Ease Your Child Into Homeschooling

When first introducing Homeschooling to your child, you may find it difficult to keep to a routine. This will be partly due to your own levels of self discipline, and also partly due to your child’s. So in this article we discuss how to Ease Your Child Into Homeschooling.

Education Tailor-Made

There are a myriad of different reasons why people choose to homeschool their children. Firstly, there is the economic benefit of avoiding high private school fees. Secondly, there is the convenience of scheduling schooling around other family activities etc. Thirdly, one of the most important benefits of home schooling is its flexibility. You can tailor your child’s education. It is a well known fact that every individual has individual needs. Home schooling allows you to create a learning environment that is tailored to your child in particular.

Be Flexible

When you undergo home schooling, it is important that you have a clear curriculum, a clear mind, and a plan to execute your endeavour. But within that plan, you have a tremendous amount of flexibility. There are many different ways that a child can learn something, and many different things to learn in a given subject.

The Old System

One of the best ways that you can ensure a high level of learning retention is to encourage your child to take a personal interest in his or her education. Many adults who went though a traditional school system don’t remember school favourably. They will probably agree that their education was received in an authoritative way. Their experience of school was that  schooling and your education was something that was done to you, not with you.

When home schooling, however, you can take advantage of the almost unlimited flexibility at your disposal and let your child take a more active role. While you can’t, obviously, let your child do whatever he or she wants education-wise, you should always explain to him or her a given education plan, and see what he or she thinks.

Involved Your Child in Decision-Making

For example, when you start your school day, outline the plan for the day with your child. Depending on his or her age you can also explain the reasoning behind the plan. If there are any things that the child seems averse to doing, try and take them seriously.

Suggest Alternatives

You should not, of course, avoid certain subjects or activities simply because your child doesn’t like them. You should, however, ask your child why he or she doesn’t like something in the day’s plan, and to suggest alternatives. In many cases you will be pleasantly surprised by what your child comes up with, and be able to incorporate it into the day’s work.

Provide Alternatives

As much as possible, you should have a list of alternatives in mind for assigned activities. The idea is to try and think of alternative activities that accomplish the same task. If your child protests against a certain exercise, then, you can offer them an alternative. This can be extremely effective in getting your children to learn material that they dislike.

Give Some Control to Your Child

Oftentimes the child simply has to feel that he or she is more in control of the situation to enjoy it. Even though you are ultimately controlling your child’s education, by granting them small allowances and choices, while still sticking with the larger picture, everybody wins: your child feels he is doing what he wants to do, and you are still teaching your child what you want him to learn.

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