They may learn to walk, talk, and answer back while you consider sending them to start their education at kindergarten.
If you want more control over your child’s education, what age do you start homeschooling?
In this guide, we will consider what age to start homeschooling.
There are five stages of traditional education, and we will look at each one.
From kindergarten to preschool, elementary school, middle school, and high school. If you want to add some definition to your child’s education, then try to work out when it would be ideal to begin homeschooling.
Kindergarten To Preschool
Homeschooling has seen an increase in popularity as a focused and customized option for a child’s education.
Whether you, as the parent, deliver the teaching or you employ a private tutor, it can replace a full 12 years of traditional and institutional in-class learning.
That learning begins before they even enter a classroom at elementary school. If you want to start early, then remember that children tend to learn the most during those first three years.
That will mean choosing between kindergarten or homeschooling, and from there, the rate of learning and how it is best delivered begins to change.
Until the age of five, when children go from kindergarten through to preschool, much learning comes from playing.
You may not realize it, yet introductions to their ‘A, B, C’s’, shapes, numbers, and patterns can be considered as homeschooling.
How they learn the alphabet and numeracy could largely be down to you in those early, formative years. That teaching could also be seen as a key part of playtime.
Should you want to spend more time with your child, then this period may prove to be ideal. Kids are at their most impressionable age, and you can deliver parenting as a full-time job.
Enjoying time with your child could prove to be an alternative to spending money on an academic program that may or may not give your child a head-start in their education.
At least in these early years, you can dedicate your time to hands-on experiences rather than a structured education in classrooms.
As your children become increasingly aware of the world around them, it may be time to homeschool them. Between the ages of five and 11, kids are expected to attend elementary school.
However, this might be the ideal time to homeschool them if you want to introduce some life skills alongside the ‘three R’s’.
Children should be keen to engage with their wider surroundings, and that could include spending time in the great outdoors.
Rather than the classroom, you can show them the nature that exists outside the window. You may even be pleasantly surprised at how they begin to assert their independence and their free thinking.
From Middle School
Many concerns with a traditional school curriculum focus on the lack of articulation with the wider world. If you want to involve some new thinking and novel concepts, then this might be the best time to start homeschooling.
Perhaps an explanation of how democracy works, a detailed run-through of budgeting, or a demonstration of woodworking.
Between the ages of 11 and 15, a lot of kids may begin to express more than just free thinking. Should you feel like you are the authority in the home, then you may want to homeschool them instead of attending middle school.
Be wary that you may not have all the answers to their curious mind, though you can still teach advanced reading, writing, and arithmetic. You can also begin to shape their character as they enter their teens.
This may be the age at which you begin to question your own skills as a homeschooling parent. Kids could become keen to have their friend groups alongside them in the classroom.
It could also be the ideal time for them to grow in certain social circles and develop interpersonal relationships.
Their interests could also go beyond your teaching abilities if they want to become elite at sports and the arts.
From High School
As a parent with a child who has had their education in the classroom up to high school, it may seem risky to homeschool them. They may be starting to learn about their social development and have a keen after-school life.
You could keep the after-school activities, yet homeschooling can fortify family ties and provide a focus on academic skills. There is also the chance to look at career options or going into military service.
A teenager who is being homeschooled can also be removed from elements of intense peer pressure.
This can be a delicate period in your child’s education and life, yet it can also be the most rewarding as a parent.
You could have a real impact on how they enter the world of full-time employment, and you could spend time teaching them how to drive.
Remember that there is no definitively correct age to begin homeschooling your child. The right age may depend on your employment situation and the needs of your child.
Should they have learning difficulties, ADHD, or any other condition that you want to look out for, then you may believe that homeschooling should be started as soon as possible.
However, your child may develop problems after spending years in school, and homeschooling may prove to be the remedy.
Talk to your child and try to ascertain whether a traditional education is working for them. It could well be that going through kindergarten, preschool, and elementary school is best for developing social skills.
If you are keen on forging their education before they enter the world of work, then it may work to homeschool them instead of sending them to high school.
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