Things You'll Need:
- a parent's heart
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Step 1
I DON'T HAVE A COLLEGE DEGREE IN TEACHING. You don't need a college degree to homeschool your child. Unless you have absolutely NEVER taught your child one thing (i.e. tie their shoes, color pictures, play a game,etc.), then you can homeschool your kids. There are curriculums like Abeka, that tell you daily what to do, what to say, and even what questions to ask. If you can read...you can do that! Also, some curriculums, like Abeka and Bob Jones, have DVD curriculums where THEIR teachers cover each subject's daily teaching via a DVD!
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Step 2
I HAVE TO MIMIC THE SCHOOL'S SCHEDULE AND STRUCTURE. You can homeschool whenever you want to. Wherever you want to. Some parents travel a lot and do some school "on the road". I deliver papers, so we do some schooling before I have to leave, which is about noon, and then finish when I get back. Some parents work part of the day, so they homeschool later in the afternoon through evening. Some parents homeschool during the weekend for a variety of reasons. Some parents start their homeschooling in January instead of the traditional September. It doesn't matter when you do it. One of the wonderful things about homeschooling is that it is: FLEXIBLE!
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Step 3
I HAVE TO CONTINUE ON WITH EACH LESSON EVEN IF MY CHILD DOESN'T GET IT. NO! One of the wonderful things about homeschooling is that if your child is struggling with a subject, i.e. fractions, you can stay on that topic until they GET IT! You do not have a classroom of kids that will be held back my your child's struggle. Go at your own pace. It is more important that your child learns than that you "get through" every lesson.
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Step 4
MY CHILD WILL NOT LEARN AS MUCH AS IN PUBLIC SCHOOL. Statistics show that homeschooled children are not only typically better educated, but have a more rounded education. Layman's terms- Their test scores are higher than the an average public school child and they have more knowledge about more topics. A homeschooling parent has an opportunity to teach their child so much more than a public school can. Let's say you wanted to teach your child about Egypt. Not only could you learn from textbooks, you could dress like Egyptians, prepare meals like the Egyptians did, pretend to mummifiy a doll, and if you had the money, go to Egypt and if you didn't, go to a museum. See the possibilities? Don't even get me going on what you could do with a Horse study!
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Step 5
MY CHILD WILL BECOME A SOCIAL HERMIT I hate this one and let me tell you why. I am constantly running my kids to this group and that. There are homeschool groups where other homeschool families come together for a gym, art and music day. A great place to meet "like-minds". If you go to church, there are always youth groups and choirs to join. There are Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and 4-H clubs. There are soccer groups, basketball groups, and baseball groups. There are YMCA's that have a ton of activities for your children. I think you get the picture.
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Step 6
THEY WILL MISS OUT ON GYM, MUSIC, ART AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES. Remember the homeschool groups, sports clubs, and the YMCA from number 5? They will work for part of your child's gym, art, and music. For the rest try these : Exercise DVD's, Thomas Kincade Drawing DVD's, Music Lessons, "Meet the Composer" workbook. There are also many different resources for foreign language. My favorite is Rosetta Stone, but Abeka has wonderful foreign language curriculum, too.
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Step 7
I HAVE NO PATIENCE I will refer you to number 1. You had patience to teach your child to tie thier shoes, sing their ABC's, button buttons, zip zippers. Who would possibly do a better job of teaching YOUR child than YOU? YOU know all about your child, their strengths and their weaknesses...and YOU love them with a love that no teacher could ever give them. Pray...God will help! Trust me!
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Step 8
MY CHILD HAS LEARNING DISABILITIES OR ADHD Get this book "How to Get Your Child off the Refrigerator and on to Learning" by Carol Barnier. She is awesome and has wonderful tips that work for her and will work for you. She is going to know just how to reach you to help your child.
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Step 9
I DON'T REMEMBER ALGEBRA OR WHEN WE STORMED NORMANDY BEACH, HOW AM I GOING TO TEACH IT? Abeka is very detailed and like I stated in #1, they give you the words to say, the questions to ask, and if you do the DVD program, their teachers will teach all that. If you don't go with that curriculum style, just learn with them! I am doing Algebra with my daughter right now, and I was a little intimidated at first, but it IS coming back to me. There are so many resources online to help you with the answers you seek. Wikipedia is a great place for information since it is an online encyclopedia. The library is also a wonderful resource. When you learn together, you are making memories that they will never get in school. You could even have them give YOU a quiz or two!
Comments
rnmom24 said
on 3/18/2009 Great tips. Enjoy the journey!
goodselfme said
on 3/3/2009 Your information is so needed and well written. TX
jbechtold said
on 2/24/2009 My husband was homeschooled. I think he got more from that than I got from school. I am considering it for my children and you have given me more confidence.
w8tn4him said
on 2/21/2009 wizardofodds, that is the beauty of the DVD program. If you know you don't want to send your child to public school but are insecure about teaching, the DVD's do it all for you!
wizardofodds said
on 2/21/2009 I am interested in *partially* homeschooling my son. He is 3 now so we have some more time. I work full time so we will have time constraintsand I am not sure if my husband is quite on board with the idea :) So I might need these myth busters :) 5* I do have one concern though. There might be subjects that are too technical and over the average parent's head and it might be better to receive professional tutoring on those. I think parents should be absolutely confident that they can do a better job than the school before they decide to homeschool.