Considering Homeschool? Top Worries Addressed

Written By: The Good and the Beautiful Published On: May 19, 2022

Key Takeaways

Deciding whether to homeschool is a deeply personal choice; there is no one-size-fits-all answer.
Homeschooling offers significant benefits, including flexible, faith-centred instruction, close family relationships, and individualized learning, but it also comes with real responsibilities.
Overall, homeschooled children have strong academic results. Studies show they thrive regardless of the parents' education levels.
Socialization is an important and intentional piece of homeschooling.
Free curriculum resources from The Good and the Beautiful make homeschooling easier than ever to get started.

Have you ever wondered—even just a little—if you should start homeschooling? Is homeschooling better? Do you wonder if you really can?

You are not alone. You might be surprised to find out how many parents have these same questions. As parents ourselves, we realize the education our children receive largely shapes who they become in life, so these questions are important.

Many parents share similar worries when exploring the option to homeschool. In this blog post, we offer encouragement and insights about the following questions:

Is homeschooling worth the effort?
Do you have the patience to homeschool?
Will you be a good teacher?
Will your children listen to you?
Will your kids miss their friends?
Will your children grow socially with homeschooling?
Is homeschooling right for my family's lifestyle and budget?
What are the honest pros and cons of homeschooling?

What Are the Pros and Cons of Homeschooling?

Homeschooling may not be the right fit for every family, and that's okay. Here is an honest look at what families typically experience:

Benefits

Customized learning: tailor the pace and curriculum to your child's needs and interests
Flexibility with your family's daily schedule and calendar
Stronger family bonds and shared values
On average, higher standardized test scores
Freedom to integrate faith and character development throughout the day

Challenges

Full responsibility for your child's education falls to you
Requires financial planning, as one parent is typically home full-time
Need to be proactive about creating social opportunities
Difficulty in finding your rhythm — the first few months are often the hardest
Access to specialized school facilities, such as science labs or sports programs, may be limited

Should I Homeschool My Child?

Let’s go over a major concern you may have. Do you have the patience to homeschool, and will your children listen to you and learn from you?

Here are some things to consider:

First, if you feel God is calling you to homeschool, He will make you enough—don’t worry too much about your abilities. Homeschool parents find that their patience increases over time, and their children’s behavior usually improves, too.

You get to spend the best hours of the day with your children, not just the evenings when everyone is already tired and overwhelmed. They–and you–learn how to work together and communicate effectively.

Many families find that relationship problems resolve when they have more time together. Give it time, and God will help both you and your children develop increased patience.

Second, the same concept applies to having your children listen to you and learn from you when homeschooling. It might take some figuring out, but they CAN learn from you. In fact, a parent is the most influential teacher a child ever has.

And keep this in mind: there may be a period of time at the beginning of homeschooling where your child doesn’t listen to you as well as you’d like. This is normal and expected as you learn how to work together.

All good things take time and effort. With persistence, your teacher/student relationship with your child can grow into something beautiful and effective.

Finally, as far as academics go, studies show that regardless of the parents’ levels of education, homeschool children thrive academically.

With our easy-to-teach resources that require no prep time or previous knowledge on the subject, you just open up the book and learn along with your child as you teach.

Is There More Than One Way to Homeschool?

Yes! This is one of the most encouraging things a new homeschool parent can discover. Homeschooling is not a rigid, one-size-fits-all approach. Families have the freedom to choose a style that fits their children, their schedule, and their values.

Five common approaches to homeschooling include the following:

Structured homeschooling: following a set curriculum with clear daily lessons and objectives, similar in rhythm to a traditional school day
Semi-structured homeschooling: using a curriculum as a guide while allowing flexibility to follow a child's interests and pace
Classical homeschooling: rooted in the study of great literature, history, logic, and language, with a focus on developing strong thinkers
Unschooling: unstructured learning, often child led
Unit studies: diving deeply into one topic across multiple subjects at a time, making learning feel connected and immersive

Most families find that their approach evolves over time. Many start with a structured curriculum for the confidence and clarity it provides, then adjust as they discover what brings out the best in their child. The Good and the Beautiful curriculum supports this journey—it is academically rigorous and rich in character building and faith, yet flexible enough to work beautifully across a range of homeschooling styles.

