Tips for Easy Homeschooling

4 min read

tips for easy homeschooling

If you’ve homeschooled your children before, you know that it can be a little difficult at times. Now you have to play the part of parent and teacher, all in the same day. Although it can take some time to get used to these different roles, it is possible. These tips can help you have an easier time homeschooling all of your children.

Set a Schedule

You might have heard this tip before, but there’s a reason this advice is always given. Setting a schedule serves a few different purposes. First, it ensures your children are learning what they need to know for the school year. If you don’t follow some type of schedule or curriculum, you could end up completing the school year without teaching your children important skills they’ll need for the next year. A schedule allows you to decide what needs to be taught each day. Additionally, having a schedule will help your children learn better. When children don’t know what to expect, they tend to “freak” out. That’s why you have a set bedtime each night. The same goes for learning. When your children know what to expect for the day, you’ll notice that they are much more productive.

Be Prepared

Don’t forget that when you’re homeschooling your children, you are the teacher. If you ask any teacher about what it takes to get through a day, they’ll tell you that it’s all about the planning. Teachers are expected to plan daily lessons at least a week in advance. This allows teachers to prepare for a learning day ahead of time, which in turn makes for better lessons. As your children’s teacher, you need to plan each day ahead of time. It’s usually easiest to prepare a week’s worth of lessons at a time, with tentative preparation for the following weeks. At the start of each day, always have all of your supplies and curriculum at hand so you don’t waste time searching for what you need. Not only will you have a more efficient day full of learning, you’ll also feel more comfortable teaching all of the topics.

Ask for Help

Just because you’re homeschooling doesn’t mean you need to do everything. Try asking friends and family for help, especially if there’s a subject or skill you don’t feel comfortable teaching. Have a family member who is in the military teach your children about the government and the armed forces. Ask a friend who works as a secretary to teach your children important computer skills. Chances are, your friends and family will love helping out for a class or two. If not, you can always try enrolling your child in a class or two through your local homeschooling group or an area college.

Take Your Time

A last piece of advice to all you homeschooling parents out there is to take your time. I know this might seem like the complete opposite of setting a schedule, but taking your time will prove to be beneficial in the long run. Unless your child is a miniature Albert Einstein, true mastery of a skill or concept won’t happen in a day. Most likely, it will take days and weeks before you’re able to move on from a difficult concept. Plan for this and don’t be afraid to take your time on those tricky topics. One of the reasons you’re homeschooling your children is so that you can provide a quality education to them. In the classroom setting, teachers are forced to move from topic to topic to meet state and school standards. This means that they might move on before all of the students have mastered the idea. As a parent who homeschools, you have the freedom to stick to a topic until your children are ready to move on. Taking your time allows your children to have a true understanding of the education they’re receiving.

There you have it… These tips are meant to help you have an easier time homeschooling your children. Although it might still be difficult your first year of homeschooling, following these tips each year will ensure your children receive the education they deserve without you feeling completely stressed and overwhelmed. What other tips have you found make homeschooling a little easier?

“Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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