Homeschooling is the term used to refer to school education provided at home. It is an alternative that consists of unifying all educational settings in the family context outside of educational institutions, both public and private. For some families, it becomes the best option.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many areas, including education. As a result, thousands of children are now learning away from the classroom. The evolution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in recent years has facilitated its rapid implementation.
The evolution in recent years of the online homeschool program and the development of educational tools (such as video games of this nature) has made this new situation less traumatic than expected for students, and this puts on the table a debate on whether this disruptive form of education, despite the uncertainties, could be here to stay.
However, even though it may seem a novel or even topical educational prototype, this is a model that arises from the beginnings of education and its diffusion. This perspective is reinforced by the demise of the public school, by the disenchantment of a curriculum that is out of step with our society’s demands, by a situation, in short, lonely in the educational world. This model’s resurgence is one of the many symptoms of the current educational crisis that cries out for a systemic change. So, if you are considering an online homeschool program with your children, here are some of this learning modality’s advantages.
The homeschooling phenomenon is a unique experience that brings families together through a special connection. The transmission of knowledge is an extraordinary bond between teacher and student. Still, if this relationship is also a family one, it provides the basis for a spirit of family growth. The union in learning and discovering a new world together would synthesize what homeschooling means for families.
Another of the advantages of an online homeschool program is the promotion of work-life balance. Fortunately, there is a growing concern for ways to increase work-life balance in our society. This means that we care a lot about our children’s education and that after a long period in which the media and social pressure have focused on the figure of work as a priority in our lives, a new horizon focused on family connection is emerging. Homeschooling has a lot to do with this new conciliatory current in the family, so it is increasingly demanding and less stigmatized as an anti-system option or relegated to geeks.
On the other hand, if your option is homeschooling, one of the most tempting advantages is selecting content. And not only this, but the importance of its treatment and the methodology to be used. In general, the freedom to prioritize some content or others is one of the most favorable advantages of an online homeschool program.
Time flexibility is another favorable advantage. We can continue with a class depending on how interested a student is, or move on to another topic if he/she is overloaded, take a break, propose gamification activities to reinforce concepts, etc. Flexibility gives us a key to, once again, act with freedom in teaching.
However, for many, the greatest of its advantages, and probably the case in which I would mainly advise homeschooling, is individualized attention. It is clear that in the institutional model, this practice is in danger of extinction. Successive cuts in staffing encourage education to be more global, and ratios top off an unrecoverable situation at this time. For this reason, when dealing with students with special educational needs, this can be a unique model for quality care.
And in summary, the main advantages of an online homeschool program are summarized in the spirit of freedom, when choosing what is essential in the education of our children, when showing paths and itineraries, to attend with exclusivity, to focus the learning on what we consider the best for our children.
