Parent Learning: A Homeschool Side Benefit
-by Mimi Rothschild
When we think of homeschooling’s benefits, we usually think of the opportunity to provide a first-class education at much less than the cost of a typical private school, the chance each child has to work at his or her own pace and in the best way for that particular child, or the blessings of learning in a nurturing Christian environment.
There are benefits for the parents as well. We have a closer family life, the ability to be sure of what our children are learning, and the pleasure of spending more time with our precious children as they grow.
There’s another benefit for parents, though, one we often overlook when we count our blessings as homeschoolers.
Have you thought about your own education? It’s true, refreshing our knowledge of the things we learned in school – or occasionally the things we should have learned in school and didn’t – is one of the great benefits we homeschool parents gain from our children’s schooling.
Some of the things we now have the opportunity to learn, such as web design, the history of Christian music or forensic science, may never have been available to us when we were students. Now we can take pleasure in learning these things as adults.
For no cost of time or money above the investment we’re already making in our children’s education, we can polish up our algebra, learn about world history with our more mature understanding, and perhaps finally get complete comprehension of how to multiply fractions.
Our children get to see our own excitement in learning, and to have our example of diligent study and an enthusiastic teachable spirit. Our friends and spouses get a more interesting and informed conversational partner. And we get the satisfaction of being better educated individuals.
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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of LearningByGrace.org the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.