4 Reasons To Supplement Homeschooling With Online Courses
If you have been considering homeschooling your children recently, you are not alone.
Homeschooling has become a new way of life for many parents. Especially since the Covid 19 Pandemic when schools shut down in 2020. Parents realized they want more control over their children’s upbringing and education as they may not agree with the curriculum that is being taught. Homeschooling is a great alternative for parents who want to have more say in what their kids learn in school.
However, as many parents try to navigate the new waters of being a teacher, it can be frustrating when trying to parent and teach at the same time. Adding online courses to your homeschool curriculum may not seem like a big deal, but it is.
Here are four reasons to supplement homeschooling with online courses.
- Offers parents a break from teaching, parenting, or entertaining.
- Encourages curiosity and exploration of new skills and occupations
- Allows parents to learn a new skill alongside their child creating a new bonding opportunity
- Offers a major jumpstart to the child’s future
For some, this might seem like a great idea but may be prohibited by the added cost of each online program.
What you should know is that many states within the U.S. are recognizing the shift and offering ways to help with this new financial burden. Arizona is a great example as they recently launched the Empowerment Scholarship Account. This Scholarship allows parents access to tax dollars that were earmarked for the education their child would have received through the public school system.
Programs like this will continue to help parents of homeschoolers be able to afford supplemental courses on top of their current education. Whether it be an extra music course such as The Vocalist Studio or a photography program like Expert Photography; students will be able to expand their skills through the use of courses like these.
As you move on through the four reasons, begin thinking about how you can incorporate online courses into your homeschooling program.
Break Time
Since homeschooling is just another hat that parents have to wear, this means less time for the things that they find important or even necessary.
You have probably already realized there is no way to make more time in the day and that you can only operate for so long with no sleep. Finding ways to delegate some daily tasks such as teaching a specific subject can be a lifesaver when it comes to getting some time back in your day.
This is the first reason to consider adding online courses to your homeschooling.
Online courses and programs offer parents a break. It allows them to pass off some of the responsibility of teaching to someone else for a while. Even teachers get breaks so why would it not be fair for parents who teach from home to get one as well?
This may sound like a contradiction to what was stated at the beginning of this post in the sense that most parents are homeschooling to control their kid’s education. That is still the case with online courses. You get to pick which course and choose how much you want to be involved during the time your kid is learning the material.
Take a little bit of time and research the course and the course creator before purchasing. Find out if you like the teaching style and whether or not you agree with the values they are instilling.
Stay in complete control of what is being taught to your child and when they are taking the course, use that time to take a break and recharge for a bit.
Skills & Bonding
One of the benefits of homeschooling is that you get to spend more time with your child. This allows you to form a bond with your kid that other parents may not get.
When you introduce online courses into that mix, you can take the bond with your child to the next level. This is because it offers you an opportunity to be on an even playing field. You get to approach this situation not as the teacher but as a fellow student and more importantly as their friend. You can begin to dream together about what you each will do with this newly learned skill and how you can support each other moving forward.
This is a time that will become a special moment for your child. They are going to look back on this and remember when you two shared that learning experience.
Who knows, it could change the entirety of your relationship as you may have a passion that you both share for life.
There is also a double benefit from this process. You are learning a new skill which is making you a more valuable person. This could make you worth more in the marketplace depending on what you learn.
You may even be able to start up a side hustle with your kid and grow a business together. Just another benefit of online courses that you can add to the list.
Jumpstart
Being a parent you want your children to succeed. In most cases, you don’t want your kids to grow up with similar struggles that you had. This may not be your exact situation but statistically more than half of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That’s not a struggle that anyone wants to have.
So why not give your child a head start on life?
This is probably the number one reason to supplement homeschooling with an online course. You can help your child start developing skills that are valuable in the workplace. This will be giving them a major jumpstart compared to their peers.
In some cases, your kid could start changing the world before they even graduate.
Archer Calder, a teenager from Cypress Texas is a great example of this. He coded an app so that he could communicate with his younger sister who had a developmental disorder called the Bainbridge-Ropers syndrome that left her unable to speak.
Archer said to ABC13 that,
“Even though she wasn’t able to talk back to me, I would still want to talk to her and tell her that I loved her and that she meant a lot to me.”
The world has changed, it is not necessary to jump through all the hoops of the legacy educational system to be deemed worthy of working in the marketplace. We live in a time of opportunity. Kids can start building their future today in the new digital space.
Online courses can help your child get a major leg up in the world. By allowing your kid to find their passion early and develop the skills needed to succeed, they could be thriving in their dream job before their peers have even graduated college.
It’s Up To You
As a homeschool parent, you can’t do it all. Supplementing your curriculum with online courses can help. They give you some of your time back, encourage your child’s curiosity and exploration, allow you to bond over new skills, and can help to jumpstart your kid’s future.
We feel we have put forth a decent argument for the use of online programs. It is up to you to decide if it fits the learning path for your child.
Cheers