Home Schooling - The Disadvantages

Summary: While there are many benefits to home schooling there is also a downside, so you have to give it some serious consideration before you go down the home education route. One thing to consider is the time that you have to devote to the schooling of your children. You may have to sacrifice part of your social life, as well as the disruption to your shopping routine, coffee mornings, and other daily business. You must realize that the onus is on you to ensure your child get...

While there are many benefits to home schooling there is also a downside, so you have to give it some serious consideration before you go down the home education route. One thing to consider is the time that you have to devote to the schooling of your children. You may have to sacrifice part of your social life, as well as the disruption to your shopping routine, coffee mornings, and other daily business. You must realize that the onus is on you to ensure your child gets an education which is good as or better than he/she would have got at a regular school. If your child's education is seen to be lacking in any way, it will reflect badly on you as a teacher and as a parent. If you are truly dedicated to tutoring your child by yourself you will probably have to put any career plans of your own on the back burner. This could mean financial hardship and all the added stress and worry that this brings. You will lose some of your freedom of course, as one big advantage of regular schools is the fact that they give you a break from the kids, and a bit of free time to get on with other things. Even when you have assigned homework, you have to be on duty to give help if required. All obvious stuff, I know, but worth thinking about. Something else to think about is that with your child staying at home all the time, when are they going to get out and interact with their peers and adults? You will have to make a special effort, as no doubt you are aware, this is a very important part of growing up. To achieve a well rounded education, you should enroll your child in various outside activities, although you could say that this defeats the object of home schooling, at least to some degree. It has been noted that the child who is home schooled does not seem to do as well in SAT tests as their regular school peers.