5 Core Educational Homeschooling Benefits of Self-Publishing

It’s no longer popular or accurate to say that educational homeschooling is in any way inferior. And no, children who are homeschooled are not suffering socially. In fact, they tend to do better when interacting with others—children and adults alike—and this is just one of the educational homeschooling benefits. Another primary benefit is being able to tailor what you teach your child.

While there are some regulations of what to teach, you as their educator have the freedom to choose which skills to introduce, foster, and allow your children to master. Among one of the best right now is teaching self-publishing.

As the world continues to pursue technology, the access and affluence potential with self-publishing will only continue to grow.

We’ll take a look at the individual skills your child will gain by learning to self-publish through homeschooling, and the other broader benefits.

Here’s everything we’ll cover about educational homeschooling through self-publishing:

1. Skills learned
2. Critical thinking
3. Practical skills
4. Creativity & expression
5. Confidence
6. Future preparation
7. Examples of self-published books

Skills learned through self-publishing

Self-publishing a book isn’t just one skill. That’s why there are companies like selfpublishing.com that exist to help people learn the process. Which means there’s a whole host of unique and specific skills your child can learn by going through the process.

Here are some primary educational homeschooling skills they’ll gain:

1. Writing skills: ideation, organizing a book, perseverance with an idea, self-editing, grammar, style, etc.
2. Book design: cover, formatting, and other visual elements and how to pair that with written concepts
3. Marketing: book marketing is necessary to sell, and in general, it’s necessary to make a solo income and sell anything in life, a valuable skill to have no matter their profession
4. Project management: taking a single outcome (book) and working backward to create and execute the tasks to completion
5. Self-publishing platforms: a lot of technology experience will be had here, creating accounts, bios, uploading files, file types, file sizes, etc.
6. Distribution: they’ll learn the process of how a product is made and shipped, without their need to touch it (drop shipping), or the printing process for selling direct
7. Analytics and data: being able to look at views, cart-adds, and sales gives much insight into purchasing behaviors, and allows your child the opportunity to adapt (updating their book description, for example) and view the cause and effect
8. Legal rights: things like copyright, protecting intellectual property, and the likes are only becoming more important and prevalent in today’s world, and are thus educational homeschooling benefits
9. Collaboration: it’s not likely your child can make their own book cover, format it themselves (though this one is possible), or even edit the book themselves, which means collaboration and working with another to fulfill a vision is something they’ll learn
10. Problem-solving: not everything will go to plan with self-publishing, and that’s why your homeschooled child will learn valuable problem solving skills to handle, address, and move through conflict standing in the way of their goals

These are just simple skills your homeschooled children will learn. Beyond just these are additional educational homeschooling benefits.

Benefits of teaching self-publishing to your homeschooled children

Sometimes it’s not about the specific skills gained through the tactic. Most valuable lessons in life are gained in a broader sense. These are what you can expect for the educational homeschooling benefits of teaching self-publishing.

1. Encouraging independent learning and critical thinking

Writing a book is a lot more than just writing skills. In fact, writing is about thinking. By teaching the process (and all that goes into it) of writing a book, your child will learn valuable critical thinking skills, especially as it relates to how they see the world, what they think of it, and how to interpret those thoughts into something others can consume.

In the world we live in today, this is a powerful educational homeschooling benefit. Can you think of any jobs or future ambitions in which someone never needs to communicate their thought processes?

In addition, self-publishing is actually an extension of an independent learning process. Even if your child wants to write a fiction book, they will be required to research to some extent. That can be done alone, and you’ll encourage their ability to find answers to substantiate their claims (for nonfiction) or create accuracy in their story (fiction).

2. Developing practical skills through self-publishing

Self-publishing offers a hands-on opportunity for your children to develop essential, real-world skills, as I touched on above. One of the most immediate benefits is in the area of writing and editing, which is a universally important skillset and why so much time is dedicated to it even in public school settings. Any good educational homeschooling involves learning reading, writing, and comprehension material. Plus, the iterative process of drafting, revising, and refining a manuscript teaches them the art of clear expression and the importance of attention to detail—skills that are not only invaluable in both academic and professional settings, but for any pursuit in your kids’ lives.

Also noted above, marketing and promotion in the self-publishing world introduces your kids to business and entrepreneurial skills. They learn how to identify target audiences, create compelling book descriptions, and market their work across various platforms. These are practical, real-world skills that translate directly into any future business or entrepreneurial endeavor, giving them a head start in understanding the fundamentals of sales, branding, and what makes people buy.

And when won’t time management and project planning skills be useful? Your kids will learn how to break down complex, long-term projects into manageable steps, set deadlines, and see their work through from idea to finished product—the latter piece alone is invaluable in life.

