Having Fun When Homeschooling

Homeschooling has many benefits for a child’s education. One of the most obvious is that it allows you, the parent, to tailor a specific education geared towards your child’s particular needs. It also allows you to teach in a style that suits your child — as we all know, different people learn better in different ways. When you decide to homeschool it is important to remember that as well as being a parent, you are now taking on the role of a teacher. This is, of course, not a responsibility to be taken lightly, and you have to make every effort to be the best teacher you can be.

Everyone has had the experience of having both a good and bad teacher. If you stop and think about it, I’ll think you’ll notice some things that your good teacher’s had in common. The most important is that they were genuinely interested in their subject areas. Nothing makes a teacher better then enthusiasm for a subject. I think you’ll also notice that most of the bad teachers you had didn’t seem particularly interested in the subject they were teaching. It is for this reason that it is crucial that you create a homeschooling experience that interests both you and your child.

While your child’s education should come first and foremost when creating a homeschooling curriculum, you shouldn’t be shy to think of your own education as well. When looking at things to study in particular subject areas, think about things that interested you in those areas that you didn’t get to explore as much as you liked to when you were in school.

It cannot be understated how valuable an experience it is to learn with your child. You will be strengthening a family bond, and your shared interest and excitement in a topic will ensure that your child retains the information. A way to do this is to understand the balance between rigidness and flexibility in a homeschooling curriculum.

A certain amount of formalness is required in a general curriculum: you have to have set goals and timelines in which certain things must be learned. But within those timelines, you have a lot of flexibility, and you should use it to your advantage. When studying literature, for example, understand that the goal is to read and learn about good literature, not necessarily to read a particular book. So instead of studying a “standard” novel that you’ve already read, consider a book that is new to you as well. With both you and your child interested in the book, the experience of reading it together will be enjoyable for both of you, as you will both be excited about the outcome.

This concept needn’t be applied only to literature, think of things in science or music, for example, that you’ve always wanted to learn about. If you make sure that you are interested in the subjects as well, your child will sense your enthusiasm and become more drawn into the subject, ensuring a much more valuable educational experience.

Read Widely and Become Better at Homeschooling

For many people, homeschooling is a desirable alternative to the education offered by the public and private school systems. When you homeschool your children you have the flexibility to create an educational curriculum more suited to their needs. Homeschooling also makes economic sense, especially when you consider the costs involved with sending multiple children to a private school. If you’ve made the decision to homeschool your children, the first step in establishing a viable curriculum is to read widely.

To begin with, you have to ensure that you educate yourself on a wide variety of topics. While it may be tempting to focus exclusively on books teaching you how to homeschool your children, you shouldn’t rely on these too heavily. Keep in mind that pedagogical method is only as important as your knowledge of a subject, and focusing your reading entirely on how to homeschool your children will leave you lacking in the practical knowledge necessary to execute it.

At first, the reading required in order to homeschool your children may seem daunting - after all, a teacher is only required to be knowledgeable on the subjects they teach, but you’re going to be teaching all of the subjects. Keep in mind, however, that you needn’t be an expert in every subject - one of the great things about homeschooling is that you can learn together with your child. Instead, it’s more important that you have a good general knowledge of the history of the subjects being taught.

In most cases, a good “history of” on the subjects you plan to teach should be sufficient. Because it is impractical to read an entire bibliography for multiple subjects, you want to instead read a couple books on each subject that provide you with a good homeschooling starting point. In other words, you’re not going to be an expert, but you’re going to know the general concepts and be able to answer basic questions. Most importantly, you’ll know which writing to explore further if you and your child’s interest takes you in that direction.

The amount that you have to read will depend of course on your child’s age and the level and depth of the subjects you’ll be teaching, but a good starting point is to read a standard book that a high school student would have to read for a given subject. Remember that specific areas of a subject can be explored as you go, so you needn’t be able to answer every question your child might have in depth before you start. Instead, you need a good knowledge of the history of the subject, so you can arrange a curriculum that makes sense in a liner way: you want to know how the subject works, and how it is taught. You want to know the “building blocks” - what concepts to teach first, and how to build on those first concepts.

By reading widely in this way you’ll arm yourself with the necessary tools for homeschooling your child effectively, and provide yourself with the basic knowledge from which you and your child can explore particular areas of subjects further.

Planning Your Homeschooling Effectively

Many parents make the decision to homeschool their children, and in doing so are privy to some clear benefits. Homeschooling allows you to tailor a specific education to your child’s individual needs, something that is often lacking in the public or private school systems. Homeschooling also allows you and your child to learn together, creating not only a valuable learning experience but strengthening family bonds. Add to this the fact that it is often prohibitively expensive to send multiple children to private schools, and we can see why homeschooling has become increasingly popular.

