If you're planning to homeschool your kids this year, you'll want to see this. A Reddit user who has a bit of insider information on homeschooling (the user was actually homeschooled before going to college) is pulling back the curtain on what it's really like—and sharing advice homeschooling parents can apply.
The user answered questions from fellow Reddit posters, touching on everything from adjusting to a more traditional learning setting after being homeschooled to whether being homeschooled influenced their perspective on the world.
The original poster says they used a set area of the house for learning and had the freedom to set their own schedule in high school. "I could sleep until 9 or 10 in the morning most days, which undoubtedly helped me learn better as I was fully awake for doing so," they write. "When I talk to people who had to get up at 5 or 6 in the morning in high school to catch a bus while they were still half asleep, I am so grateful I was able to do everything on my own schedule."
The poster's overarching advice? Homeschooling works best when it's tailored to the student. "I would say that the most successful homeschoolers are the ones who are truly able to have their educational experience tailored to them specifically and who had some structure in their days," the poster writes. "I know families with 7 or 8 kids who all had to do the same things as their siblings; the older ones got the tailored experience that helped them, but the younger ones were at a real disadvantage because they were treated like mini educational clones of their older siblings and didn't get those benefits of homeschooling."
Obviously, customizing a lesson plan (or multiple lesson plans) is easier said than done (especially for parents who are juggling work alongside virtual learning or homeschooling), but it is definitely worth considering—and no one understands your child as well as you do, so this might make the perfect opportunity to give them a personalized academic experience.
And as for what the original poster would change about their experience? "I wish I'd been able to be a bit more individual with my extracurriculars and not have to share every activity with my younger sister," they share. "I also wish I'd had a bit more exposure to popular culture; my parents didn't want to pay for cable, and the majority of my childhood was before streaming services became a thing, so I didn't watch any popular TV shows and really only listened to the music my parents had (mostly classical). That lack of exposure made it difficult for me to make friends with non-homeschoolers."
If you're nervous about how being homeschooled may affect your child in the long run, rest easy: According to this Reddit user, there are some serious benefits to the setup—and for some students, it may work beautifully. "For some kids, learning in a big class is what works best, and I'm glad they have that option," the user writes. "I just wish more people had the opportunity I had to get that one-on-one educational experience!"
