Homeschooling is more popular than ever, with roughly 6% of school-aged American children now being educated at home. What used to be considered a 'fringe' alternative to publicly-funded schooling is now the fastest-growing form of education in the country, as more and more parents see positive results.
As a former homeschooled kid I plan to homeschool my future children one day as well. Here's why you should too:
1. Grow them into independent adults
Many kids struggle when they go off to college because they are used to having their every move dictated by bossy teachers. Suddenly, they have to learn time management on their own and are incapable of motivating themselves. A benefit of homeschooling is that if done right, children can be given more adult-like responsibilities such as managing their school work and meeting deadlines before they're suddenly thrown into the real world unprepared.
Traditionally, the concept of a 'teenager' didn't even exist because as soon as kids hit puberty, they were expected to behave like adults. Now, we treat 20-somethings like children and are surprised when they're too scared to get married until they're 35. If you want your kid to grow up to be a highly functioning adult, homeschooling might be your best option.
2. Family time is priceless
When your kids grow up, are they going to value the memories of listening to their teachers drone on and on in front of a chalkboard or the time spent with the people who love them most? A benefit of homeschooling is that it gives you so much more time with your children than if you were to send them away to be cared for by strangers for forty hours a week.
Not only does this strengthen bonds between parents and children, but between siblings as well. Maybe your kids will get made fun of if they say 'my sister is my best friend' when they're ten years old, but those close relationships are invaluable when they eventually leave the house and start families of their own.
3. Opportunity to breed geniuses
Naturally bright kids often have their intellect wasted away at public schools where everything has to be dumbed down for the rest of the class. Why would you want to give your kid an average education when you could have them reading advanced philosophy at age 11?
Many children are capable of so much more than we give them credit for; they just aren't allowed to explore their interests. While not every homeschool student will become the next Nikola Tesla, your child has a much higher chance of changing the world for the better if their education consists of work that actually challenges them.
4. They can go outside during daylight hours (get a real childhood)
It's weird how society has just accepted that it's normal to force kids to sit in a boring classroom indoors for half of the day. Homeschoolers have the opportunity to do schoolwork lying on the grass outside, or at night time, or get it done early in the morning.
A lot of homeschool families find that they can finish their school work for the day in three to four hours and still excel academically beyond their public school peers. This gives them plenty of time to burn energy and run around outside in the sunshine, where kids should be.
5. They can learn what and how they want
It seemed like every kid I grew up with who was homeschooled was an expert at something, whether that was robotics, violin, Rubik's cubes, or medieval history. Kids, and adults too, excel academically when they can learn things that they're actually interested in. Homeschooling gives the opportunity for students to self-direct some of their learning so that, just like in the real world, they can actually do what they're good at.
It also offers a lot of flexibility for learning styles. Some kids might enjoy taking classes online, with a specialized tutor, in a homeschool co-op or through dual enrolment programs, while others thrive best by self-directed learning or instruction from their parents. Some can digest a lot of information by reading, while others might learn best hands-on. Homeschooling offers the unique opportunity to teach your children in the style that works best for them in a way that cookie-cutter public school education would never be able to.
6. No one knows your kid better than you
It's weird how people tell homeschool parents that they're not equipped to teach their kids because they don't have a teacher's certificate. I'm pretty sure if you were able to make it through college and get a bachelor's degree, you should be able to teach a kid how to multiply some numbers or spell some words. Even for more advanced subjects, this is 2025, and there are plenty of online resources out there that can teach your kid calculus or chemistry.
The benefit of teaching your own child is that you understand their strengths and weaknesses better than a teacher who has to divide her attention between thirty other students ever could. This allows you to structure their education in a way that benefits them instead of trying to shove them into one-size-fits-all schooling.
7. Avoid the woke propaganda
This is probably one of the main reasons that people choose to homeschool these days. Public school curriculum is notorious for promoting sexually degenerate lifestyles and endless gender identities. Teachers try to drill liberal ideologies like feminism and critical race theory ito your childrens head at a young age. Classrooms might not be able to display the ten commandments, but teachers might share invites to 'After School Satan' programs or 'LGBT clubs.'
When you homeschool your kids, you don't have to spend all your time un-indoctrinating them from what they learned at school. You can just teach them the truth, while also making them aware of the false ideologies they're likely to encounter out in the world.
8. You can do school on the road (or anywhere!)
I know homeschool families who travelled the continental United States for six months at a time in an RV while doing school on the road. If your family loves travelling, a huge benefit of homeschooling is that you don't have to pull them out of school and have them fall behind, you can just teach them while on the road.
Being able to adapt to learning in different environments is also a life skill that will be useful in the future. Parents who have to travel for work can even take their homeschool kids along on fun trips where they get to see the world without getting behind on their education.
9. They can have actual social skills
The most common anti-homeschooling argument is that homeschoolers lack a social life. While it is absolutely possible for homeschooled children to have no friends besides their siblings, this is completely avoidable as long as parents make an effort to involve their kids in social activities.
It's arguable that homeschool kids can actually have a better social life than their public school peers, because they can be more selective about who they spend time with. Instead of playing with whatever random kids they share a classroom with, homeschoolers can be friends with families who share the same values as them.
A lot of families have decided to pull their kids out of school because of relentless bullying. Why should a child have to continue through the trauma of being bullied when they could spend time with other children who treat them well? There are also benefits from spending more time with their parents and other adults, because receiving socialization from adults, rather than other ten-year-olds, will give them more advanced communication skills that are actually useful in the real world.
10. You can teach from a Christian perspective
As a parent, your responsibility to your children is not only to feed and clothe them, but to shape their moral growth as well. This can be very difficult to do in a toxic school environment that does not value high morals and where education is administered through a secular worldview instead of a Christian one.
There are endless homeschooling resources that allow you to teach your child science, history, literature, philosophy and more from a Christian perspective. There's nothing more important than your child's spiritual growth, and sadly, most public school education is either subversive or hostile to Christianity.
Please leave your opinions / comments on these stories below, we appreciate your perspective!
