Monday, October 10, 2011

A benefit to homeschooling - the flexibility

Last week I asked my youngest daughter what she liked about homeschooling.  She said "Going your own pace."

Today I asked my oldest daughter what she liked about homeschooling.  My oldest daughter is seventeen.  She has never taken a class at a public school.  She is now in her senior year taking a full load of classes while also taking three classes at two of the local community colleges.

She focused on one main benefit to homeschooling: The flexibility.  She likes being able to work through the material in an order of her choosing.  She also likes being able to choose her learning environment.  She likes being able to work in the living room, kitchen or upstairs, depending on her mood.

She tossed in a second benefit to homeschool.  She likes being a little weird.  (I don't know where that came from.  :-)  )

5 comments:

Luke Holzmann said...

[smile] Being a little weird is, I think, part of that flexibility thing. I always felt way more stressed in high school and college because I was on someone else's timetable. With homeschooling, school was about me learning. I didn't consciously notice the switch to school being about completing at the time, but I think that was part of the "weirdness" of school for me.

And, yes: Picking the learning environment is fantastic!

~Luke

Unknown said...

Just stopping by from the homeschool carnival and I so agree w/ both of your children. Moving at your own pace and be flexible is so important. I love that when my husband comes home and says that he has vacation in Oct. Then we can all go w/o any problems with school. We can take it w/ us or just work around the week off. Your daughters are very smart people.

Lil Momma
Working hard at improving my son’s reading fluency.

Linda said...

I have to agree about the flexibility, it is great to take the computer with us and work in the car, or at the park, or the book store. Since much of my daughter's work is online (our core curriculum and supplements like Spelling City ) we are not tied to a classroom, or our house. Freedom!!

Dual Role Grandma said...

Thank you for writing this. More friends who homeschool are making the choice for their families to go to brick-n-mortar, and I was feeling like the Lone Ranger for hoping to school through high school (did it for the older kids, don't want to gyp the younger ones). The flexibility is a big factor to homeschool, along with the affordability.

Henry Cate said...

Luke - Good point, just by deciding to do homeschooling we are different.

Lil Momma - Welcome and I hope you come back to visit our blog from time to time.

Linda - We find that being able to stay with what works and try new stuff when something doesn't work is a great benefit.


Dual Role Grandma - Thank you for your pioneering efforts.