yosefaleichem

i love coffe:

I preface below with the disclaimer that I was actually homeschooled. My mother home-schooled both me and my younger brother (with the help of tutors for limudei kodesh) until high-school, and she home-schooled my sisters even through high-school.

I think homeschooling should be viewed similar to how we view schools. Meaning, not every school is perfect for each child and the same can be said for homeschooling. Some children will not do well being home-schooled while others will flourish in such an environment.

The benefits to home-schooled are many, but I will try to list some of the best: More time with your children, siblings growing up even closer to each other, individual and specialized attention in learning, moving at your own pace (faster or slower depending on the child and subject he is learning), additional time to develop other talents or interests.

The disadvantages could be the following: It is VERY hard to home-school children in an undisciplined home, hiring tutors for those subjects which you cannot teach, motivating children who are otherwise unmotivated to learn.

Notably, I did not list lack of social interactions as a disadvantage nor should you be worried that your children will be socially gauche as a result of home-schooling. Unfortunately, people mistakenly assume home-schoolers lack social skills and that they don’t have normal social outlets. This is not the case, especially in the Jewish community (as jewishfeminist02 pointed out). I would go even further to say that since home-schooled children aren’t only surrounded by their same age group (like children in specific grades in school) they are often much more comfortable and adept with speaking with people outside their general age range.

I wonder, is it possible that by doing such things they are actually involving themselves in a kiddush Hashem? Just think about it this way: It could have a positive effect on those people involved in the more modern world or those who are, r”l , a little farther from their yiddishkeit then we would like. These people see frum Jews dressed in their attire and think to themselves – “hmmm, they are actually normal… there’s a way to balance observance with the world we live in…” (though, there’s certainly what to argue regarding if this is truly a balance to achieve or not).