One of the most important aspects of homeschooling your child is coming up with a clear plan and set of goals. One of the greatest aspects of homeschooling - its complete flexibility - can also be one of the most difficult if it is not approached directly. Without a clear plan, you run the risk of creating a scattershot education that puts your child out of place with his or her peers.

So when you begin homeschooling, you should come up with a clear set of general goals. Think about why you want to homeschool your children, and what you want them to get out of the experience. What, generally, do you want your child’s education to encompass? Once you have answered these general questions for yourself, begin to split your child’s education into various subject areas. For each subject area, you want to come up with a timeline and set of goals.

A good place to start in terms of a timeline would be to look at the standard curriculum for your child’s grade in a public or private school. While it is almost certainly true that one of these reasons you’ve selected to homeschool your child is to go beyond and outside this standard curriculum, you also want to make sure that your child does not fall behind his or her peers in a given subject area.

Come up with your plan by looking at the standard expectations for a given subject level and then working backwards: how do you want to achieve that level of knowledge? What are the targets for each week? By setting these targets you can establish a timeline and curriculum that allows for effective homeschooling.

Clearly, one of the points of homeschooling is its relative flexibility, and you by no means need to stick to a plan in a completely rigid manner, but don’t let this tempt you into avoiding one: although it may seem wonderful to have an entirely “organic” education for your children, this can easily go awry. If you constantly let your child’s learning be dictated exclusively by his or her interests, gaps will appear in her knowledge. Instead make a clear educational plan that allows for flexibility. Plan what your child is going to learn, but leave the “how she will learn it” some breathing room: as you begin the process of homeschooling you’ll learn how your child learns best, and can begin to incorporate this into the lessons.

By coming up with a clear educational plan you arm yourself with one of the most essential tools to effective homeschooling.

Homeschooling vs. School at Home

Homeschooling has become a viable option for many parents seeking to expand and improve their child’s educational experience. The public and private school systems are limited, for practical reasons, as to how far they can go to meet a particular child’s educational needs. With homeschooling, on the other hand, the entire process is geared towards your child in a one-on-one manner. You can create a particular curriculum suited to your child, and teach in a way works best for him or her. It is for these reasons, not to mention the economic benefits when you consider the costs associated with private schools, that many parents choose to homeschool their children.

When you decide to homeschool your children, you’re going to have to come up with a plan for how the subject matter is going to be taught, and a system to execute that plan. An important distinction you should make yourself aware of is a philosophical one of “homeschooling” vs “school at home.” The latter method is overly simplistic, and doesn’t take advantage of the benefits that homeschooling can truly offer. While every parent is justifiably concerned about creating a disciplined academic environment, if you simply “teach at home” both you and your child will be missing out.

As a teaching philosophy, it’s important to think of the process as “homeschooling” — this means that “home” and “school” become one: it’s not simply a case of school being conducted in a home environment. So instead of creating regimented lessons at set times - instead of your children sitting stiffly at a table while you give them lessons - be always ready to use the flexibility of homeschooling to your advantage. If your child has a question about a particular subject in biology, take him outside and show him nature at work. If he’s interested in a certain aspect of history, take him to the museum.

One of the greatest things about homeschooling is that it doesn’t have to be a regimented system: a day of learning that ends at 4 PM, Monday to Friday. When homeschooling is properly implemented, your child is always learning. During a unit on Shakespeare for example, maybe you’ll decide to take him to a performance of the play on the weekend. If he’s interested in computers, allow him to use his computer for a research project.

Although in some ways you do need a certain regimen when homeschooling, realize that your child’s education doesn’t have to end when you are finished for the day. Incorporating other educational activities into your daily home life will both expand your child’s education and make it more engaging.

Most children learn better in settings that they are comfortable in, and what setting is more comfortable then the home? So if your child wants to hear his math lesson while sitting on the couch, let him. If he wants to watch a movie in the evening, direct him to an educational one.

By blurring, as much as possible, the line between “home” and “schooling” when homeschooling your children, your children will benefit from a much more valuable educational experience than could be offered from the public or private school systems.

Come Up With Projects When Homeschooling

Due to its many benefits, many parents are choosing homeschooling for their children. Homeschooling allows for a more flexible educational experience, and curriculum can be easily tailored to your child’s individual needs. As the costs of private schools continue to rise, homeschooling becomes a viable economic decision as well.

When you decide to homeschool your children, you need to become knowledgeable on a broad range of subjects so you can prepare an adequate educational plan. Once you have established a plan, which should include targets for different subject areas, you should consider the idea of unit projects.

You’re probably familiar with projects, as you likely did one or two if you came through the public school system. Projects are a great way to implement and test knowledge acquired through an educational unit. A good plan is to have a multi-week unit set up for a given subject, and at the end of the unit assign a week-long project that will make use of what your child has learned.

