Why Homeschooling An Only Child Is Awesome!
Homeschooling is hard whether you have multiple children or just a single child. I just want to put that out there straight away. But you can absolutely homeschool an only child, and we have been successfully doing it for the last 4 years. We love it and you can love homeschooling an only child too.
Of course, the assumption when you tell people you homeschool is that you have multiple children and that your house must be chaotic!
This always makes me laugh, as our homeschool is generally fairly peaceful, see, one of the many benefits of homeschooling an only child! Don’t get me wrong, of course, it is not a serene paradise either, but it is certainly not chaos!
With all things in life, there are pros and cons of everything, and homeschooling a child of one is no exception. But for us, it works wonderfully and we wouldn’t change a thing. Check out all of the homeschooling pros and cons to see if it is right for you and your family.
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Homeschooling One Child
The benefits of homeschooling an only child are:
Your house is fairly peaceful! I mean the only people your child can argue with is you! I don’t engage, so it resolves itself fairly quickly. Imagine having lots of kids and how much the arguments will escalate!
If like us and you only have one child (actually I have 2 stepchildren as well, but they have long flown the nest) you don’t know any different! So your parenting styles are already set for your family of one. Homeschooling will be no different!
It’s cheaper! Now of course this probably won’t be a factor for any of you, but of course homeschooling an only child will be cheaper than homeschooling 6 kids!
Complete 1 – 1 tuition. As there is just you and your child you can completely focus on their needs without the distraction of other children.
Your relationship will strengthen. We were very close already, but as you are with your child 24/7 and learning together the bond between you and your child will grow.
I will go through these in more detail below.
Peaceful Homeschool
I know I keep talking about a “peaceful homeschool” this of course is not quite what I mean.
All I mean is there are no arguments between the kids! I have a very lively ADHD 11-year-old boy, so trust me, it is not peaceful! But compared to a house full of children it really is! We actually wanted more children, and that would have been amazing too.
But if you only have one child at home, it will be a more relaxed home than having multiple kids! Homeschooling a child with ADHD can be challenging, but we absolutely love it, check out our top homeschool tips.
Parenting / Homeschooling Style
If you only have one child, you know how to parent only one child! So homeschooling an only child is the same as parenting an only child.
We play a lot of games in our homeschool if you are looking for educational and fun one player games for kids check out over 20 of our favorites.
I have also added our favorite one player card games that they will love to play.
Cost of Homeschooling an Only Child
It is of course significantly cheaper to homeschool one child. Although you can occasionally get sibling discounts or like Adventure Academy (check out our Adventure Academy reviews) where they let you have 3 users for the price of 1, most of the time you have to pay for each child.
You can homeschool for free as well, we have produced a list of over 100 free curriculum for homeschool you can use with your kids.
Even if you do decide to homeschool for FREE with extracurricular classes, or workbooks it will definitely be cheaper with only one child.
Relationship
I love this part of it, we are together 24/7, and we have such an amazing bond. Of course, we have some days that are slightly more fraught than others, it would be weird if we didn’t. But on the whole, we both enjoy this journey together, and we are extremely close.
Everything we do is “quality time” whether it is learning together, or just spending time together, he gets my undivided attention (well maybe not all the time, but MOST of the time.)
Private Tuition
This is another excellent advantage of homeschooling only one child. They get 100% of your time and attention. There are no interruptions, and you can teach to your child, not to everyone.
For example, Freddie is gifted in math, in fact, this is one of our reasons to homeschool. He was being held back in the public school system as they wouldn’t let him go forward without the whole class.
He has been homeschooled since he was about 8 so we can focus on both his strengths and his weaknesses.
We learn together, especially now he is in middle school, I mean, some of it is hard!! If you are interested in what we are currently studying check out our 6th grade homeschool curriculum.
Disadvantages of Homeschooling An Only Child
Hmm, this is difficult for me as this is all we know, but I will try and give a balanced discussion.
Sometimes he gets lonely and needs regular play dates, I’m not going to lie and say that this isn’t the case.
Socializing – I’ll talk about this in more detail below, but as a disadvantage, it is not what you think.
STEM experiments would probably be more fun with more than one child!! Haha, sorry I am really clutching at straws here. We love homeschooling, and we know no different than homeschooling one kid!
Lonely
Yes, sometimes he gets a little lonely. We desperately wanted him to have a younger sibling and he would have been an amazing big brother. However, that was not meant to be.
But is he lonely all the time, and missing out on a public school environment? Hell no! Not even close. He attended public school until he was nearly 8 so he knows what he is “missing out on” (haha).
Socializing
No, my son does not suffer from socialization issues, and in fact, every other homeschooler I have met doesn’t either. They are around people all of the time, maybe not friends of their own age for 7 hours a day behind a desk, but adults, and kids of different ages, in real-life situations.
The reason I have put it as a disadvantage to homeschooling an only child is that currently most of his friends are in the public school system. So the minute they have a day off from school (it seems like every 5 minutes!) he is desperate to go out and play, and not do his homeschool work!
Homeschool Socialization
Ok so I have shared with you why homeschooling an only child is awesome (well in fact homeschooling any number of children is awesome!) I just wanted to share with you some ways you can socialize with your child.
These are the most common questions I am asked:
“how do you socialize in your homeschool of one?”
“is your son not missing out on interaction with other kids?”
Well of course he is not missing out, in fact, for us, homeschooling is the BEST!
Ideas on How to Socialize In Your Homeschool
Join coops, and meet up with other homeschool families. If you are new to an area check out Facebook groups in your area.
Online classes, we use Outschool a lot in our homeschool, check out our Outschool review if you have not used this before.
Arrange playdates. We have to do this after school is over as most of his friends are in public school.
Join sports groups.
Go to your library and see what activities they are running. Or just go for a change of scenery, you never know you might find other homeschoolers doing the same.
Field trips, go to a local museum (the science ones are generally great, a gallery, or a zoo). Download our free museum scavenger hunt and have even more fun.
Socialization is not a concern in our homeschool of one, and nor should it be for you. If you have any questions though please reach out either via email or by commenting below.
Can you homeschool an only child? Absolutely, you’ve got this.
Last Updated on 13 April 2023 by homeschoolof1