We have been talking about homeschooling the past couple of weeks. So far, we have covered why the popularity of homeschooling is on the rise and which characteristics make for successful homeschooling parents. This week, we’ll explore the pros and cons of some models of homeschooling.
Traditional
In what I’ll call a traditional homeschool setting, mom and dad curate the curriculum for each child. There are endless purveyors of homeschool (and school) curricula. Deciding which is best for your family takes lots of research and, usually, some trial and error. It can be as simple as finding a company you like and trust, and then buying everything you want to teach from that one company. It could, however, be as complicated as choosing curriculum from a different company for each subject you want to teach. Of course, this has to be multiplied by the number of children you are homeschooling. Choosing curricula can take a good bit of work, but it puts the parents in control of what their children are being taught.
The teacher—usually mom—is responsible for lesson planning in advance and then following those plans in the day-to-day. She will do the teaching and assessing, managing her time between children to give them the instruction they need in each subject. Many couples are able to share the teaching load between mom and dad in different ways. Because homeschooling time is flexible, for example, it may be reasonable for dad to teach one or more subjects to one or more children when he gets home from work. Lesson plans in this traditional model can be made to accommodate trips, music lessons, or whatever. Some families homeschool a few hours each day the whole year round. Others will take the summer off. Because of the flexibility, scheduling can be made to accommodate the family’s lifestyle.
Homeschooling in this traditional model is hard work unless you want to do it poorly. For many families, the benefits are worth all the hard work. Don’t underestimate the workload. Be honest with yourself about your gifts and abilities. (See last week’s article.)
Online
At the other end of the homeschooling spectrum lies the (relatively) new model of online schooling. This model removes almost all of the responsibility of the traditional model from the parents. The parents still have to sort through providers and choose one, make sure the child logs in to class and completes his assignments, and pay the bills, but that’s pretty much it. In this model, even some working parents can have their child at home for school. What they give up is complete control over the curriculum and the schedule flexibility that come with the traditional model of homeschooling. This model appeals to a lot of parents who want their children at home for whatever reason, but don’t think they have the gifts, skills, or time necessary for traditional homeschooling.
On the downside, is it smart to park your kid in front of a screen for several hours each day? Commonsense tells us that schooling on a screen is better for children than gaming or scrolling social media on a screen for several hours each day, but what about kids who are doing both? Even for those who are only attending several hours of online school each day and not using a screen for leisure, how does that isolation affect them? How do multiple hours of interaction with a machine affect their ability to interact with humans face-to-face? We know that some areas of the country just don’t have good schools, so online might be an option that parents living there must consider for various reasons. If, however, you put your kid in front of a screen all day instead of sending him to the good school right down the road, you’re going to have to do some heavy-duty cost/benefit analysis. What is it costing you (and your child) to have him home? What are you (he) gaining that offsets the negatives of sitting alone in front of a screen all day?
Hybrid
Some parents are homeschooling in models that I’ll just call hybrid. In this hybrid category, we find lots of options (and there isn’t space here to address them all). Some parents are mostly following a traditional model but use an online provider for a class or two that they don’t feel equipped to teach. Others might teach at home three days and join a co-op the other two where parents pool their resources to teach their children and other children the subjects they feel best suited to teach. Then there are university model schools and co-op model schools that are rising in popularity. These schools have real teachers dedicated to specific subjects, but they only teach two or three days a week. The parents teach the rest of the week from packets prepared by the school. In the co-op model schools, parents pick and choose what classes they want their kids to take at school, and they teach the rest at home with curricula they curate themselves.
There are pros and cons with all of these models. On the pro side, the parents do retain partial control of curriculum, schedule, and instruction. They can also get a little break for themselves and often can get the help of some really gifted teachers in these models. On the con side, parents using these models give up some control of the curriculum with all of them. They also lose flexibility because at least part of their schedule is dictated to them. They can’t control all of the instruction because they are contracting some of it out to the school or co-op where they may end up with some teachers who aren’t as gifted as they are.
These are generally the most popular homeschool models. Almost all of them yield benefits to families who have a holistic vision that includes homeschooling. Where that vision doesn’t exist, however, homeschooling may not yield the same fruit. With all of the options before us today, it is easy to get caught up in the enthusiasm of exploring new options, but all the options are not equal. Wise parents will be deliberate and intentional about the choices they make, carefully vetting each option to determine its suitability for their family.