Top 20 reasons to homeschool in 2023

If you are thinking about homeschooling your child more than ever before this year, you are not alone. And, most of your reasons are probably valid. This article explores various reasons parents may consider or choose to homeschool in 2023.

Reasons to start homeschooling in 2023

The quality of education

1. If you’re in South Africa, you are probably aware of the many problems with the CAPS curriculum (Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS). Parents frequently complain about the mountains of homework even the primary phase children struggle with. There are constant assessments that just take the fun out of it all and way too little time on the rigid schedule to slow down review concepts that children have not yet mastered properly. These points are from this article here.

2. All of this strain on teachers, parents, and children often result in poor quality schoolwork, anxiety, depression, panic, and other issues.

3. If your child is receiving education in a different curriculum, you may still have concerns about what exactly is being taught in the classroom, how it is being taught and whether your child is coping.

4. You may also be greatly concerned (as you should be) about Comprehensive Sexuality Education – sex education in schools. Particularly in South Africa, it’s causing a major uproar because parents and teachers were not consulted before this content was implemented. Read a more comprehensive article about the issues with CSE here.

5. Regardless of the curriculum your child is being taught in school, there’s also the important question of whether they are learning true, relevant and helpful information that will create a good foundation for further studies and career development? If not, why not and what is being done about it?

6. Quality education is also about so much more than just curriculum. It’s about what children learn from teachers and peers aside from curriculum content as well. As children grow up, their peer group’s opinions become increasingly important, influencing many important life choices and value choices which you may either approve of or be greatly concerned about, depending on the outcome.

The learning environment

7. Bullying is commonplace these days. Children get bullied by their peers, but also by other staff. Bullying is no longer limited to teasing, humiliation, and jokes in poor taste. It now includes violent assault, verbal abuse, physical, emotional, and verbal harassment, even sexual assault. It’s an increasingly severe problem, causing mental, emotional and physical health problems as well as problems with learning. Read this article on bullying for more specific stats and this article on how homeschooling can help your bullied child heal for more information.

8. Many children struggle to master concepts at school pace and need more support and individualized attention, especially children with learning disabilities. Schools lack the infrastructure, information, staff, and funding to offer sufficient support and most classrooms are overloaded as it is. Forty children in a class make learning tough even for the academically inclined!

9. Schools are systems and systems don’t take kindly to children that don’t fit in or conform. You may have received pressure from staff to medicate your child to improve their behavior, concentration, and ability to sit still in class. But children need more room and time to move to learn well!

10. Your child may have learning challenges that make it very hard for them to cope in school and require a slower, calmer, unpressured pace and individual support and attention.

11. Struggles with anxiety, depression, and performance that frequently make your child feel ill, moody, clingy, and uncooperative may call for homeschooling, even if only temporarily.

12. Chronic illness or complex disabilities may also make it impossible to cope in a school environment.

Missing out on family time and learning things that matter

13. Every parent wants more quality time with their child – time that isn’t taken up with endless school assignments, assessments, arguing over homework, etc. Just time to talk, connect, get to know what your child is thinking, feeling and interested in. Time to build a solid positive relationship before they graduate and leave home. This is a valid reason, parents!

14. Are you in the mood for a radical adventure? Maybe you’d like to world-school or road school with your child. Give them an education full of memorable experiences that will widen their horizons and perspective of opportunities in the world out there. Hold their hand as you both discover it! Check out Susan Whitehead’s blog (Wanderlust Families) for more info on how to do this.

15. Maybe you want to teach your child important things that schools will not and cannot teach them (i.e. life skills, how to start a family business, how to survive in the bush, etc.).

16. You want to spend time imparting your faith, values, morals, and worldview to your children so that they will understand why you believe what you believe and why you live the way you do. Children look at the world and ask questions when there’s a difference. Homeschooling offers an opportunity to answer these questions and impart understanding of key issues of faith and perspective on the world and how to live in it.

Other reasons for choosing to homeschool

17. The expense of putting your child in a private school for a better quality education may be unaffordable.

18. There is no space to have your child placed in school or in the school of your choice. Again, this is another major current problem in SA, which makes many parents turn to homeschooling. Read this article for more info on school placement issues in SA and what to do if this affects you.

19. Your child is exceptionally skilled and gifted and you want to give them a head start on pursuing a career. Schools typically don’t like to let children skip a grade or to offer extra stimulation if they need a faster pace to stay interested in learning. With homeschooling, your children can progress as fast as they want and still have time for plenty of other educational pursuits!

20. Children should love learning and be motivated, not pressured and tested ALL the time. Does your child hate learning? That’s a big red flag! Do something about it before it becomes a bigger problem. The working world today requires you to be a self-motivated life-long learner to survive, be an entrepreneur, and create new jobs.

Which reasons to homeschool resonate the most with you and why? Share your opinion in the comments below and share the post with your family and friends who are considering homeschooling. We are not alone, dear parents!