Homeschool: Should You or Shouldn’t You?

The parents of school-aged children in 2020 all have battle stories to share.  Tales of the quarantine include trying to work-from-home, disinfecting every foreign object that enters their household, and dealing with tantrums or angst from their children who are also coming to them with homework and projects while requiring explanations or assistance on topics many parents first have to Google before they can be of any help. 

Yes, this year’s parents are all home-schooling.  OR are they?

According to experts, what most parents are doing is not homeschooling.  Rather, they are facilitating the work being sent by a school for a child to do.  “Just because you’re following a school’s curriculum and deadlines and requirements does not mean you are home schooling,” says Frannie Daez, who has been homeschooling for 17 years.  

“When you homeschool, you are your child’s primary educator,” she explains. “There are guides to follow, but in the end it is still the parent who chooses what is good for the child at that point in their life. What the child learns and the learning objectives are up to the parents. When you do online learning or when kids have to study at home as they are doing now during the quarantine, it is still the school mandating the educational requirements. This is not homeschooling,” she further explains.

This thought was echoed by Edric Mendoza, the Chairman of Homeschool Global, board member of the Global Home Education Exchange (GHEX), and Chairman of Homeschool Association of the Philippine Islands (HAPI).  Mendoza, who along with his wife, is homeschooling their six children says: “Home schooling will pursue the philosophy you deem best for your child.”

For the parents whose minds have been blown by the fact that they actually have not been homeschooling for the past 60 days, the question now might be: Should we be homeschooling?

The Benefits of Homeschooling

Donna Simpao, founder of the online Facebook Community, Homeschoolers of the Philippines, believes the biggest benefit of beginning is the potential it gives the parent-child relationship.  Another would be giving a child a love for learning, while also saving on some expenses that a parent might have spent if the child had gone to a physical institution.  Simpao has been the president of HAPI since 2018, and she homeschooled all four of her children.

Simpao says, “The pros and cons evolve as both the parent and child go through the journey.”  When homeschooling, parents are able to “go deeper” with their children on topics that interest the child.  This gives the child a chance to achieve a greater form of mastery in that subject.  The parent can then bring in fundamentals (topics that need to be covered in math, science, english, etc.) to that which their child has shown interest.  This doubles the experience and the learning

This personalisation and customisation of the programme benefits the child greatly while giving a parent greater influence over what their child learns, how they learn it, and when they learn it.  In classroom settings, this is not always possible, if at all.

What About Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus?

Daunting for many parents are the subjects they barely passed or deleted from their memory banks after they graduated.  The good news is that parents need not be expert.  The instructional core of any schooling environment is the teacher, the student, and the content.  The stronger the interaction between the three, the greater the learning that takes place.  A lot, if not most, homeschool content and reference materials are designed so that parents are facilitators more than they are teachers. “Let the content do the heavy lifting,” says Mendoza.

If need be, getting a tutor to teach some of the subjects is also perfectly okay!  Just as some parents do for their kids that are in traditional classrooms, hiring a tutor for a tricky subject won’t ruin the homeschooling experience.  Mendoza needed one to help his children learn Filipino.  Daez needed one for chemistry and physics.  What parents need to understand is that it’s normal and not a failure of homeschooling.

 

 

The Drawbacks of Homeschooling

At this point, homeschooling may sound like the ideal way to school children, but like all things it isn’t without its downsides.  According to Simpao, one of the ones most often cited is the commitment that parents need to make.  “Something’s gotta give,” she says frankly, and for parents that means sacrificing other commitments in order to be available to their child.  This can be a difficult juggling act if a parent needs to work or run a business.

Another drawback also often heard is that homeschools do not have the same resources as more traditional schools.  Schools have libraries, sports facilities, are able to provide group work, teams and/or clubs to their students.  While parents can be resourceful and find these same activities for their children, thereby addressing that gap, it is still an additional step that the parent will need to take and that can be seen as a con for some.

Should Every Parent Homeschool?

The short answer is NO.  According to Mendoza there are factors that need to be considered.  The first would be the academic capabilities.  In the Philippine context, although there are exceptions, Mendoza generally believes that the parent should have a college degree.  Having completed a tertiary education, the parent will be better equipped to meet the more formal schooling component of homeschooling and give the child proper learning. 

The second factor to consider is the parent’s temperament.  “If you are busy and short-tempered then this is not the decision for you,” says Mendoza.  He highlights that if homeschooling will just lead parents to be frustrated and angry with their children, causing fights, then the child is better off in a traditional classroom.  This is because he recommends preserving the parent-child relationship, believing that a healthy and happy parent-child relationship far outweighs the benefits of homeschooling.

Third is organization. If a parent is not organized, it could lead nowhere for the child. “Parents need to be able to create structure and organization,” he says. “You have to work with a cadence and follow a school year.”

The fourth factor is WHY.  Why are you choosing to homeschool?  Does homeschooling help achieve the end-goal we have for our children? These questions need to be addressed in order to fully benefit from homeschooling.

Fifth, parents need to factor in the child’s feelings–especially true for children who were already in a traditional classroom.  Is the child willing to go through the experience?

Only after all these factors have been met can parents begin to decide on practical things, such as whether or not they can fit it into their schedule of work and other responsibilities and have the right amount of energy and patience for their child.  “There are no set schedules,” Daez reminds. “It is up to the parent to decide flexibility. Plus, every moment is a learning moment. What is important is to ensure a love for learning.”

But the times have changed

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, more parents might want to do their research and seriously consider it.  Many schools have been forced to transition to online learning in the past few months of the school year, and the upcoming school year is going to be conducted online for many students.  Speaking to parents, Simpao says, “If you are not confident in the programme, if you don’t see the school innovating and supporting the homeschool connection, if your child was just gazing on slides upon slides, and if you have time, you might as well homeschool or seriously consider it.”  Simpao admits to being biased, but given that some parents were disgruntled by what they had recently experienced in terms of how their children’s schooling was conducted during the quarantine, homeschooling is indeed something to consider.  “If all you’re going to do [for the next school year] is constantly email and Zoom with the teacher,” says Simpao, “consider being the leader of educating your child.”