By Emily Houlden, Bumblebees

Do you ever wonder if your life would be different if you were home-educated? With all the bad influences and harsh environment in school, how do you think it’s affected you? You may not even realise it, but school has such an impact on your personality, it’s like you’re a different person when at school compared to home. You want to fit in; You want your friends to like you and you want to get all your school done plus all your homework. It’s too much pressure and too much stress, which is why I decided I wanted to be home-schooled.

When you begin being home-educated, it’s like a fresh start. Of course you still remember everything you’ve learned in school but all the pressure goes away. You create your own schedule; choose your own subjects and have more time to focus on a task —rather than rushing to finish it before the lesson is over— in a comfortable, peaceful environment. What subjects are you passionate about?

How home-education has helped me

A typical day for me at home would be to get up at 9am, do some jobs around the house, then do my maths workbooks with my mum, then look at some English workbooks. Sometimes I’ll have an online lesson but otherwise I’ll do some more English work, since that’s my favourite subject, and the subject I plan to do my GCSE in.

Home-ed has helped me to rebuild my confidence, reduce my anxiety and make new, better friends who are also home educated. It has given me the opportunity to discover activities that I now love, such as making model houses and even making balloon animals, these are things I never would have had time for when I was in school. As well as fun activities, I’ve been able to learn more useful skills to help around the house with, I’ve learnt how to help with making meals, cleaning and gardening too, things I was always too tired to help with after school.

It has also helped me to progress spiritually. I’ve had much more time to spend on the ministry and at the meetings, I’ve been able to enjoy them more, and to feel more confident when speaking on the door to door work. Being homeschooled has given me more time to think about what I want to do in the future, after I finish school, to be more prepared and organised. I’ve even had the chance to do a work experience at a local museum, which gave me a look into a certain work environment, something I enjoyed very much.

It has especially helped to reduce my anxiety; at first when I left school there were days I didn’t even want to leave the house and I couldn’t go anywhere by myself. School really affected my mental health which is why I wanted to be homeschooled and it has really helped. I’ve overcome those challenges now and I feel much more confident and independent, I’ve even caught the bus by myself —once.

The ups and down

Although home-ed has many positives, there can be some down-sides to it. You can feel a bit isolated sometimes. We’ll be in the car or walk past a school and you see all the students with their friends, spending a lot of time together every day; something you don’t get each day when home-schooled. Of course you’ll make new friends who can relate to you since they’re homeschooled too, but you don’t see them every day or even every week like when in school.

One of my favourite things about doing work at home though, is being able to listen to your choice of music while working. Unless it’s something you really need to concentrate on, music is a really easy way to make your work more fun to do. Of course try not to get too carried away and start singing along and playing air guitar.

Another thing that could be a problem is your schedule. If you’re not strict with yourself, you could end up spending the time you’re meant to be using to do work to do recreational things instead such as; going to the shops, the park or watching television (I know I’ve struggled with this). Many times I’ve been hesitant to get up in the morning when I’m meant to and I’ve gone shopping or gone to my grandparents when I’m supposed to do work because I’ve found it hard to stick to my schedule.

What do you think would be your biggest struggle?

In conclusion, I think that home education is the best type of schooling, because it can be much better for your mental health, it can help you to become a better person since you are away from all the bad influences at school. You’re able to choose your own subjects to study and learn new things that can help you later in life. Plus you will have much less stress and pressure in a safe, comfortable place at home.