For example, if you and your child study a biology unit, a great week long project is to create an ecosystem. This can be done with an old aquarium, and your child’s goal will be to create an environment that can be self-sufficient in the sealed aquarium. In learning about the water table and the different cycles of nature, encourage your child to think of the best way to make his or her ecosystem. After your child has come up with a plan, take him to a store to by the requisite materials with which to begin his project. Once it is started have him track the ecosystem’s progress every day.

The reasons that projects like this can be very effective is that they serve multiple educational purposes: your child will not only be learning as he goes, but he will be learning in an engaging way, and most likely with a higher level of retention. A project can also engage other members of the family. The ecosystem, for example, could be placed in a prominent location, and other family members will no doubt take interest. It’s a great educational experience when your child can not only excitedly report on a project’s progress to his parents, but actually show the work at hand. Every parent has witnessed a child from the publics system describing a project they’re doing at the dinner table, but as a homeschooling parent you have the benefit of having “home” and “school” being one: you child can not only tell, but show.

When you homeschool, you’re not limited by the practicalities necessary in a public or private school system. Project ides are only limited by you and your child’s imagination. For each and every unit, encourage your child to come up with long term project ideas and use their learning in a practical way. Not only will the project allow your child to learn more about the subject, it will carry over into the home as a whole: other family members will take interest, and the whole process of buying the materials and planning the project will become part of your child’s educational experience.

Making Your Child a Part of the Homeschooling Process.

There are a myriad of different reasons why people choose to homeschool their children: there is the economic benefit of avoiding high private school fees; there is the convenience of scheduling schooling around other family activities etc. . . One of the most important benefits of homeschooling is the flexibility with which you can tailor your child’s education. It is a well known fact that every individual has individual needs, and homeschooling allows you to create a learning environment that suits your child particularly.

When you undergo homeschooling, it is important that you have a clear curriculum and mind and a plan to execute it. But within that plan, you should understand that you have a tremendous amount of flexibility: there are many different ways that a child can learn something, and many different things to learn in a given subject.

One of the best ways that you can ensure a high level of learning retention is to encourage your child to take a personal interest in his or her education. Although this may seem obvious, many people growing up who went though a traditional school system will probably agree that their education was received in an authoritative way: schooling and your education was something that was done to you, not with you.

When homeschooling, however, you can take advantage of the almost unlimited flexibility at your disposal and let your child take a more active role. While you can’t, obviously, let your child do whatever he or she wants education-wise, you should always explain to him or her a given education plan, and see what he thinks.

For example, when you start your school day, outline the plan for the day with your child. Depending on his or her age you can also explain the reasoning behind the plan. If there are any things the child seems averse to doing, try and take them seriously. You should not, of course, avoid certain subjects or activities simply because your child doesn’t like them. You should, however, ask your child why he or she doesn’t like something in the day’s plan, and to suggest alternatives. In many cases you will be pleasantly surprised by what your child comes up with, and be able to incorporate it into the day’s work.

As much as possible, you should have a list of alternatives in mind for assigned activities. The idea is to try and think of alternative activities that accomplish the same task. If your child protests against a certain exercise, then, you can offer them an alternative. This can be extremely effective in getting your children to learn material that they dislike.

Oftentimes the child simply has to feel that he or she is more in control of the situation to enjoy it. Even though you are ultimately controlling your child’s education, by granting them small allowances and choices, while still sticking with the larger picture, everybody wins: your child feels he is doing what he wants to do, and you are still teaching your child what you want him to learn.

Developing Reading Skills When Homeschooling Your Child.

The extreme amount of flexibility offered by homeschooling creates many educational benefits. One of them, of course, is that “home” and “school” become one, so that the educational experience doesn’t have to begin and end with the ringing of a bell. By incorporating educational activities into your home life as a whole, you child will gain a more valuable educational experience.

One of the best things about home schooling is you can come up with an educational plan that suits your child’s particular needs. By working one on one with a child, you can create an individual learning system that can be more beneficial then the learning techniques used in a public or private school. When coming up with an individual education plan for your child, make sure you place focus on reading.

Much of the philosophy of homeschooling is about not being subject to the limitations of the public school system, and an area where the public school system commonly falters is in reading. Many public school students perform poorly on standardized reading tests, which is unfortunate as reading skills are crucial to a child’s education.

Reading can’t really be emphasized too much when homeschooling your child. While there should be a good balance of subject areas taught throughout the teaching day, reading should be encouraged during your child’s free time. While it may be difficult to get a child into doing math or science work in his or her free time, reading is a different story.

As soon as your child can read, he or she should always be reading something. As long as you find the subject matter appropriate, allow your child to read whatever he wants in his free time. Develop the habit at a young age of getting your child to always have a book on the go. By finding books that your child enjoys, your child will, from a young age, associate reading with a fun experience, which will do wonders for his further education.