All of these are applicable to more than just the self-publishing process, and should be taught in any educational homeschooling curriculum. Self-publishing can simply be the project or medium used to teach them.

3. Encouraging creativity and expression

One of the key advantages of homeschooling is the freedom it provides in terms of curriculum design, which allows your kids to explore their specific interests on a deeper level. This flexibility develops creative skills by giving them time and space to dive into subjects they are passionate about. And there isn’t a much better way for your children to express their creativity and self interests than through writing a book.

Take the example from the creators at Unfound Adventures, a creative company that writes comics in which real children’s imagined Callings (creatures) are written into the story. Dillon Barr, founder, attends school visits in which children are tasks with coming up with their own Callings with certain abilities.

One of the kids, after creating his own Calling, said, “Mom, it’s weird, I made it like my life accidentally,” referring to his bass-like creature that has a magic ability of speaking confidence to everyone around. You see, this child has a behavioral condition that made it difficult for him and his father to bond. However, the one activity the child can’t wait to do with his father is going fishing—for bass. Without prompting, this child was able to express his inner world and desires, in addition to exposing part of himself that needs nurturing (his confidence) through his creative choices.

While this was done in a public school classroom, Matt and Dillon with Unfound Adventures allow anyone to sponsor a Calling, and will soon be offering the ability for parents to sponsor their child’s own children’s book crafted in their world of Bastunia.

This serves as a powerful example of educational homeschooling practices using self-publishing that you don’t have to directly do yourself. Being able to have someone teach you and your child is another way to encourage creativity and expression.

4. Building confidence and ownership

Both homeschooling and self-publishing foster a sense of personal responsibility and ownership over one’s learning and creative endeavors. In homeschooling, students often have a greater say in their educational journey, taking the reins when it comes to choosing what they study and how they engage with the material. This autonomy encourages them to take responsibility for their success, developing self-discipline and a proactive approach to learning.

Similarly, publishing a book provides a tangible sense of accomplishment. For a homeschooled student, seeing their hard work result in a finished, published product boosts their confidence in their abilities. Completing and publishing a book, whether it’s an eBook or print version, is a significant achievement that symbolizes dedication and perseverance. The experience of taking a project from idea to completion teaches them that they can set ambitious goals and achieve them.

This sense of confidence is often reflected in testimonials from homeschoolers who have self-published. Many report that the process of seeing their work come to life and being able to share it with others has positively impacted their self-esteem. It also demonstrates the value of their unique perspective, encouraging them to continue pursuing creative projects in the future.

You can see the confidence these young children have—just being in front of the camera, even—from their own book writing and publishing process:

5. Preparing for the future

Self-publishing teaches skills that are highly transferable to a wide range of future careers that can have nothing to do with self-publishing itself, if they choose not to pursue it. From writing and communication skills to marketing and entrepreneurship, kids who self-publish learn how to develop, refine, and share their ideas with the world. These are critical skills that apply in fields ranging from publishing and content creation to business, marketing, and beyond and are proven educational homeschooling tactics.

Take Emma Sumner, for example. She published a book back in 2016 with the help of her dad (who is also an author). Not only did she sell many copies, but she chose herself to donate the proceeds to charity, and as a result was able to be on the news for Good Day Sacramento. Not only has she published, she has also been interviewed on TV, another powerful skill that proves useful.

Plus, as a bonus, she will now be able to add these accomplishments and experiences to any application for jobs or college as she approaches high school graduation.

Because yes, self-publishing can help homeschool students build portfolios that make them stand out in college applications or job searches. A published book is a concrete achievement that demonstrates initiative, creativity, and the ability to see a project through to completion. It can be a unique talking point in an interview or a standout element in a college application. In the increasingly competitive world we live in, your child’s ability to stand out can prove instrumental in making the difference in their future.

Finally, self-publishing encourages lifelong learning and a growth mindset. The process requires students to constantly seek feedback, revise, and improve skills. It teaches them that learning doesn’t end when the book is published; there are always new things to discover and new ways to grow. This mindset is essential for success in any field and instills a passion for continual self-improvement, making it a highly educational homeschooling tactic.

Examples of educational homeschooling by self-publishing children’s books

Here are three books by authors mentioned in this article. As you can see, each one tells you quite a bit about the children, who they are, and what excites them just by the titles and artwork.

Is your child’s book next?

There are so many benefits to teaching your homeschooled child to self-publish, and creating it as a goal for a semester or even full year of homeschool curriculum. Adding something like this will prove a highly educational homeschooling strategy with many benefits.