For obvious reasons, people want to know the ways homeschooling can be good for their children. Many people also talk about how it benefits the adults, but always in context of their role as a parent or the family as a whole.
What about the parents as individuals? What opportunities will homeschooling give a parent to grow as a person, not only as a mom or a dad?
Homeschool Benefit 1. Managing Your Time
There’s simply no way to add the major commitment of homeschooling without it impacting the pace of your days. Regardless of your natural bent in this area, you’ll have to make some changes as a homeschooler.
If you tend to be a structured person who thrives on schedules, you’ll have to flex. You will discover the ability to set aside your plan and move forward with a smile on your face.
If you’re one who usually goes with the flow, you'll have to be disciplined. You will experience the value in setting firm boundaries and enforcing timelines.
Learning to swing a little toward the opposite end of the time management spectrum is one big way you will grow as a homeschool parent.
Homeschool Benefit 2. Appreciating Your Strengths
What is your homeschool super power? Is it one of these:
- finding creative ways to memorize facts
- having lots of patience when people are slow to understand
- knowing how to encourage without enabling
- coming up with activities that are both fun and instructive
Whatever it is that you’re good at, homeschooling gives you a chance to either discover an latent strength or confirm one you already knew about.
Although a prideful attitude that believes your strengths determine your worth is a problem, an awareness of what you do well is a positive thing when you look for ways to use your strengths to improve your own life and bless other people.
Homeschool Benefit 3. Identifying Your Weaknesses
There’s nothing like sharing a roof with people to make your own weaknesses clear as day! Homeschooling ramps up the intensity of that awareness.
How is this apparent negative actually a positive? First, it keeps us humble. As we see and accept that areas of our life need improvement, we’ll more easily accept and have patience with the flaws in others. Second, it gives us an opportunity for personal growth. As the saying goes, acknowledging a problem is the first step toward resolving it. Rarely does a weakness manifest in only one area, so our efforts to make changes pertaining to weaknesses in homeschooling will have a ripple effect in the other parts of our life.
Homeschool Benefit 4. Growing Spiritually
Homeschooling provides ample opportunity to seek the peace and wisdom that only God can give:
- contemplating whether to homeschool our kids in the first place
- being thankful for the blessings that homeschooling brings
- feeling overwhelmed in the hard stretches of teaching
- adapting to changes in our family’s circumstances
Whether it comes from frazzled desperation or contented gratitude, anything that consistently drives us to our knees in prayer and leads us to read our Bibles is a good thing. The more our own spiritual tank is filled, the more we’ll have to share with others.
These four benefits will clearly make an impact on your family as you homeschool, but they’re also life skills that will serve you and those in your life well long after your nest is empty or your kids have transitioned to other schooling options. Homeschooling, after all, isn’t just about the kids. It’s about everyone in the home, including the parents.
Curious to see what a homeschool lifestyle might look like for your family? Go to SmoothCourse to explore your curriculum options.