You must also understand how important it is to set your own example. Try and set time aside during the day in which you read, and in the evening hours, when most children would be watching television, sit down with your child and read together. When it gets close to the child’s bedtime, imply that you will be going to be soon as well - because you have a good book to read.

Reading is a fantastic educational opportunity because it is the basis for which your child will learn many other things. When a child is reading a book they are not only bettering their reading skills, they are becoming privy to knowledge contained within the book. It is important that reading begins at a young age because mastering it is a slow process, and you will be doing your child a serious disservice later in life if you choose not to focus on reading early.

Every education should be well rounded of course, but reading is a building block from which other education follows. When homeschooling your child, encourage him or her to read from a young age. If you so do you stand a good chance of instilling a lifelong habit that will benefit your child until the end of his days.

Getting Together With Other Homeschooling Parents.

Homeschooling can have many benefits for your child. It allows for specific teaching styles to be implemented that suit your child’s particular needs, as well as creating a learning environment that your child works best in. Homeschooling also has economic benefits as well, if you consider the costs of a private school education, and for this reason it seems to becoming increasingly popular with each and every generation.

One of the drawbacks of homeschooling, however, is the concern that your child is not surrounded by peers in the same way that he or she would be in a public school system. Also, as a homeschooling parent, you are dealing with lots of pressure - the quality of your child’s education rests entirely on you, after all - and are probably dealing with many questions of your own. One good way to address this is to make a point of getting together with other homeschooling parents.

By meeting on a regular basis with other homeschooling parents, you do a service to both you and your child. You will be able to exchange ideas and teaching techniques with other parents. Most importantly, though, you child will get a chance to interact with some of his or her peers. Children at a young age can be very impressionable and concerned with being different. All every child usually wants to do is fit in.

It’s important when homeschooling your child that you acknowledge the fact that not everybody does it. This fact can’t be kept hidden from your child, and at some point he or she will realize that lots of other kids go to school. That’s why meeting up with other homeschooling parents can be valuable for your child, because they will see that they are not the only ones. The child’s fear of not being “normal” will be eased by seeing and interacting with the other children.

There are many different ways you can get together with other homeschooling parents. One of the best ones is to incorporate it into the children’s education. Keep in regular touch with other parents, and if you find yourselves studying the same subjects at the same time, suggest an appropriate field trip - in this way you can replicate the public and private school experience of combining your children’s educational and social time.

Another good idea is to suggest a group project to be conducted with another family. If another parent is also teaching a biology unit, for example, you could suggest a that the children work on planting a garden together on your property. When studying zoology, a trip to the zoo would be enjoyable and educational for both you and your children when conducted with another family.

By keeping in regular touch with other homeschooling parents you will do a service for your child’s education and social development. By exchanging ideas with other homeschooling parents you can learn new teaching strategies, and at the same time your will be teaching your children that they are not alone, and not at all strange.

Playing an Active Role in Your Children’s Homeschooling

Homeschooling is an option that many parents make when they feel that, for whatever reason, their child will not be getting the best education in a public or private school system. Homeschooling allows for specific curriculum and teaching techniques to be applied that suit your child’s particular needs - something that is unlikely to happen in a large classroom. One of the benefits - and also one of the difficulties - in homeschooling is the extreme amount of flexibility it affords. In order to homeschool successfully, it is important that you understand this.

While there are many benefits to homeschooling, it also requires discipline. In the same way that working from home can be difficult, homeschooling can be difficult because it requires you make a distinction between home and school while still remaining at home. Like almost everybody, there are going to be times in your family life when you are extremely busy or dealing with serious distractions. It can be tempting at these moments to try and multitask: that is, to both educate your children and deal with other aspects of your life. There can be a tendency among homeschooling parents to place an assignment in front of their children and then leave the room to engage in other activities.

If you do this you will severely limit the value of your child’s education. When homeschooling you should think about public and private school systems, and use them as a sort of benchmark. You should be trying to surpass, or at the very least match, the level of education your child would receive in one of these environments. Now, if you think about a public school classroom, you’ll see that the teacher is always in the room. It is one of the most fundamental rules of teaching — even if the students have been assigned work to complete on their own in class time, the teacher remains in the room in order to assist the students.

You should also adhere to this principle. Children learn by example, in subtle ways that are not always within our control. If you assign your children work and leave to go do other things you are sending a message to them that the schooling is not of a highest priority for you. Even if they cannot articulate it, this negative message in terms of your priorities will affect the children’s attitude towards their education.

When homeschooling your children, the hours that you spend teaching should be hours in which your children’s education are the number one priority. Errands or other household duties should be left for “after-school” hours. When “school is in,” you should be to. Of course, there will be many instances where you will be trying to get your children to learn how to work independently, but at these times you should still be physically available for questions or your children’s need for assistance.

By always being present during your children’s education you make them understand that their education is a serious thing, not simply something to occupy them while you take care of more pressing activities.