Tips for Homeschooling Your Kids
Homeschooling isn’t some passing fad—more and more parents decide to pull their kids from public or private school systems and set up their own education operation. This gives parents more control over what goes into their kids’ heads and hearts while giving students one-on-one attention that helps them thrive. If you’re a first-time homeschooling parent, read these tips for homeschooling your kids to ease your mind.
Maintain a Routine
I know y’all probably stressed a lot about this decision, but there are some simple things my homeschooling girlfriends do that set a foundation for their kids. Words like curriculum, manipulatives, and unschooling are intimidating. Forget all those for now—focus first on just setting a routine for you and your kids to follow. When I considered homeschooling my daughter, I read a lot about beginning the day by bringing the kids together for a peaceful time of talking, maybe reading a fun book, and commissioning the day. From there, your kids could start and finish their work at the same time every day (barring an excursion), with predictable meals and rest times. Don’t feel the need to bring the traditional classroom into the home, but set some ground rules. These daily rhythms help your kids get into the swing of homeschool quickly and gives them a predictable setting for learning deeply. Also, this sets boundaries so the flexibility of homeschooling remains a plus instead of a distraction.
Get Involved in the Community
Don’t tell your local school district, but there are more “subjects” than reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. You can also teach empathy and kindness by promoting your kid’s involvement in their local community. It’s important to teach your kids to help others, and you can do this by volunteering with local shelters and charities. There’s nothing better than having them on the ground, interacting with people in need who come from different walks of life. They come away from these experiences with a widened perspective of the world and the role they play in it.
You can also ensure they don’t end up sheltered homeschool kids without a well-developed social skill to their names by getting them involved with a local co-op, sport, or activity. Better yet, because homeschooling doesn’t take as much time as traditional school lessons do, they can heavily invest in these activities and learn how to grow a skill.
Allow Freedom to Explore
A final tip for homeschooling your kids is to give them the autonomy to choose what they want to learn, even if that’s basket weaving. Build margin into your days so they can pursue projects they care about. If they want to learn everything about painting, enable them to make their own paints and finishes and be really hands-on with it. If they show an interest in astronomy, take them to an observatory to see the stars. There is so much opportunity for homeschooling parents to make the homeschooling experience memorable by taking their kids’ ideas and running with them.
I know these are unusual times for all. So I hope these tips for homeschooling your kids will help to get through this time.
