I Took the Road Less Traveled — Here's Why Homeschool Is Better

Let me tell you why homeschool is better. Not perfect. Not for everyone. But better — for us, and possibly for you too.

I was asked once why I felt the need to explain my reasons for this homeschooling life. “Just live your life,” this person said. “I’m not going around explaining why I put my kids in school.”

I could see her point. Except that I was asked about my homeschool decision almost every single day — which means I’ve had a lot of time to think about my answer, and I’m prepared to engage in a very in-depth discussion if you’d like one.

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“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” — Robert Frost

Why Homeschool is Better (& The Road We Chose)

Homeschooling is the road less traveled. It still is, even as more and more families find their way to it. And like Frost’s traveler, I have never once wished I’d taken the other road.

Here’s why.

"Parent and child learning together at home — why homeschool is better for building connection"

1. Intentional, Parental Socialization — Not Peer Socialization

The number one reason I think homeschool is better is the very reason most people question it. You know the question. It starts with S.

But what about socialization?

Here’s what I’ve come to believe after years of homeschooling: nowhere in a child’s life is a child more validated, more seen, and more secure than when they are deeply connected to their parent. Even in a parent-child relationship with its regular frustrations, misunderstandings, and moments of complete cacophony — the child always knows their parent is available. Always has someone to bounce ideas off of. Always has someone to discuss their big emotions with, their conflicts, their questions, their fears.

A child who has a parent who wants to spend their days with them — who offers more regular hugs, more sofa reading, more genuine conversation — that child is being socialized in the most profound way possible.

This is intentional, parental socialization. And the research backs it up. If you want to read more about why parental attachment matters more than peer attachment, Gordon Neufeld’s book Hold On To Your Kids will change the way you think about this entirely.

If you want your child to be kind, considerate, generous, confident speaking to strangers and adults and littler kids — that grows from secure attachment. And secure attachment grows from time. Time is what homeschool gives you in abundance.

"Homeschool family on a nature walk — why homeschool is better for raising curious, confident kids"

2. A Rounded, Personalized Education — Not a One-Size-Fits-All Experience

A personalized education is a guaranteed benefit for the homeschool child. And I mean genuinely personalized — not differentiated instruction squeezed into a classroom of thirty, but a curriculum that bends itself around your child’s actual interests, pace, and learning style.

Our oldest daughter had a deep and lasting interest in British history. It may have started with an Usborne book or a historical fiction novel — I’m honestly not sure. But when Kate and Will were married, we happened to be at a homeschool conference, and she was so captivated that we forgoed sleep that night in the hotel to watch the wedding together — just as I had watched Charles and Diana marry years before. Her interest continued throughout her homeschool years and touched writing, reading, geography, art, and politics. One interest became a rich, full curriculum all on its own.

Our second daughter was interested in all things zoology before she was even old enough to be homeschooled. Underwater animals, creatures flying through the air, anything barking in the backyard. The week before she left for college, I took a series of photographs of her with each of the animals on our homestead — our twenty chickens in Cluckingham Palace, Violet our Great Pyrenees, our cats Neptune and Meredith, and our three goats Clover, Thistle, and Poppy. Her interest in animals was apparent at two years old and wove itself through every subject in her homeschool years.

Either of these interests — or any interest at all — can become a full-fledged curriculum. Writing, spelling, math, reading, science, history — all of it can be taught through the thread of what your child genuinely cares about.

I’ve written entire posts on how to make this work for each subject area, and I’d encourage you to explore them:

How to Teach History in Your Homeschool Without a Textbook

How to Teach Writing in Your Homeschool Through Your Child’s Interests

Get Rid of the Spelling Program and Teach Kids to Spell Anyway

How to Teach Reading in Your Homeschool

How to Teach Math in Your Homeschool Without Losing Your Mind

But How to Make Science Come Alive in Your Homeschool?

3. A Confidence-Building Environment — Not a Fear-Based One

No matter the imperfect family environment — and ours has been plenty imperfect, believe me — a homeschool is a confidence-building environment. Not a fear-based, comparison-driven, follow-the-leader environment.

Here’s what I mean. When a child is given the freedom to work through something on their own — to listen, to try, to check their work, to ask for help when it doesn’t make sense — they begin to develop a quiet internal belief: I got this. I can do this.

And then they move on to the next thing. Then the next. And the next, and then one day someone remarks, almost offhandedly, “Wow, your kids are so independent.” And what you enabled was trust. A trust that your child can learn, that they can figure things out, that they can be expected to process something difficult — something that requires real effort — and come out the other side.

I expect that if my children can do something, they should try something. I am always available for whatever they’re doing. But that doesn’t mean I check their every step, every page, every minute. It certainly doesn’t mean I can help them figure out the coding program they got for Christmas or decipher the instructions for their new drone. That is well beyond my pay grade.

But they figure it out. Because they’ve learned to trust themselves. And that trust started small — with a chore chart, a daily task, a math page they checked themselves. Gradually, based on each child’s abilities, their independence and confidence grew over time.

Not one of my four kids needs help brushing their teeth, because I taught them, expected them to do it independently, and trusted that they could. The entire independence thing starts there. With the small things. With the trust.

"Child engaged in personalized homeschool learning — why homeschool is better than one-size-fits-all education"

The Road Makes All the Difference

I don’t claim that homeschooling is a perfect life. We are still homeschooling humans — and the humans doing the homeschooling are human too. I can only laugh when I even write the word perfection, given that most of yesterday was spent in an aggravating tête-à-tête with my daughter over multiplying and dividing fractions.

But it is a charmed life, this homeschool life. The intentional socialization. The personalized education. The confidence-building that happens quietly, steadily, over years of being trusted and seen and known.

I will continue to follow this road not-so-often taken. Because it has made all the difference.

Ready to start your own homeschool journey with clarity and confidence? Grab your free Confident Homeschool Roadmap and take the first step.

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Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves, no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost

"Homeschool mama reflecting on why homeschool is better for her family's unique journey"

Teresa Wiedrick

I help overwhelmed homeschool mamas shed what’s not working in their homeschool & life, so they can show up authentically, purposefully, and confidently in their homeschool & life.

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I Took the Road Less Traveled — Here’s Why Homeschool Is Better