The Advantages of Homeschooling: More Than Academic Advantage May 30, 2019 By Bekki 1 Comment This content may contain affiliate links.Every day, I wake up long before my teenage sons. It’s always been that way. Maybe it’s that fact that I need a few moments where no one in my world is calling, “mom!” Maybe its the fact that I love silence. But really, it’s because I know kids need to sleep.Let’s face it, I’m not the only one who believes one of the best advantages of homeschooling is sleep.I don’t mean that as a joke. Kids are run frantic from sunup to sundown. While busy kids stay out of trouble, “too busy” kids also develop bad life habits that will harm them in the future: Inability to rest, terrible eating habits, and lack of exercise are just a few.So why would sleep be an advantage of homeschooling? Research shows that most school-aged kids do not get enough sleep, and that can lead to very serious challenges. Sleep is not the only obvious advantages of homeschooling. So is eating healthy food and getting proper exercise as well as spending time outside.If you’re new on the homeschool scene, or trying to figure out if this life-style is best for your family, I’m here to fill your mind with lots of reasons homeschooling is awesome.But, I have to warn you. Sometimes it’s not. And that’s normal.Ultimate List of 17 Advantages of Homeschooling1. Homeschooling Takes Less time!There is beauty in customizing a child’s education to suit their strengths, interests, and passions as you are able to come alongside and encourage them to grow. When I taught in a classroom, I had to balance teaching all the kids in a classroom. When my husband tricked me into homeschooling our sons, I remember shaking my head. “It’s amazing how much time we sat around waiting for all the kids in a class to catch-up!” Homeschooling takes less time! At least the academic part.2. Homeschooling gives the Ability to Educate from the Inside Out Character training is one of the foundation reasons that we have homeschooled all five of our sons for the past 20+ years. We can’t go out in public with at least one elderly woman coming up and commenting about how amazing the boys are. Over the past two decades we’ve made it a priority to focus on the heart of our kids and to train in manners and etiquette.Related: Homeschooling from the Inside Out Masterclass for Homeschool Moms, even if you have no idea where to begin.Oh, they’ll laugh at fart jokes with the next kid, but they’ll also hold the door open for you, come into the the kitchen and say, “Put me to work” and are ready to make others’ lives easier. 3. Homeschooling allows you to keep God, the Bible and Prayer in your child’s dayThis is our top goal as homeschoolers. The Bible is pretty clear, we are to teach our kids about the Lord, “when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.” That’s right. From sunup to sundown. With the kids at home, it’s much easier to weave spiritual training into their lives.4. Homeschooling allows us to deprive our kids on purposeThat’s a worthy read.5. Homeschooling Leads to Independent Learning When you teach your kids to follow a calendar, then a daily to-do list you are teaching them to manage their time. When you build in time for them to dive in deeper when a topic catches their attention, you are nurturing a love for learning. One of the best tools we’ve used for this “lifetime learning” is the notebooking journal. Notebooking allows kids to share what they are learning rather than hunting for bits of information. It’s like giving them the wheel and saying, “take yourself on a tour of learning!”6. Homeschooling Utilizes Boredom It’s a fact. Creativity lives just on the other side of boredom. Homeschooling allows time for our kids to get bored and really dive into their creativity.7. Homeschooling Allows Time for PlayMy sons just by the window with plastic swords. At 13, 15, and 17 they still run around outside fully enraptured in make-believe. It’s like some forgot to tell them that they’re too old to play. Priceless.Related: Famous Homeschoolers8. Homeschooling Emphasizing Learning and Growth; instead of Grades.Being able to measure learning and success is important. By the time our kids graduate high school I’ve even tortured them with my ability to use a red pen on an assignment. But the grade is not the answer. In a dusty old teacher’s manual from 1911, there is a beautiful nugget of wisdom. “Teach kids how to solve the problem and the answer takes care of itself.”9. Homeschooling Embraces Safe Learning EnvironmentsThe only bullies our kids have ever had to face are their own brothers. Growing pains of learning the pecking order and learning to deal with each “sinner” with respect and patience. At home, we are all on the same team, there are no idiots, and the only stupid question is the unasked question. Homeschooling allows kids to ask questions, receive instruction and correction without humiliation or embarrassment. Most of the time. Remember, none of us are perfect. We’ve all failed at one point or another. Thank goodness for grace.10. Homeschooling Strengthens Relationships My 13-year old still snuggles as we read, our 20-year old still runs in to share exciting news, our 17-year old respectfully interrupts to “play a new song” on his guitar and our 15-year old still asks if he can “ride along” every time I leave the house. Walking through life together as homeschooler brings us closer. We laugh, cry, learn, and yell together. Yes, sometimes we fight more than once a day. We are not perfect. I just pretended to swim through three of my teenaged sons while saying, “Look! I’m swimming through testosterone!” Yep. They all laughed.11. Homeschooling Allows You to Spend Lots of Time with Your Children“What? No school today?” You’ll hear that a lot as homeschoolers. My kids are almost always with me and I LOVE it. They’re helpful, loving and super funny. Again, most of the time. I love hanging out with our kids all day everyday!12. Homeschooling is FlexibleYesterday, the boys spent the day re-greasing the hubs on their mountain bikes with their dad. Nope. I have no idea what that means, but they do and are super excited. We are able to push worksheets and textbooks aside for life skills like tree trimming, snow shoveling, bike maintenance, and puppy training. Homeschooling is our way of life, not the lessons we complete between 9:00-2:00 pm each day, right?13. Homeschooling Accommodates Special Needs.Ahhh. Room to grow and develop at your child’s pace… Heaven! All five of our sons were delayed learners in one way or another. Our youngest didn’t even read until he was ten. But the joke’s on the educational system.If we had placed them in “traditional classrooms, they each would have been handed a fancy sounding label. But because we homeschool, they were simply free to develop at the pace their brain required.14. Homeschooling Allows Opportunity to Develop Life SkillsEVERYTHING is a homeschooling lesson! Just ask my kids. LOL.Cooking, cleaning, changing engine oil, trimming trees, balancing a budget, creating a spreadsheet… everything. I highly recommend over-lapping a life skill with a academic skill. It’s kind of like fairy dust for learning. 15. Homeschooling Provides FreedomMy friend Ana, takes her homeschooling on the road. Literally. They’re RV-schooling. I place task cards for practicign manners, grammar, or math in my purse so I can whip out a question for a pop-quiz at the doctor’s office or while we wait for food at a restaurant.Homeschooling allows you to throw a few books into a bag and just go. SInce homeschooling is more of an attitude of learning, our family embraces that you can do that anywhere. SO we do! The park, library, Starbucks, doctor’s office, and a parked car while waiting for brothers have all become classrooms for us!16. Homeschooling Eliminates the Need for HomeworkThis is self-explanatory, but homeschoolers don’t need to have homework! YAY!! That doesn’t mean they won’t have independent work to complete without you, it just means that their day can end long before their public school peers!17. Homeschooling Fosters ContentmentLOL. My boys don’t recognize name brand clothing. Maybe its because I hate shopping with a “purple passion”, maybe it’s because with five boys there has always been a one for all and all for one mentality with hand-me-downs. But most homeschoolers are simply more content.Oh, to be fair, there are disadvantages to homeschooling as well. I am a firm believer that homeschooling is NOT for every one, every child, every family.Homeschooling is hard. But it’s the best kind of hard. For my husband and I, it’s been a no brainer. We are called to homeschool our sons and we know it. How else could we raise intelligent, kind, loving, witty, sword-wielding men?