Are homeschoolers unsocialized?

Let’s address another worry you might have: socialization. A common concern about homeschooling is that your child will miss his or her friends. If your children don’t want to homeschool because they will miss their friends, consider three things:

1. Today’s society overemphasizes the importance of socialization and same-age friends and under-emphasizes the importance of family, faith, and love of learning. Many children learn to center their lives and desires around friends and the social scene. They are less interested in family time. They feel intense pressure to focus on body image and popularity. They become less interested in learning and exploring the world, in reading good literature, or in developing strong relationships with their family.

2. You may need to give it time. If a child is used to large amounts of time with friends and has his or her heart centered around social life, adjusting to a better balance between family and friends can take time, but the shift is worth it.

3. We want our children to be strong and able to handle the world around them. It’s easy to wonder if taking them away from things in a school setting, like bullying, bad influences, social stress, and negative peer pressure, makes them weaker by not giving them a chance to work through problems. But the truth is that children are often damaged by these experiences, not strengthened by them.

Often what a child needs most in order to gain strength is a place where safety, healthy relationships, and models of high character lead and teach them and give them confidence.

Taking children out of unhealthy situations allows them to THRIVE spiritually, academically, emotionally, and socially. They are immersed in faith, family, uplifting friends, and literature and learning that promote high character. These are all things that strengthen children tremendously.

To further lay your worries to rest on this topic, studies show homeschoolers tend to perform above average in the real world after high school. Our blog post about homeschool socialization has links to these studies.

How Can Homeschoolers Make Friends?

Remember, homeschooling doesn’t mean your child has no challenges to work through or gets no social time at all. There are MANY opportunities for your child to have social experiences and growth through homeschool.

In fact, many homeschoolers find they have to guard their family time because so many group classes and other options are available! Check out this blog post on social skills for ideas on how to teach social skills and more on this topic.

Lastly, some homeschoolers may be less skilled socially, but we all know there are socially unskilled children in other school settings as well. Getting an education in a brick-and-mortar school is by no means the only key to a child growing up to be socially healthy.

Homeschooling effectively is not just about academics; it is also about offering your children positive socialization. You can create fulfilling social experiences for your children. Homeschooled children report high levels of happiness, confidence, and positive self-image. They are free to be their authentic selves without worrying about peer pressure to act differently.

Homeschooling creates a lot of opportunities to teach values that lead children to serve more in their communities as adults and have stronger family and friend relationships throughout their lives.

Where can I find free curriculum?

If you have felt a nudge to do something about your child’s education or relationships, start EXPLORING and praying about the possibility. Most of The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts and Math courses are completely free to download and use, and they can guide any parent to easily and joyfully give a child a solid academic, character-building education.

Consider downloading these homeschool curriculum options today just to look through them. You can gain a better feel for what homeschooling is all about and the kind of joyful, high academic content you can teach to your child. It is easier and more rewarding than you might think!

$A young boy lying on a blanket outdoors, smiling while reading The Good and the Beautiful Math 1 Course Book. Text below reads "FREE Printable K-8 Homeschool Math".$

Free Homeschool Curriculum

You CAN Homeschool!

With effort over time, you will see wonderful changes in yourself and your children from homeschooling. We see so many stories about how homeschooling strengthens the character, confidence, academic success, and—most importantly—the hearts of individual children and families.

Is homeschooling better? Here is something to consider. There are challenges if you homeschool, but there are also challenges that come from public, charter, and private schools. You ultimately get to “choose your challenge.”

