Homeschooling Made Easy
Homeschooling is an excellent way of ensuring your children learn what they need to know to succeed as adults. Homeschooling allows you to teach your children the way you want in the subjects you want them to learn. If you are interested in homeschooling, the following article can help.
Know what your educational approach will be before you begin homeschooling. Whether you choose to go with a standard school type of environment and education, or if you prefer to focus on specific fields of study that interest your child, you should determine this upfront. You will have clear goals to work towards, and the approach can be reevaluated at the start of each school year.
Every state has specific laws regarding homeschooling. It is up to you to understand what your state requires of you as a parent, and your child as a student when it comes to homeschooling. Look at your state’s educational website, as well as your county school board’s site to fully understand the expectations.
While you want your homeschooled student(s) to learn as much or more as their traditionally schooled counterparts, remember that you don’t have to follow any guidelines when you are the teacher. Try different teaching and learning techniques to see what works best for your student. Also, consider using a reward program to make learning more exciting.
When you go on vacation, take your lesson plan with you. Include your vacation in your home classroom so that your kids can truly enjoy their schooling. Have them keep a scrapbook of the event, or take a video which they turn into an amazing family adventure later. Take them to cultural locations and teach them about the area, then have them reenact wars or important historical situations. There is so much to learn around the world, don’t let it pass them by!
You can incorporate chores and allowances as a part of their homeschool lessons because it teaches them responsibility and money matters. You will find yourself stretched quite thin. Your everyday household and motherly duties, homeschooling, and everything else you need to do will be overwhelming unless you call in help. Make sure you allow for help and don’t feel bad.
The goals you set for your homeschool classroom need to be easy to measure. Write down exactly what you want your child to know at the end of each day, week, month, and lesson plan. For example, “I would like John to be able to multiply up to ten” is a great short-term goal. “I would like John to know all about World War II” is a long-term goal. Both should come with positive reinforcement when achieved.
As you are beginning your school year, start out slowly. You can introduce a single subject the first week and then add another the week after. Slowly build-up to the full daily schedule so you and your children do not become overwhelmed. There will be plenty of time to get through the workload throughout the school year.
While many modern homeschooling programs come with a recommended schedule, be sure to check your state regulations before planning your curriculum. Many states require that homeschooled children learn on the same 40-week schedule as their public school counterparts. In states without such regulations, you will have more flexibility in planning the schedule.
If your library sells donated books, visit it regularly. Teachers will often donate the materials they are finished with. Don’t fear the boxes with photocopied stuff. These can often have some of the best items. Take the time to look through them. This is inexpensive and helps support your library!
Do not purchase materials that are not returnable. You do not want to spend good money on material and find that the curriculum is nothing like advertised. Many quality programs will allow you a trial period before you have to keep the books and materials. Look into the return policy prior to making any purchase.
If you want to home-school your child but feel as though you need to touch upon a certain subject, why not take a college course? This will be a great way for you to learn more about the subject and pass this knowledge on to your child. Who knows, maybe when your child goes to college, you can get a job in this field.
When you are homeschooling your children you should always take the time out to read to them. You can read books that have some relevance to every subject you are teaching them. There are so many books out there you can see just how many you can read together in a school year.
When you are homeschooling your child, try to mirror the environment to that of a school. This will give your child the impression that you mean business and it is not a recreational activity. Thus, they will focus more and put more effort into learning what it is you want to teach them.
Don’t attempt teaching every single subject each day. Instead, just teach a couple of subjects per day, and only teach each subject two or three times per week. By doing this, your child will learn a lot more from each subject because you’ll be spending more time on them. It’s also easier on you because you don’t have to worry about cramming in multiple subjects. Finally, this prevents the school from becoming too monotonous because each day, your child will be exposed to different subjects than they were the previous day.
