It’s not all hunky-dory and smooth sailing on the homeschooling front. Like all things in life, there are some downsides to homeschooling.
Have no fear though, we are going to address the darker side of homeschooling no one wants to talk about. Hopefully, by the time I’m done, you’ll feel better about whatever you’re dealing with now.
It All Falls on Your Shoulders
The responsibility of teaching your child rests solely on you. You cannot blame anyone else if your child is seen lacking in the skills that his peers excel in.
If your child cannot do the things that are expected from other children of his age group, it reflects badly on you as an educator as well as a parent.
At least, that is what society wants us to believe! The good news is that on our homeschooling journey, as the educator, we can spend more time helping our kids to fully conquer a subject. We can use clever and fun techniques that aren’t allowed in a standard school system.
It may take our child until they are 12 years old to fully know how to read well. Believe you me, once they have it they can probably read, comprehend, and share their own viewpoints on the subjects they read better than the average person.
The reason they can is that we were able to spend more time helping them to love the idea of reading.
You Lose Time for Extra Things
One of the darker sides of homeschooling is the fact that we have very limited time to pursue our own passions in life. This is especially true when there are young kids involved. It can become lonely and disappointing after a while.
That is why having a homeschool community with other homeschool families in some form is so helpful. There are plenty of awesome homeschool Facebook groups.
By making time to connect with others, even if it is well after the kids go to bed at night, it will help us know we are not alone. Adults need to have adult interaction!
To have time with others, many families have come together and created co-ops in their local areas. It helps the kids to have the chance to interact with other kids and for the adults to connect too.
Limited Funds
Another darker side to homeschooling is that in most homeschool families there is no way to have two incomes. That can create a ton of stress! It can be hard to want to continue to homeschool your kids.
But rest assured; there are plenty of ways to generate income working from home that do not require a ton of extra time. In fact, more and more people are finding that they are making MORE money working 20-30 hours a week doing things that they LOVE from home than they ever did working 40+ hours for someone else.
Sometimes we must think outside the box and get creative. That is one advantage of being a part of active Facebook groups with like-minded individuals.
Do a search on Facebook for groups based on something you have a passion for doing. You might find your next career idea within them.
Dealing With Critics
I wrote a post about how to deal with homeschooling critics, and I’m still dealing with well-meaning family members who want to criticize our decision to homeschool our kids.
I do not feel we should have to justify our decisions to anyone on why we are homeschooling our kids. It is my hope that you don’t think you have to either!
The Burnout
The last major darker side to homeschooling is the fact that oftentimes parents get burned out from being all things for their kids. It’s exhausting teaching kids at home.
In many cases, we have to relearn things in order to teach our kids the material. It’s very time-consuming. We have to deal with rebellion over kids not wanting to do lessons. All that can quickly lead to burnout!
Some ways to deal with the burnout is to take educational field trips, trade-off with other homeschooling families on teaching subjects, or even let technology teach them for a day or two.
Conclusion
Regardless of what darker side of homeschooling, you’re dealing with rest assured you’re not alone. We’ve all been there and dealt with it at some point.
What are some of the darker sides to homeschooling that you’ve dealt with that I didn’t mention?
