What Problems Can Be Associated With Home Education
If you have made it this far on our website you may seriously be considering home education but now wondering, “There must be a downside that they aren’t telling me about.”
Of course home education brings its own problems - but doesn’t parenting in general? We are not promising you a bed of roses! Home education will neither solve all your problems nor mean you never have to worry about your kids again. There will be problems, there may be difficult times.
A decision to home educate should be an informed one so you need to know what the possible pitfalls are. You then have to weigh up the problems you currently have with your children in school (or see as potential problems if you send them to school) against the problems that others have experienced with home education and how likely those problems are for you.
New home educators and those enquiring into home education often fear that socialisation will be a problem but it need not be. Home educating does not have to mean your children are isolated - stuck at home all day with no contact with people outside their family. Making contact with a local group (see our networking page) can give your kids contact and yourself support. HEN also runs camps and events throughout the year. Your kids can also be involved in sports, clubs and hobby groups to provide additional social experiences and can also keep in touch with school friends and neighbouring kids etc outside school hours. Home education means living in the community - there can be regular interaction with people of all ages from babies to elderly. Home educators generally see socialisation as one of the great positives of home education. Take a look at the articles in the socialisation category as an introduction.
One problem is dealing with your own doubts and fears along the way. This article on doubt may be of assistance.
When kids come out of school, there is a process they need to go through in order to work through the stress of school and to regain their love of learning. Many experienced home educators say to allow one month of recovery time for every year of schooling that the child has had. This article on Decompression will tell you what to expect and give you some hints on dealing with this phenomenon.
Opposition from kids to formal learning can be a problem. This is a problem specific to the more school-at-home approach to home education. Switching home education styles can help. The article below on Concerns for the future may help as may the articles on the informal learning page. If natural learning (variously known as unschooling and informal learning) doesn’t sound like your style, you may find a balance between a set curriculum and informal learning and become an eclectic home educator. See more on home education styles here.
Getting back into school is not a problem should you or your kids wish to do so at some stage. A decision to home educate is not irreversible. In our experience kids make the transition from school to home or home to school pretty easily and there are rarely problems with getting back in on an age-for-grade basis. The most common problems kids report on going back into school are:
- They find it strange to enter a culture where adults are regarded as ‘the enemy’.
- Some are frustrated by the amount of wasted time in school and how slow the academic progress is.
Getting a job, going onto univeristy or further study need not be a problem either. See the sections on Grown Home Learners and Teenagers for more details.
Parents of children with special needs face additional demands but home education can have benefits that outweigh those demands. See our special needs section for articles and research of interest.
Mums becoming overloaded and exhausted is what we call ‘Home education burnout’ and it is a serious problem which some families encounter but a change of emphasis in how you home educate can solve it - see the articles Carol Answers a Question on Burnout and How to Avoid Homeschool Burnout.
More serious than Burnout is Maternal Distress which affects a small number of home educators - it seems to be more of a problem for those with special needs children. Realistic expectations and having support groups can help. There a few yahoo groups for home educators of children with special needs. We have listed those we know of on our networking page. HEN may be able to put you in touch with someone with similar circumstances for information and support.
If you have particular concerns not covered here, feel free to email editor@home-ed.vic.edu.au for information.