The Benefits of Home Education

Hooray for my one-hundredth blog post!  A very minor thing indeed, compared to all the excellent blogs out there that have been running for years, but it's an achievement for me - especially when I consider how far we've come already!  Anyway, as it's a sort of special post, I thought I'd dedicate it to focusing on all the benefits of Home Education that we have experienced for ourselves over the past one hundred days (listed in order that I originally posted them, not in order of significance or anything else)...

Insert long pause here while I trawl through all my blog posts, to find the benefits I have logged so far...

• I don't have to do time-consuming lesson plans, assessment forms or attainment targets (Non-lessons)
• We don't have to do the dreaded morning routine to get out to school every weekday (Goodbye Sergeant Major)
• Home Ed can offer the best, tailor-made education that children need and deserve (To Deschool - or Not?)
• Family snuggles in bed, first thing in the morning (Playing, Creating & Relaxing)
• Opportunities to make new HE friends (Butterfly World)
• Not having to cram all our family time (and homework, housework etc) into busy weekends (Weekend Education)
• Getting to know my boys better (Learning Styles)
• Freedom from the negative socialising that can be experienced in school (The Socialising Myth)
• Not having to send you child to school when they're a bit unwell (How to Home-ed and Other Quandaries
• The ability to enjoy the increasingly rare sunshine instead of missing it while stuck in a classroom (Sunny Day)
• You can have late/ interrupted nights without them being overtired the next day (Hedgehogs and Birthday Cake)
• Healing from school anxiety (Socialisers R Us)
• Finding out more about your children (What Shall We Do Today)
• Increase in their confidence (Time to celebrate)
• Children can sleep until they naturally wake (Finding our Natural Rhythm)
• I have time to play with my boys and to listen when they want to talk (Mummy joins in)
• We have more time to make weekends with Daddy fun (Swimming and Barbecuing)
• Mondays are no longer a thing to be dreaded (Housework, slimy slugs and grassy bugs)
• You can have haircuts during the busy periods when everyone else is at school/ work (Garden Fun)
• You can have popular children's activities centres almost to yourself during their quiet school-hour periods too (Learning through soft play)
• Parenting and education go hand in hand (Lazy Monday)
• Learning can and does happen at any time (Learning while deschooling)
• Opportunity to encourage each individual child in the way they best respond to (Coercion versus Encouragement)
• Home Ed children are generally more considerate of individuality (Individuals playing together)

Wow!  Even I am quite impressed by the length of that list - I hadn't realised I'd logged so many benefits.  And the lovely thing is, there are so many more - not only those that I never got round to mentioning, but we've only been doing this for a few months - there are bound to be more yet to discover :)  Here's to the next hundred days... and the hundred after that... and after that... etc etc :)