You Can Switch to Homeschooling

Sign up here to get the FREE checklist. You can create your Homeschooling action plan in just 5 days.
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Will there be challenges?
Yes, there are challenges in homeschooling, but there are also challenges that come from traditional schools.
If you are seeking to raise your child with a beautiful heart and mind, either route is going to require a lot of your effort and be hard, but very different kinds of hard. After homeschooling for a longer period of time, a lot of homeschool parents say that homeschooling is not really that hard anymore—it’s beautiful and fulfilling, and they wouldn't trade it for the world.
Whatever the right educational path is for your child, we at The Good and the Beautiful invite you to enrich your child’s life through good books and connecting education to God and high character. That is our central mission, and we hope to be a continual support to you and your children as you strive to raise them in light and goodness.

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14 comments

Kaitlyn Johnston

I am considering homeschooling my kiddos! My oldest is currently 4.5 and attended a pre-k last year. She is SO excited to go back, and I feel like she will be so disappointed and heartbroken to not attend this year, but I really think homeschooling would just be better for our family schedule, as myself and my husband both work full time jobs. I have worked from home from the time my firstborn was born, so that I could be home with them and still help provide for our family. The idea of having a full time job and homeschooling seems so intimidating, but I have been told it can be done.
I am open to all tips and advice!
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The Good and the Beautiful replied:
Hello Kaitlyn! Many families homeschool and work full time. Our lessons are open-and-go, and we maximize learning by teaching multiple concepts in each activity or lesson, reducing busywork and teaching time. You may enjoy learning more about the various types of school schedules and find one that may work in your homeschool. We hope that helps!

https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/blogs/inspiration/scheduling

Colleen

Hello. We are new to homeschooling and I have some specific questions. We are looking into the 9th grade for my son. He has been in the local public school since pre-K. Although he was always behind, we didn’t have too much trouble in elementary school. While in middle school, he was having problems with keeping up, maturity, attitude and mental health. We found out, he has autism spectrum, anxiety and ADHD. Last year, he was in 9th grade but wound up being so far behind he failed all his classes. He has an IEP but is in regular classes. My husband and I feel he will do a lot better with homeschooling. Knowing all of this, would your program be willing to give us a try? We have done a lot of research and feel your homeschooling program will be a great opportunity for our family. Thank you for your time.
Colleen Simmons
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The Good and the Beautiful replied:
Hello Colleen! Thank you for your interest in our High School courses. We’re so happy you found us! We currently have Biology available as a full-year, one-credit lab course. We also have 3 high school language arts courses. All the language arts principles needed for high schoolers (and more!) are covered in our High School 1, 2, and 3 courses. Thus, we do not have a High School 4 course. Please reach out to support@goodandbeautiful.com if our customer support team can answer any additional questions.

https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/pages/choose-high-school

Ashley King

Hello. I am considering homeschooling my two kids full time. We part time homeschool through a charter school at the moment. I am curious to know how testing and keeping track of grades work when they do not have a school to go through? I am thinking ahead about college transcripts and applications. Who would we answer to if we used your curriculum?

Thank you
King
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The Good and the Beautiful replied:
Hello Ashley! We are so glad you found us! We are a curriculum company and not a school. Instead of an enrollment, our customers purchase the curriculum and utilize it in their homes or as part of a school within their state. Each state has different rules and regulations for what is required for homeschooling. Please reach out to support@goodandbeautiful.com if you have any questions. Our customer support team is happy to help!

Gloria

First of all, how do I take my Children out of the public schools and their system? They threaten parents jail time if the children are not attending public schools.
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The Good and the Beautiful replied:
Hello Gloria! We’re so happy you found us! We are a curriculum company and not a school. Instead of an enrollment, our customers purchase the curriculum and utilize it in their homes or as part of a school within their state.

Each state has different rules and regulations for what is required for homeschooling. We suggest you check with someone at your school district office to see what is needed to notify the state and comply with their regulations. If you need further assistance please reach out to support@goodandbeautiful.com and our customer support team will be happy to help!