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Does Homeschooling Impact Children’s Confidence?

Many parents are starting to weigh the pros and cons of homeschooling, even when they were perfectly happy with public or private schooling for their children in the past. Homeschooling is more accessible than ever with the abundance of resources that parents and students have at their disposal.

While parents are making this decision, they’re wondering whether the benefits of homeschooling outweigh the bad things that they’ve heard about in the past. They may wonder “Does homeschooling impact a child’s confidence?” All parents want to know that their children will grow up with healthy self-esteem.

We’re here to talk about homeschooling and confidence so you can make an informed decision about your child’s education. Read on to learn more.

Why Would Someone Think Otherwise?

You may have heard the myth that homeschooling can impact a child’s confidence negatively, but this isn’t really true. Most of your child’s confidence is going to come from how they’re treated at home when they’re young. You’re responsible for helping them build confidence and maintain it.

Many people are under the impression that children need the challenge of “normal” school in order to build their own confidence. They understand that children thrive when they’re presented with challenges, but they may not realise that the challenges faced at school can seriously undermine confidence, and you can still challenge children at home.

They may also believe that, because socialisation is so important when it comes to building a child’s self-esteem, homeschooled children won’t have enough exposure to others.

It’s normal for people to have those opinions, but they’re misinformed. Many children lack self-confidence even in “normal” school. While there are benefits of “normal” school, boosting confidence doesn’t have to be one of them.

Most people who claim that the impact of homeschooling on a child’s confidence is negative are either misinformed or willfully trying to challenge your choices.

Doing Your Part to Boost Your Homeschooled Child’s Confidence

Remember that you’re now your child’s teacher. In a normal school, your child has access to plenty of supportive adults and classmates that can help boost their confidence. Often this is not the case at school. Homeschooling means that you now have the opportunity to capitalise on positive inputs. As long as you’re staying attentive to your child, encouraging independence and socialisation in clubs and groups,you can boost their confidence in ways that they may not be able to experience in a full classroom in a standard school.

Here are a few ways that you can work on helping your child develop confidence when you’re homeschooling them.

Let Them Think for Themselves

One of the biggest benefits of homeschooling is that you can let your child develop their own thoughts and ideas. Free thinking is crucial for childhood development and it encourages future critical thinking and a willingness to explore new concepts and conduct research before forming opinions.

Let your child explore difficult concepts on their own and develop their own theories. You should, of course, guide your child, but don’t try to diminish their ideas.

Mainstream schools don’t get to give children as much freedom as you can by homeschooling them. While children also need structure, the inability to form new ideas can feel restrictive and make the child feel as if their thoughts are “wrong.” Connect with other homeschoolers of all ages to enable authentic thinking not based on age.

Challenge Them (Gently)

You know your child, and that means that you know what they can handle. Because you’re teaching them one-on-one, you have the opportunity to challenge them and work at a pace that’s suitable for their learning style.

Children in standard classrooms have to go along with the crowd. Teachers don’t have the opportunity to teach each student individually, and that means that some children fall behind while others aren’t challenged enough to grow.

You’ll be able to see when your child is ready to move beyond their current course materials. While it’s still important that they learn all of the content, you can incorporate extra challenges to keep your child’s mind active.

But what if your child isn’t actually ready for serious challenges?

Learning how to challenge your child gently means learning how to find the right learning pace. If challenging your child means that they have to spend extra time on something, that’s still a challenge for them. Be gentle and patient and their confidence will grow.

Give Them Socialisation Opportunities

It’s true that socialisation is great for confidence, but that doesn’t mean that the child has to be in school. If you give your child opportunities to socialise, they’ll still get the same positive impact.

Take them to homeschool gatherings, create a co-op learning group with other people in your neighbourhood, and consider getting them involved with community activity. There are plenty of community groups for things like children’s sports, art, volunteering, and more.

Teach “Alternative” Skills

You have the unique opportunity to help your child grow in new ways when you’re homeschooling them. While they do need to learn all of the standard academic skills that they’d cover in “normal” schools, you can also leave room for alternative education.

First, teach them life skills. Let them learn how to take care of household activities, teach them to manage finances, and more. This will help your child grow into a confident and capable adult.

You can also let your child follow their passions. Do they want to be an illustrator? Leave room for illustration practice.

Letting your child learn things that will benefit them in the future, even if they aren’t standard academic skills, is great for their confidence.

Does Homeschooling Impact Child’s Confidence? No.

So does homeschooling impact a child’s confidence at all? At the end of the day, not at all. You have the opportunity to support your child to improve their confidence and self-esteem with positive interaction.

Homeschooling can even open your child up to new ways to improve their confidence as long as you provide those ways. It’s a fantastic option for children who are ready to grow.Are you and your child ready to start your homeschooling journey? Why not try a content preview of everything that Euka has to offer? Give us a try today.