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Soldier4Christ
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« Reply #17 on: May 06, 2007, 11:06:58 PM » |
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6. Decide on a schedule. This will depend in part on what sort of teaching style you use, but it’s good to think ahead about the best way to conduct each day. There are some subjects you may want to do only twice a week and some you’ll certainly want to cover every day.
Allow for fun and outside activities, and don’t fall apart if your schedule doesn’t always go according to plan – nobody’s does, including classroom teachers.
7. If you have older children, you may want to brainstorm with them. See what they’d like to study, let them help pick materials and have them help make a schedule.
8. Gather all the materials you’ll need and decide where they’ll be kept when not in use. It’s extremely frustrating to begin each day searching for the right books.
9. Start each day in a way that’s pleasant for everyone. Personally I think it is best to start out with a prayer with your children and perhaps the reading of a short devotional. There are some excellent devotionals posted here on this forum for various age groups.
10. Make close homeschool friends. They will be your best source of support and information, and you’ll be the same for them. You’ll share new ideas, resources, teaching methods, and you’ll cry on one another’s shoulder once in a while.
11. Go into this venture with a positive attitude. Love your children and enjoy them. Cherish the time you have together. Enjoy learning together.
12. Manage stress. Life has stress and homeschooling is part of life. Plan how you’ll deal with the normal stresses of teaching your kids yourself.
13. Ask for help if you need it. You’re not Superman/mom. If algebra is stressing you out, find someone who can help - a tutor, a friend, a relative, someone at church - ask around.
14. Remember, education is a journey. It happens one day at a time. Your child will not grow up illiterate because he’s having trouble reading at six years old any more than he’ll grow up to wear adult diapers because he wets his bed when he’s five.
This isn’t like institutional schooling where a child can get left in the dust. You’re plugging away at teaching and are always aware of what he knows and doesn’t know. Progress will be made, he will learn, he will become an educated person, because you won’t give up on him or fail to notice that he needs a little extra help.
15. Kids get stressed, too. Cut them some slack from time to time. Make sure learning is mostly enjoyable for them, that your home is a happy and peaceful place to learn and live, and that your attitude is right before you correct their attitudes.
16. Be flexible and open-minded but not wishy-washy. First, use what you have consistently and faithfully - but be willing to switch methods or materials. Make decisions to change based on careful thought and observation and not on emotion or a sales pitch.
17. Don't forget that the Bible can be incorporated into many of the subjects listed in the above curriculum guide line and can be used to meet many of these objectives. (i.e. charts, math, graphs, history, science, reading .... )
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