Studying
at home
Homeschooling is a wonderful way to stay close to your children
while helping them become well-rounded adults. It offers you the
opportunity to tailor your children's education to suit your
children, your lifestyle, and your beliefs. Schooling at home also
gives you a safe 'home base' for your children while they explore
the people and places around them. With the ability to
individualize your child's education, you can truly foster a life
long love of learning.
Steps
- Prepare Yourself. Realize that this means
being able to devote yourself to your children every day, morning
to night. As their parent or legal guardian, you (and your spouse)
will now be legally and solely responsible for the direction,
depth, and breadth of their education. This is an enormous
responsibility and should not be stepped into lightly.
- Determine Your Homeschool Teaching Style.
Examine your own intentions and motivations. Why do you want to
homeschool? What do you consider a 'good' education? What do you
believe about children, teaching, and learning? How do your
children seem to learn best? These questions can help you determine
what approach to take, and help you create a learning environment
that will be best for you and your children. Learn about the
different homeschool methods, such as
- unschooling,
- classical homeschooling,
- unit studies,
- Charlotte Mason's methodology,
- Montessori or Waldorf methods, and
- eclectic blends of different styles.
- Plan Your Curriculum. The enormous volume of
material and methods that are available can be very overwhelming
for a new homeschoooling parent. Identifying your approach will
help narrow things down. (For example, unschoolers usually have a
wide variety of resources for their children to experience, but no
formal curriculum. Classical homeschool studies often revolve
around certain core subjects and more traditional western teaching
methods.) There are many resources to help you navigate through the
maze of ideas. Libraries and bookstores have books on homeschooling
methods, experiences, and proven curricula. The internet offers a
never-ending source of information as well: basic information on
various subjects, online curriculum and supply ordering, articles
about methodologies, support groups, and public school curricula.
The internet even has free lessons on most subjects from teachers,
other homeschoolers, and even television stations. Research, read,
and plan what you want to teach and how.
- Look for local support. You can find local
groups that meet regularly, organizations that put on periodic
seminars or conventions, or even online groups that swap ideas and
resources. Many groups set up co-op classes - taught by other
parents - in a variety of subjects. If you start to feel
overwhelmed, frust
