Home Education is something that is increasingly considered by UK families. Estimates of the number of home educated children range from 80,000 to around 115,000 and 34% of those children are thought to have started home education officially either during or after 2020, when enforced homeschooling came into play.
Although many families struggled with replicating a school environment at home (understandably- that is not the way that most home educators do it!) many others found that removing school from their lives improved their child’s wellbeing, mental health and even academic performance.
Some of these families chose to continue home education when schools returned to normal, and found that these benefits continued- here are 5 positive things that families often notice about home education!
Socialisation
When socialisation is brought up as a positive of home education, people are often surprised. The common idea is that home educated children socialise less than school kids, or that the socialisation they get is poor quality. In reality home educated kids often have a wonderful, rich social life.
There are many meet-ups in the home education community, and groups that families can attend together as well as drop-off groups for the kids. Play-dates and group trips are regularly organised, and home educated kids usually have a lot more free time to play with other kids uninterrupted than if they were at school.
Kids Can Develop At Their Own Pace
There are no bells or set time-tables in home education, as it is up to each individual family how they structure their days. This means that children can learn at a pace that feels comfortable for them instead of rushing through work to get it finished at someone else’s say-so.
Of course as children become more comfortable with the material that they are working on they naturally get quicker- but in a way that is appropriate to their age and stage, and only when they have a genuine understanding of what they’re doing.
After all there’s no point in whizzing past something if they haven’t really grasped it! Going at their own pace means kids are less anxious and more confident in asking questions to fully understand a concept.
A More Personalised Schedule
This isn’t often cited by families as a main reason to home educate, but it is certainly a benefit. Getting up at 6am and out of the door before the sun is up is something many people have to do (including kids) but that doesn’t mean that it’s good for them.
Home educating families can choose activities, groups and classes that fit in with a schedule that works for them instead of feeling rushed and squeezed each day. Of course, there are always going to be things that we don’t feel like doing that need to get done (such as work for parents) but life without school means that there are fewer pressures on families’ time.
More Family Time
It is a sad fact that most families are split up and separated for most of each day. The lucky ones might see each other before school and work, or maybe at dinner time- but that is not a lot of time to catch up on the day’s events or spend quality time together. Home educating usually means more quality time together for families; even if parents still have to work.
This is because when there are times that parents are free, the kids are around so there are more opportunities for talking or playing together. Many home educators change jobs to work around home education; of course it’s not possible for everyone but it may be worth looking into whether you could work from home in order to facilitate home education, for example.
It’s Cheaper Than School
When you home educate there are no obligatory purchases; you haven’t got to buy anything if you don’t want to. If you want to follow the National Curriculum the framework is available for free online, and there are lots of free resources to support home educating families.
One thing that a recently deregistered family commented on was that they felt more in control of their spending as they weren’t forced to buy school shoes and uniform whenever their child had a growth spurt; there were also no school trip surprises or other expenses that they hadn’t planned for.
Benefits of Home Education
Did any of these surprise you? Were there others that you were thinking of that didn’t show up on the list? There are of course many, many more positive points to home education we’d love to hear from your perspective what has been positive for your family, or what you imagine the best bits of home education to be!
