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Ten homeschooling tips from Homeschool-Curriculum-4u.comTeaching Your Child At Home
With Homeschool-Curriculum_4u.com you have a good source of homeschool teaching articles, ideas, resources, and curriculum information at your fingertips. Also tip guides and how-to's to help you successfully teach your child at home.
Teaching Phonics - Generally within the subject of phonics, the best place to begin is by teaching the child the short vowel sounds. The long vowel sounds are just a repeat of the alphabetic letter itself. A good way to get and keep the child’s interest during the phonics process is to use examples (pictures or something tangible around the house) of something that interests them. For example, most children will exhibit a high interest in animals. As a general rule, try to keep your phonics examples theme related. The repetition of learning the various phonics sounds is reinforced much sooner when the examples you are using follow the same type of theme. This limits the potential for confusion and loss of interest that may occur if you jump all over with seemingly unrelated items.
****** Preschool Activities - The top of the list when it comes to preschool activities and child learning would be reading. Getting the child involved early in learning to read, establishes good reading habits and a foundation that the child can learn from for a lifetime. Learning to read for the child certainly doesn’t have to be limited to books. You should also include poetry, songs (while singing together); reading the boxes of their favorite toys, or anything that they are drawn to could be included in their homeschool preschool activities. Just be creative.
****** Why Homeschool - The reasons for homeschooling are as varied as the number of families now homeschooling. A home school schedule allows for the family to be together a much greater portion of the day and this leads to stronger family relationships and this generally will continue right through the sometimes difficult teen years. Also, when parents spend the entire day around their child they are much more in tune with the child’s thoughts and feelings. Behavioral issues can be intercepted and addressed at a much earlier stage. Also, by using your homeschool schedule and your own homeschool lesson plan, you can spend more time in areas that your child needs more work before moving on.
****** Homeschooling Expectations - If you are new to homeschooling or just starting out, you will, no doubt put high expectations upon yourself both as a teacher and a parent. Early on you will feel as though you hardly get anything done during the day because you spend much of your day researching homeschooling lessons and ideas trying to make sure you get everything just so. And as each day goes by and each day you feel as though there aren’t enough hours in the day to address everything that is on your ‘to do’ list, you may begin to feel a bit uncertain about your decision to homeschool. Always feeling as though the people that you read about have accomplished so much, while you feel as though you accomplish so little. Don’t let the apparent success of others dictate the feeling that you have for yourself. Homeschooling methods are as varied as those who teach. You will find yours. And while you’re taking time to make the homeschool adjustment, don’t worry about what others think you should do. Appreciate what you have accomplished. ****** Teaching Reading - When teaching the child to read, get them to develop good reading habits. Reading is the lynch pin of all education. When a child masters reading and gains an enjoyment of this powerful skill, they have built a foundation on which they can learn any subject. When you have learned to read, you explore any subject your mind takes you to. If you are having trouble getting your child interested in reading, try first to find out what interests them. What you think they should be interested in may not be what they are necessarily interested in. Early on, take them to the library and just watch what section and types of books they gravitate to. Remember, just watch for awhile. Encourage, encourage, encourage. Everyone likes to be praised for successes they have. Your child is no different. Teaching reading is no different. ****** Teaching Your Child - You see when it comes to teaching your child, your life’s experiences, dedication to your child’s success, hard work, and the type of love that only a parent has for their child are the ingredients to successfully teaching your child at home. Not a teaching degree. There is a vast amount of homeschool curriculums and resources available from just about any direction you choose to go. Traditional text books, online curriculums, packaged software, and the people homeschool resources themselves are great. A lot of experience out there to pull from. There are a lot of homeschool moms (and dads!) That can lend their advice and experience on what has worked and not worked for them. Seek these resources out. Join homeschool and educational forums and don't forget to use the people in your local community these are a gold mine of teaching resources. ****** Homeschool Scheduling - Because of these internal driving forces, one of the most common problems pertaining to the homeschool schedule usually isn’t the lack of activity to fill up the schedule, but rather quite the opposite. First of all, relax! Know that you will settle into a workable schedule over time and with some experimentation. It will come. With the nature of homeschooling being a more focused and one on one learning experience for the child, I think you find that this will leave you more that enough time for your administrative homeschool duties. And really, with this one on one type of environment I think you will find that there is much less need for a completely structured homeschool schedule simply because of the focused learning leaving much more time for flexibility. Again, it’s up to you and what works for you and your child. Some children thrive on a more defined schedule while others do better in a more impromptu environment. ****** Teaching Writing - When teaching your child writing, there are essentially four categories that writing falls into. These are: descriptive writing, narrative writing, informative writing, and persuasive writing. All require a bit different thought process in building the sentences and paragraphs that will make up the writing. Teaching writing to your child with these basic forms in mind will give them the skills to communicate effectively throughout their lifetime. ****** Teaching Math - The difficulty in teaching math to children isn’t so much your limited knowledge on math (if you feel that’s the case). Rather it always seems that the urgency to keep moving forward is at the sacrifice of allowing the child to get the necessary repetition and practice with the current math unit. Teaching your child math is about teaching them the rules of mathematics or the mechanics of math. Math’s bad rap has always been and still is….. when am I ever going to use this stuff? This is where it is crucial when teaching your child math that you always make a concerted effort to bring home the concepts of math and how they are used in every day life and real situations. Practicing the mechanics is the tough part of your instruction. But this is the most important part. Children need repetition and practice with the mechanics. Have your child memorize the basic rules even before they totally grasp the actual concept. So many times we move forward to the next section or level when, in fact, the child needs more practice. ****** Teaching Vocabulary - Why not pause for a vocabulary moment within each of the subjects you are
teaching. Hey, instead of setting aside a block of time to teach vocabulary
words, why not teach a few words as they pertain to each subject and do it
consistently. If you do, after a short period of time your kids will be
grasping the concepts of all the subjects much better. Make it a point to make
sure they well understand the vocabulary of each subject! Imagine that. When
the kids actually understand the math vocabulary words and what they meant, the
better they understood the math concepts itself. Take this concept further,
develop an even more consistent attack of teaching vocabulary and it will
become even easier to come up with the day’s vocabulary words. Use a three
pronged approach. Vocabulary words for the particular subject. Vocabulary words
for the day, and of course, a review of previous words.
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