What does being “healthy” mean to you? Healthy food, healthy mind-set, social health, emotional health? Is home-schooling healthy? Is it possible to achieve it?

Types of health: Mental, emotional, social, spiritual, physical, and environmental.

Mental

Children have different interests. Chances are; you really don’t know all, or even some of these among your kids. Home-schooling brings you closer to the development and growth of your kids. You can monitor your child’s learning pace, setting goals, and then adjusting them accordingly to your child’s capabilities. Like any other aspects mentioned here, mental health is a crucial aspect in our child’s development. This is something we can’t see, but it greatly impacts our children’s welfare.

Emotional

Having isolated from external stimuli, you need to encourage openness in communication. If you are able to teach your child to express their feelings you will be able to address potential problems which are rooted in their emotions. Even regular-schooled children can have emotional stress – dealing with their classmates, piling homework and projects, and a lot more. With home-schooling, we are now able to guide and assist our children within this aspect because study with them at the same time.

Social

The family is the basic unit of society. How many times have we heard this before? It’s true! Your child’s interaction with you is already training them to be respectful to others. You are the authority in the home and if they learn how to respectfully communicate with you they will certainly be respectful to people outside as well. Learning to do their share in the home builds social skills too. Building a proactive support system in the home is essential for social health. You don’t need to worry too much about this part, which will later on alter your decision in home-schooling, your child.

Spiritual

You might worry about your child growing up without any morals. Home-schooling gives you a great opportunity in this aspect. You can bring the word of the Lord into your home and into your child’s heart and mind. The new commandment of loving one another as Jesus loved us needs to be instilled in your child’s heart to eliminate all pride and selfishness which destroys their opportunity to love.

Physical

The food you prepare, physical exercise, and proper rest needs to be monitored. Don’t expect your child to be healthy if you will be feeding them junk and not letting them get the physical stimulation they need for growth. You again are in control in the activities you want to put in home-schooling based on your child’s capabilities.

Environmental

The simple chores you assign to your child can be a great opportunity in teaching them how to take care of the environment. You and your child need to take care of the learning environment. This team effort needs extend to your surroundings too.

Home-schooling is healthy, but only if you and your child work together. You can’t simply put your child in an unhealthy situation and expect things to fix themselves on their own. You as the guardian of the home in home-schooling are responsible for this health.

For 15 years Mimi Rothschild has been privileged to help hundreds of thousands of homeschoolers educate their children at home. The MorningStar Academy is a private online Christian school offering diplomas and teachers. The Jubilee Academy is an online Christian curriculum provider offering over 150 full year online Christian courses for PreK-12.