Homeschooling was not a popular subject during the childhood of many parents. I had no idea that there was such a thing! With the Internet, the homeschooling opportunities are endless.
You should always allow your children a recess time when you are going through your school day. Studying for hours on end will only make them get bored with learning. Give your children the opportunity to get rid of some of their pent up energy, or just give their brain a break. It’s a win/win situation for all those involved.
Do not limit your teaching to only textbooks. Have your child read lots of different materials. Political discussion and world events will foster stimulating discussions, so offer up current articles for a valuable way to learn. This will also help them to think critically.
You can learn from life itself. One of the advantages of homeschooling is that you can make anything part of the “curriculum.” Help them out with their daily grammar mistakes as well. Let them help you make dinner and teach them how to measure things. It’ll be amazing how fast they learn.
Be creative and experiment with new methods. Sure, you could go and buy all the resources you need, but you’re trying to save money, right? Try making them on your own. You can make flash cards with index cards. Don’t forget to have your kids help make these resources as part of their educational experience.
Utilize art in all your subjects, not just Art class. You can have children draw pictures or make art projects that depict what they have learned so far. They could try clay, music or even put a skit together about the Civil War or Great Depression. Children will learn better through immersion, so let them play an active role in their learning.
Speak with the organization in your area that regulates homeschooling so you will be aware of all of the rules you must follow. You might have to register yourself with the government as a school or give standardized tests to your kids at the end of certain years. Make sure you make the school district aware of your plans to homeschool or you may have truancy charges filed.
Traditional Schooling
Do a pro/con list about homeschooling and traditional schooling. Keep these ideas in mind when you are creating lessons for your child to ensure you are getting all the benefits you’d hoped for from homeschooling and none of the negatives from traditional schooling. It will serve you as a checklist of the most important lessons to focus on. Store this list somewhere safe, but refer to it often.
Talk to other homeschoolers in your area. There are any number of reasons that people decide to homeschool, so find people who have similar objectives as you do. However, it should be simple to find a group that homeschools for the same reasons that you do. This will be a great resource if you do not know what you are doing initially.
Don’t let homeschooling make you isolate yourself. Finding local networks is very helpful for homeschoolers. Create a network by researching area homeschool groups and utilizing online resources. When you have support, you’ll find a great deal of resources available to you.
The amount of time you spend with your children when you home school them can cause friction. Make sure that issues in your home are not brought into the classroom. This will help you reduce the tension that you feel while teaching. Your child should do the same.
If you have the responsibility of homeschooling your kids, have your partner or spouse be in charge of other tasks. When you need to get them to lessons or clubs, your partner can be the chauffeur. Since you spend the whole day with them, it’s good for them to spend these times with your spouse.
An online blog can benefit your child and tap into their creative mind. Creative writing is important for any child, and keeping a blog online can help with that. Have your child choose a topic he or she is interested in. Create the blog, but maintain strict privacy control. Now they can write factual articles after doing research, which is also a needed skill. They are also able to write stories about the subject for others to read.
Do not forget that homeschooling extends your role in enforcing discipline. As you are making the transition to home schooling, you should make both a lesson plan and a discipline plan at the start of the school year. You will have to adjust your way of thinking in the classroom from a parent to a teacher. Try to visualize possible problems and their ramifications while you are in the planning stages of home schooling.
While all subjects are important, you need to emphasize math and reading. They’re the foundation for the rest of a child’s education. A child that is unable to read well or cannot do basic math will not succeed in any other subject. For this reason, it is necessary to focus on these two core subjects.
Younger Kids
Older children should help out the younger ones. This has a few benefits involved. This not only gives the older kids confidence, but it also gives the younger kids a whole new way of hearing the information. Your younger kids often are more willing to learn from their siblings, too.
After learning all these great homeschooling tips, you are able to use them at home. These ideas are a great place to start if you haven’t yet begun homeshooling. It takes proper advice and inspiration to make lessons that work.