Homeschooling is a life changer. A lot of us do not know why homeschooling is good and how to homeschool your child. We are going to tell you everything you have to know about homeschooling for beginners and the journey homeschooling will take your kids to.
Most of the parents in the initial few years of homeschooling wonder about how their kid’s learning would progress and if they are going to be able to learn well, will it benefit the child and many more to this list of worry and questions. Of course, you must make efforts to have all your pros and cons listed before taking a decision for your child. But again, what might they miss out? How about their social life? Is homeschooling good? How could you be a parent and a teacher both for your child? We will answer it for you here. It is important to know how to get started and also the laws.
Beginning homeschooling for your child is an incredible and a significant decision to make that certainly will change your life. But why should I homeschool my child? There are various reasons to homeschool – desire to train the child with any specific religious mindset, dissatisfaction with the existing framework of the public schools, to meet the child’s learning needs, not happy with the current school’s situation, want to keep your child close to the family and bond throughout the early days of their learning, etc.
Homeschooling Tips For Parents:
- Homeschooling creates personal growth both for the kids and the parents. You as a parent get a chance to re in-discovered your own skills while you try to help your child to discover their own special genius. Homeschooling will have a profound effect on your child as well as your family’s future.
- You must be qualified to homeschool your kids. You would have to take interest and love to read to them and spend enough time with them to let them explore the world with you and see and witness new things, learning to love and receive lots of love from you.
- Just as the public school curricula changes from place to place, the rules of homeschooling do too. There are 50 different state laws that you might want to know. All the states in the USA allow parents to educate their kids at home, some states like California, etc. require the parents to register as private schools and other like in Pennsylvania mandate the homeschooled children take standardized tests as they reach the 3rd, 5th, and the 8th grades. Best is to contact the state’s homeschool association or the HSLDA.
- Kids love to learn, and it comes as natural as breathing for them. Their inborn quality and hunger to explore the world around them and examine each thing which is interesting is something that comes naturally. We all, as a matter of fact, learned this same way when we were children and how we learn as adults after leaving school too. Homeschooling families get to learn together and know that learning is an iterative process which goes life-long.
- Decide on the approach thinking about the advantages of homeschooling and why you want to go for it. Among all the tips for homeschoolers, the one that you must know is to re-create the traditional school environment for your kids within your home. You must focus on what your kid wants to educate on as their mainstream.
- How to decide whether to put your kid in homeschool or not? You could always have written your reasons for homeschooling. While you write out the reasons for homeschooling, the goals for your children need to be established. Ask your child what is the school like for them. What do you want your child to accomplish?
- Make it fun for the kids. Homeschooling tips primarily are to have both the parents and the child enjoy and have fun. You can always include a guitar or learn a foreign language in the homeschooling.
- Homeschooling can get lonely. You must hence tap into the local homeschool community and seek outside support. As the homeschooling gains popularity, the zoos and museums have not designed specifically for the homeschool parents. More to it, the homeschool co-ops are coming up in various areas where parents trade expertise.
- Set goals while you provide your child homeschooling. Whether you are teaching art, math, science or literature, keeping the specific educational goal in mind is very important. Divide the list into short-term and long-term goals for your kid and track their progress.
- Make your kids believe in themselves. Let your child know that they have potential and they are going to be successful. You must know how to wing their psychology and get them to achieve the most and kill the insecurities.
- It does not take 6-8 hours each day to homeschool your kid. Most of the time the child spends at school is waiting. You could have a plan in a way that works best for your family such that you could prepare it from scratch many times and start it over. You must not sacrifice the family happiness to “school” your kids. There are many ways of homeschooling; find out what suits you and your family the best.
- The longer kids are in school, they further they drift. The initial bond you share with your kids dissolves once they get into the school initially but later they develop the bonds and loyalties to a new community. And when they get to their high school, you would hardly find time to spend with them and when obviously they have graduated, seeing them once a year will become lucky. Life is all about relationships and even if the schools could provide elaborate education, they cannot provide relationships for life. The kid needs you as a parent more than their school teachers.
- You might want to think of the financial aspect too. With the increase in the cost of private education, you could feel to consider homeschooling since you are making a cheaper choice. But you must know that is not very true, homeschooling is expensive. You must not forget that you are keeping one parent at home as a primary educator. Consider the curricula, transforming your house into an office or a classroom. Keep the financial plan ready and in place to give yourself the cushion for the unforeseen expenditures that may come your way.
- Considering a lot of parents do not want their kids to learn social graces from other kids around, rather from the adults. Your child will not become a social misfit. Homeschoolers have this opportunity to have a healthy relationship with people of all age group including the new parents next door, the retired couple who enjoys the garden, the friends at karate and most importantly their own parents. Sign them up for some classes like sports, dancing, etc. where your child gets to work in a group.
- There will be times when you will question yourself. Several times a day in the beginning maybe, but that is normal. You will find a fellow homeschooling friend and it will be a great support to each other. It is okay to tell each other the problems that you face and to share that you feel your child seems to not learn anything on a given day.
- You have to always trust your child. They will all love to smile, crawl, walk, run, talk, dress and start exploring the world around them even before starting school and will continue to do great and learn without school.
