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You might have heard that homeschoolers are smart and wondered is it possible? I thought kids in private schools were the smartest?
Homeschoolers are smart because of socialization with parents, adults, and siblings. More parent involvement leads to higher academic performance, self-esteem, and happiness. There is less negative peer pressure, and they attend college, get good jobs, and raise homeschooled kids as well.
Homeschoolers are around more adults during their school day
Homeschooled kids are with adults more during the day and learn directly with them. You can say that they are with more mature peers and come in less contact with children of the same age. Yes, they will meet other kids socially and join various activities, but they spend the majority of the time with adults. Therefore, you can expect homeschoolers to be more mature when compared to kids of the same age in public schools. Imagine where your kids usually pick up naughty behavior from? We noticed a large amount of naughty behavior comes from the kindergarten we sent our son to.
You may also notice speech patterns or perhaps some poor choice of words and dirty words were also picked up during this time. It’s not hard to imagine that in your homeschool, there will be less of these kinds of negative peer pressure. Your homeschooler is around adults and we would hope they are modeling their best behavior and manners! During the day, you might also take your homeschooled child with you on errands and also interact with other adults, both friends, family, and strangers. You must remember that your children model after you, so be a good example for them!
Learn and Socialize with Older Siblings
Younger kids who are homeschooled may become smarter if they are learning and socializing with older siblings. If you have a few children who are homeschooling together, this can be a benefit. It also can complement your teaching and parenting skills. You may be better at teaching math to your kids. But your older kids might be better at teaching your younger children the ways of the street. They are going to be able to socialize them in some of the informal lessons of life you might not be able to grasp because you are just too old!
“Siblings are closer to the social environments that children find themselves in during the majority of their day, which is why it’s important not to overlook the contributions that they make on who we end up being,”
Siblings play formative, influential role as ‘agents of socialization’, Laurie Kramer
You’d be surprised that sometimes your kids can explain things in ways that you might not be able to. For example, my son would rather listen to my older son just because he likes to hang out and learn how to play baseball with him. He also wants to play baseball with his brother, since he knows he’s on a baseball team. He says that his older brother knows more about baseball than me. He is probably right! One last thought to leave you with is that your kids will learn, socialize, and become smarter together. Why? They trust each other more than they would of kids in school.
Usually Taught by Parents with Higher Education
Homeschooling demographics show that children are taught by parents with a higher level of education. This could boost the homeschoolers’ chance of being smarter if they are taught by a parent with a good education. That is not to say that you cannot teach your child if you don’t have a doctorate or graduated from high school! But the data shows more than 45% of parents had a bachelor’s degree or above. The data also shows 31% had a high school level or less and 25% had at least a vocational level education.
There certainly needs to be more research done on this subject, but it makes logical sense that you would want to have an education of at least above the level you want to teach your child. You may also have your children learn the more advanced classes from the local school, co-operative school, or by a paid tutor. Homeschooling is not always 100% done by the parents. And this is perfectly fine to enrich and offer the best options for your child. Homeschoolers may also be taught by parents with a “higher education” in the school of life as well!
Parents Have Higher Involvement
When parents are involved with their children in school, there are usually better results academically and it also relates positively to them being smarter. Homeschoolers have involved parents by definition. Parents are deciding to homeschool, setting, and guiding the schedule and curriculum. And parents are involved with the socialization schedule as well. Kids tend to do better with this structured homeschooling environment and parental involvement. There are numerous studies to back this up with data. But many parents already know this from firsthand experience.
We as homeschooling parents are involved and provide individualized instruction to our children. How they progress and react to the lessons is very clear. Most of us want only the best for our children and pay close attention to the quality of work that our kids produce. In some cases, children may not react well to our instruction or styles of teaching. And some of us are not professional teachers, so there may be some challenges to overcome. This is expected and can happen in traditional schools as well. However, as an involved and loving parent, we are striving for our kids to be as happy and smart as possible!
Academic Performance Better than Traditionally Schooled Kids
Homeschoolers are performing better than students in traditional schools in some cases. The potential to raise smarter kids in a homeschool environment is just as likely as if you send them to a private school. We mentioned the studies show this in many cases. Many potential factors lead to smarter kids. One we mentioned was structured learning and this is a key point no matter where your kids are learning. But 1 factor we believe that leads to good performance and smarter kids are the happiness factor. When kids are in homeschooling they get better rest, they can learn at their own pace, and usually, they are studying things they agreed to.
It goes without saying that when your kids are happy, they will perform better. We have an entire helpful and insightful article on this. Logically they will be smarter as their love for learning grows. This is exponential and all aspects of your kids’ homeschooling will impact their overall performance. We also would like to share that the data shows that homeschooled children also do well in college. They did well on the standardized tests and stayed in college without dripping out. And if your aim is for your child to be ready, smart, and happy to go out into the world, then homeschooling is a perfect choice.
Less Swayed by Peer Pressure
When children are homeschooled, they will have less peer interaction with kids of their age. And they are more influenced by their parents. In this sense, they will be less affected by their peer to goof off and focus more on their studies. Yes, we know that it may depend on siblings and other factors. But generally speaking, this is the case and it is also one of the benefits of homeschooling. You can monitor their peer interaction more carefully. Are we being too overbearing? No certainly not.
