Homeschooling has been gaining popularity in the past couple of years, but I still get a lot of questions asking why I homeschool and why I think it is the best way to educate children. I put together this list of my top five reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Raising a citizen of the world. Children need the skills to communicate and interact with a diverse range of people. I didn\u2019t learn how to do this until after I graduated college and began working in healthcare. All in the same day, I had to be able to console a new worried mother, educate a retired judge on her plan of care, teach an elementary aged child how to take care of their cast, and provide care for a patient that was going through acute psychosis. I was amazed that despite age and life experience I was now the one that my patients looked to for reassurance and advice. Working in that environment gave me the confidence and skills to be comfortable talking to a wide range of people. At school, kids are surrounded by others that are similar in age and that come from their neighborhood (this also usually means same race and socioeconomic status). Nowhere else in life will they have these conditions. Through homeschooling, I can introduce my children to real life social situations. In addition, homeschoolers have many opportunities to meet others at cooperatives, camps, charter schools, extra-curricular activities, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Personalized education. Every day I get an email from Amazon trying to sell me products that are specifically personalized to my needs. There is a reason the world is starting to become curated to us. It is best for marketing, and best for education<\/a>. By teaching my children at home, I am able to provide an individualized education that is suited to my children\u2019s needs, interests, and learning abilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Flexibility and autonomy. If we want to spend more time on a subject we can. Our learning is not hinder by time or physical constraints. I also have autonomy on what I teach my children. I am able to teach with a less biased lens than what they would be taught in schools (see here<\/a>), further preparing them to be productive and compassionate citizens of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Current Research. Current research shows that traditional schooling does not utilize best practice in teaching children. To name a few:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Success in Life. Seven years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child I went on a search for how to achieve life success and how to raise children that achieve life success. I began by studying the life of successful people, and I started to see a trend. The qualities that enabled them to be successful were not school skills. They were life skills. I began writing them down and created the top five skills for life success, which all of the Legacy Boxes<\/a> are based on. These include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this fast-paced world, most of the jobs our children are going to have when they graduate have not been created yet. Life skills are what they need to be learning to be employable in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are on the fence about homeschooling start by assessing your family goals, how you want to live your life, and how you want to raise your children. Homeschooling can be a rewarding option. It may seem daunting, but as it becomes more mainstream there are many resources to assist you along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n