Home Schooling: How To
By Jacqui Preugschat, BA Teach (Special Ed.)
For those of you finding yourselves home-schooling — how wonderful!
What a perfect opportunity for us as parents to inspire our children’s desire to learn through activities we wouldn’t normally do together.
- Children love organisation, they may not admit it, but they do! It gives them a sense of security, which is particularly important at this time. So, try to be as organised as possible; write up a school schedule before the week starts — on a whiteboard (if you have one) and prepare where necessary the night before.
- Always shower and dress appropriately — this means getting out of your pyjamas and facing the day with enthusiasm! Also, dedicate a part of the house to home-schooling, it really does make a difference.
- With younger children, their concentration span is generally about 20 minutes. Start with a story in the morning and talk about it together before moving on to a more hands-on activity like cooking or gardening. After that, return to subjects like spelling or math. Remember, not all children learn the same way.
- Don’t forget free play. It’s just as important as scheduled activities. Children need freedom to explore, create and relax on their own – and this is where you also get to relax!
- Home-schooling needs to be fun and your zeal for teaching is an essential ingredient for their learning. Your enthusiasm will catch on! Where there is fun and discovery, learning is enhanced.
- There are opportunities to learn in every activity you do together. You don’t have to have books or laptops open for learning to take place. I have had great success in incorporating moving with learning – where we’ve learnt maths, spelling, science and geography through sport.
- As the children get older make learning as relevant to real life as much as possible by using real world examples. There’s a host of life skills you can teach: how to answer the phone, how to use a computer, how to budget and pay bills, how to prepare meals, how to grow a herb garden… the list goes on.
In closing, we need to keep encouraging our kids to develop their skills and talents through learning so they are equipped to have things to do during times such as these and for a successful future.