How to Start Computer-Based Homeschooling Elementary Schoolers Imagination

Children's learning today has gone beyond building blocks and crayons, and computer-based homeschooling has created new excitement in education. Today's digital building blocks for learning are as unlimited as the resources available through the Internet, and they made for children from age 2 to 92, with nearly 3/4 of U.S. households having some form of Internet access at home.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer with broadband Internet access
• Construction Paper
• Round-tipped Scissors
• Imagination
• Crayons
• Drawing paper
• Glue

How to Start Computer-Based Homeschooling Elementary Schoolers Imagination

1. Turn to other computer-based homeschooling parents, like the neighbors whose 8-year-old child does the homeowners association newsletter. It's actually true that "it takes a village to raise a child," and finding out the success of other curricula, their time management tips along with any other non-schooling tools, can arm parents to make a more well-rounded digital learning environment.

2. Progress reports are important to both parents and students for keeping good records and building self-esteem, so make them often. Computer homeschooling using progress reports reduces the amount of paper and makes record keeping less of a chore. Young children like praise more than crickets like rain, and a good report can be a boost even when it looks like a plain sheet of paper to us parents.

3. Constantly monitor your children when they are using any computer, even more so than if they were watching television. A virus threat can be devastating without necessary safeguards and alerts.

4. Calendaring school days and the class schedule can be as flexible as the available time you have to invest in your children's future. Keep in mind that learning is fun and a class may overflow into another, but you can always adjust the next class. Having a digital calendar and schedule allows us to make detailed notes on daily activities, freeing up more time for fun learning.

5. You are your first student for computer-based homeschooling, so if you are not enthusiastic about what they are learning, they won't be either. Teaching is like cooking, you have to "taste it" before you serve it to your children.

6. Build a classroom as a separate room for stirring the imagination toward learning and computing. Until you make a special place of learning beyond just a desk and some books--a room where there are no boundaries for learning--a child's creativity will have limits.

7. The best computer-based homeschooling project is a yearbook, but it should be called a memories book, even at this young age. It may look like a scrapbook at first, but after graduation, the memories will look like a book of world records.

Tips & Warnings

• Subscriptions to good homeschooling magazines can lead to additional resources.
• Have fun with their learning--if the language arts class goes on for more than an hour, find more words to keep it going.
• Joining newsgroups for computer-based homeschools can serve both as a resource and a chance for parents to brush-up on computing skills.
• Avoid schooling in the living room or kitchen. Living rooms have distractions, and your kitchen has an unlimited supply of water that ruins homework.

Resources

• Resource for homeschoolers.
• Homeschool laws for each state.