It used to be that homeschooling had a certain stigma to it. When people heard the word, they pictured a child isolated at home from children his age and indoctrinated into his parents’ extremist views. However, homeschooling has steadily grown in popularity over the years, and it’s widely acknowledged now that homeschooling provides many benefits.

     First, it helps to foster a closer, more loving relationship between you and your child. Related to this is the homeschooling benefit of having the opportunity to teach your child the values that are important to you and your family. When you homeschool your child, you can teach him the moral and ethical principles that you cherish as part of his curriculum.

     Academically, homeschooling has countless benefits. Here is the opportunity to give your child an individualized education geared toward his interests, purposes, and speed of learning. Sometimes children perform poorly in school because they are forced to move at a pace which is too fast for them and before they know it, they find themselves too far behind to catch up. Sometimes subject matter in school doesn’t interest them individually.

     Homeschooling allows the parent to have control over the sort of values and ideals that the child will learn. Let’s face it. Some schools and teachers may be teaching values to our children that we may fundamentally disagree with. You can design a curriculum for your child that demonstrates your values. For example, you can have him read Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography or teach him about Thomas Alva Edison in order to promote hard work and persistence, or you can show him to respect all faiths by having him learn about each one.