We encourage other social activities and classes where our children will receive an enriching education and experience. But it’s common sense and also well researched that peer pressure can have negative effects on your children.
“Children that live in a peer- dominant culture tend to be at greater risk for negative peer influences, such as rejection and deviance training.”
Social Development in Traditionally Schooled and Home Educated Children
If you could remove negative peer pressure from the environment in the early years, this may be helpful to facilitate a more balanced education. This can result in having smarter kids because they are less distracted by negative peer pressure. As homeschoolers, you may select the peer group and promote a better environment for your children.
“While peer interaction may be important for successful personality development, the quality of these interactions is equally important.”
Social Development in Traditionally Schooled and Home Educated Children
High Self-esteem Leads to Greater Happiness
So if your children have high self-esteem, they will be happier and therefore smarter? We tend to think that happiness is more important, and therefore yes, higher self-esteem can lead to being smarter. In homeschooling, you have an opportunity to build up your child’s character and values system. You can develop the virtues and focus on their happiness. In traditional schools, this is usually not something that is taught specifically. In public schools, peer pressure, bullying, and the institutional environment may lead to low self-esteem.
“People with high self-esteem seem sincerely to believe they are smarter, more accomplished, more popular and likable, and more attractive than other people, but some of those apparent advantages are illusory.”
Does High Self-Esteem Cause Better Performance, Interpersonal Success, Happiness, or Healthier Lifestyles?
The data shows that self-esteem is mainly affected by high achievement and success. And therefore we believe that you can develop your children’s self-esteem and provide them a great education. And they will feel smarter and happier! Is there anything wrong with that? The result that most parents aim for is a happy child, who is ready to go out in the world to live a good life independently. How you achieve that is different for every family and situation. But building character, smarts and happiness should always be a general principle for homeschoolers.
Continue to College and University
Kids who homeschool are smart and get into college and university as well! You don’t need to worry because most schools even have specific information for homeschoolers to follow. Keep good records similar to transcripts, videos, portfolios, and if possible SAT or other standardized test scores. This article from US News makes it clear there are differences, but overall chances are just as good you can go to a school of your choice. Certainly, plan to start early and select the best choices to focus on for you and your child. Make it less stressful by preparing well in advance.
Homeschoolers are smart and get into college because they are also more independent and usually have many other extracurricular activities they can add to their applications. Another article we think was helpful discussed the preparation for success like taking extra courses that go above and beyond the typical curriculum. Anything that stands out is recommended. You may find that your kids are smarter than you think as you prepare them for the next phase of their life, a career! But take it easy, since most kids still don’t have any idea what they want to be even especially as a teenager. Believe me, I have 2 teens and they still wonder what they will do in college.
Homeschoolers Get Jobs Too!
Homeschoolers are smart and get jobs just like traditionally schooled kids! Nowadays companies look for skills that are not always taught in normal schools. I think many employers like the fact a homeschooler has chosen the path of challenge. This shows real initiative and a parent’s love for dedicating themselves to their child’s future. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying parents who don’t homeschool are not involved or love their kids any less! But a homeschooling parent passes down an important trait to kids that homeschool, independence!
Some famous people you might have never know were homeschooled, like Tim Tebow, an NFL athlete. Recently, he has been a good example of homeschooling success. And just the other day as I was writing this article I found out myself that both Venus and Serena Williams the tennis stars were homeschooled. You can see a whole list of modern-day celebrities or well-known people who were successfully homeschooled. Also, some other famous people like Thomas Edison, Frank Lloyd Wright, Abraham Lincoln, and Alexander Graham Bell, to name a few. Homeschoolers are smart and get jobs, trust me!
Homeschoolers Also Raise Homeschooled Kids
I tried to find the statistics for homeschooled adults who also homeschool their children. Because you would assume that something that worked well for you would most likely work for your kids. I found that the HSLDA has surveyed adults and their experience of homeschooling. They found that 55% of adults “Strongly Agreed” that they would homeschool their children. And 28% said they “Agree” to homeschool their kids. There are many reasons one chooses to homeschool and there are also just as many family situations that make it possible.
Below is a touching video of a mom and daughter who share their journey of why these 2 generations did it!
The main point is that it is a legal and smart way for homeschoolers. It’s certainly an effective way to educate and develop smart homeschooling children when you use a structured method to teach and raise them. Homeschooling is the perfect addition to good parenting, and that is an entirely different but also an important topic. But good parenting coupled with proper homeschooling can lead to smart, happy, and loving children. And they also look forward to homeschool their children.
Homeschoolers are Smart and Cool Too, They Succeed
If you have never heard of Tim Tebow, he is an NFL athlete and now author who was homeschooled much of his life. He also credits his success to the fact his parents raised him as a Christian and did homeschooling. You can see this video of him on Good Morning America where he shares about his experience of homeschooling.
Something interesting I also learned was that he was also dyslexic and required special flashcards for him to use on the playing field to deal with this. He is a smart player, author, and a great example of homeschooling at it’s best.
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