests including the ACT and SAT. Not only that, but they were more successful than their peers in college with a 67% graduation rate vs 59% for public school educated students. 
6. College Admissions – Due to the flexibility of homeschooling, you’ll be able to create a curriculum that results in a strong transcript full of the points that top colleges look for. In addition, since homeschooled students perform better on standardized tests, your child could have an increased overall chance of getting into the college of their choice. 
7. Flexible Schedules! – Public schools across the country pretty much begin at 8:00am and end at 3:00pm. This creates many problems, traffic and time lost being key among them. Homeschooling can accommodate the hours that work best for your family. As a result, while it may seem that homeschooling would take more of your time, it could save it. In addition, holidays can be taken as needed rather than following the public school’s calendar.
8. Increased independence – Many students feel pressure to fit in socially. Socializing at school is great. But there are downsides to the politics of needing to fit in. Students in many situations can become over reliant on groupthink or consensus. In a homeschooling situation though, it is more likely that your child will learn to find the answers and solve problems on their own. 
9. Increased transparency – When sending your child to on-campus classes, there is always a bit of a disconnect. It’s easy for us to get busy with the day-to-day of home and work life and not be able to fully grasp the details of our childrens’ education. With homeschooling though, you will have a much clearer understanding of the progress your child is making and what they’re learning. 
10. More effective learning – Public school classrooms are full of potential distractions. There are other children with their own individual needs to be addressed as well as the social pressures. At home though, your child can just focus on learning without all of these obstacles. 

Top Tips for Homeschooling Success

• Get creative with what’s available – Many of us go into homeschooling feeling like we need to become an expert teacher who knows everything overnight. Not necessarily though. One of the greatest strengths of any teacher is the ability to seek out and utilize all of the resources at their disposal. Our blog on Virtual Travel, for example, had some wonderful educational experiences that you could treat as an “At-home field trip.”Also,  Scholastic and education.com have lesson plans that you can modify to fit your needs. 
• Look for homeschooling groups – There are a plethora of blogs and social media groups dedicated to homeschooling where parents can reach out to ask for advice or share tips and success stories. You can likely find a group dedicated to your area. If not, you can start one!
• Take it as an opportunity to learn with your child – Doing science experiments and showing them how you would find out information yourself reinforces independence and self-learning.
• Establish a routine – This includes setting a homeschooling framework such as learning hours and if at all possible a dedicated space. This will decrease the possibility that any little obstacle or setback derails your progress. 
• Eliminate distractions – Phones, computers, pets and your spouse’s Zoom calls are all possible distractions from learning. Having rules such as putting the phone away and keeping the family dog outside during homeschool hours could go a long way in addressing these distractions. 
• Be patient – Homeschooling doesn’t mean that your child will pick up everything you know the first time you tell them and only because you told them. Determining their learning style and when they’re ready to progress can be a challenge, but homeschooling gives you that flexibility. 
• Be mindful of requirements – Every state will have their own homeschooling requirements for curriculum and compulsory assessments. They are vastly different from one another. Something else to consider in terms of requirements is transcripts for college admissions. The Homeschool Mom made a free-to-download template here. 

Wrap up

With all of the school closures and the entirety of our current situation, it is understandable to feel overwhelmed. Hopefully these benefits and top tips help give you a great starting point this fall. In addition, we are proud to introduce FLS Learning Pods by FLS Tutors. FLS Learning Pods are small in-person or virtual group classes to keep your child on-track for academic success no matter the circumstances. Need more one-on-one help. FLS Tutors is a concierge tutoring service that will tailor a solution to fit your child’s while navigating and ensuring that all accreditation requirements are met. Contact us today for a free consultation.

This article first appeared on the FLS International Blog.