Education

Homeschooling is an educational approach that is an alternative to classroom education and it seems to be the most popular, especially now, during the worldwide pandemic. This method has both advantages and disadvantages and there are some circumstances that impact on parents' decisions regarding educational methods.

First of all, it is crucial to understand what factors determine the choice of homeschooling and all pros and cons related to them. Homeschooling is chosen for some kids because parents might have some concerns about allergies, bullying, quality of traditional education in schools, or they do not want to let children take a long ride a to school. Thus, the first advantage is flexibility of education that allows parents to create a learning schedule that is comfortable for the family. It helps to manage all different life situations, such as sickness, doctors’ appointments, worse days and adjust the learning process to the unexpected situations or children's ability and well-being. What’s more, the one to one attention strengthens the relationship between a parent and child and helps to recognize, concentrate and develop the topics which are the most interesting for a child. Moreover, parents can adapt different learning styles and tools for their child to provide the best educational results. It is important to emphasize this advantage, because some children are visual learners, some of them are auditory or kinesthetic learners. Finally, the warm, peaceful and friendly family environment is significant for social, value and faith development.

However, for every plus, there is a minus. Despite the fact that homeschooling has many advantages, it is important to mention some disadvantages that can impact on children's educational progress. For example, homeschooling is difficult, especially for working or single parents, who have to prepare and organize lessons, teach children or provide assessments. Homeschooling requires devotion, strong motivation, time investment and many efforts to achieve the highest quality of children’s educational goals. All of these above examples show that homeschooling can also be a financial sacrifice for most families, because very often one parent has to leave a job to become a teacher for a child. Another disadvantage is that homeschooling can lead to socialization issues because a child doesn’t have many opportunities to interact with other children in comparison to other children who attend traditional school. Creating new friendships is more difficult and requires more effort from homeschooled students than creating the new bonds with peers at school. Finally, the most negative effect of homeschooling is lack of motivation, because children need some challenges and competition with other classmates to achieve higher results. Children who are homeschooled can have some problems with motivation because they are taught individually.

In conclusion, it is important to keep in mind both advantages and disadvantages of homeschooling when making a decision because it will have impact on children’s future. Moreover, homeschooling is always the most comfortable form of education in the situation, when traditional schooling is difficult for a child. Nowadays, homeschooling is very popular and some parents waive from choosing the in-person classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.