Homeschool education is the alternative way to teach your children by yourself. As the teacher, the parent (guardian or a professional tutor) gets to choose the topics for discussions, and teaching methods the parent wants to apply. The parent and child is also able to look for different classroom setting and schedule of classes. Through this, the parent and child have the opportunity to spend more time together and foster a better relationship.
Kids have little attention span. That's why homeschooling them should be interactive, fun and creative. Keeping them busy will reward you of their attention and focus as well as good performance.
The best way to start homeschooling your children is by reviewing the policies and laws about home based education from city, state and country level to avoid any unlikely incident. Make sure that the regulations and policies fit with your curriculum, topics of discussion and classroom setting among others. You can contact your local education board and follow the instructions that they will give for you to start homeschooling.
The most fun part is conceptualizing the topics of discussion, teaching approaches and activities for your child. You can assess your abilities and personalize all these components by assessing your child's preference, interest and needs for learning. You can make a list of what you think your child needs and what your child's preferences are. So it helps if the child is involved with the decision making process. This way, the child will understand the importance of his/her classes because the child helped to conceptualize it. For example, if your child is very fond of animals, you can include a discussion about different animal groups using his/her toys then make a trip to the zoo. Family member can participate in the learning processes too by inviting them to be a "guest teacher" of the day.
With homeschool education, a formally constructed classroom that will cost you a fortune is not ideal. What you just need is to find a spot in your house that is relevant to the topic of discussion and where your child is comfortable with. For example, you can hold a night classes in the attic or roof top when your subject is about science and different heavenly bodies at night. Holding math class by counting pebbles by the river sounds great too.
After having to conceptualize your subjects, it also helps that you follow a curriculum that are always available (and sometimes for free) in the internet. This way, you can be sure that you are following the process and that you will not skip topics of discussion. You wouldn't want to do all these by impulse and very randomly. Before downloading, you can review first the documents to check if the curriculum if legitimate and updated.
As exciting as it may sound, home schooling will still require so much time, hard work and money. You can assess your financial sources to make sure you can provide for the materials you needed to make your homeschool education experience worthwhile and a success. Though there are families that spent $300 - $1,000 yearly, prioritizing what you need to what you want, looking for sales and discounts will save you a fortune.
