I’m going over my notes from the class I took as a new homeschooler. I’m trying to not copy anything that’s copyrighted so this will be a summary of the notes I took from the class. We met once a month from August through May with a different topic each month.
Update – here was my post on First Year Advice to Self that I gleaned from picking the brain of every homeschooler I could find. 🙂
1. Getting started – homeschooling is a lifestyle, not just an educational method. So much learning happens in our day to day interactions with our kids, not just when we’re sitting at the table with a book. Those learning experiences were crucial for our babies, toddlers & preschoolers. Just because a child turns five doesn’t mean their learning style changes – they still learn through their activities throughout the day. However, as we start to formally “school” (or tutor!) our children we may need to make some lifestyle changes. Depending on your teaching style & your kids’ learning styles, a consistent routine and scheduled time for lessons may be crucial. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can figure out what works best for YOUR family – lessons in the morning, afternoon or evening? Every day or every other day? All at once or 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there? YOU decide.
Be aware of forcing too much structure (rigid schedule) or too little. Don’t overschedule yourself or your kids. Designate a day each week for home day and possibly one day for outside home activities? Depending on your preferences, some people like to be outside the home each day, some prefer to be home most days. What feels best for you? But avoid scheduling too many activities that take away from your core lessons.
Recognize each child has a unique learning journey and don’t expect things that are not developmentally appropriate (long attention span in small child, ability to focus on table work, holding still quietly, etc.) We can work towards goals but don’t expect perfection just yet. 🙂
Don’t compare yourself to others. You are not creating school at home.
Allow yourself a back up/burn out plan. Have ingredients for an easy meal or a cash stash for take out. Have some fun lesson ideas or projects to work on when everyone needs a day off. Take time for YOURSELF to avoid burn out – are you eating well? Sleeping? Exercising? Taking time for spiritual recharging?
If you aren’t enjoying this, reassess. It’s not always going to be fun but if it’s NEVER fun then something is wrong. How can you bring the joy of learning back?
Set a date with your spouse to talk about your goals for the family in regards to schooling. For each child, for yourself, for your marriage. What do you have in mind for your family? Be prayerful as you set goals together. Do not let your choice to homeschool be a source of conflict in your marriage.
2. Organizing Time – Texas law says 180 days of school a year. (six sessions, six weeks each?) Do you want five days a week? Four days, six half-days? You get to decide! But you also don’t need to feel pressured to have a set schedule. Sick kids? Take the day off. Mommy’s tired? Family in town? Don’t be controlled by your own schedule, you pick.
I roughly do this – and when I say week off, it may be one solid week or just one day per week for a few weeks.
September to October, 1 week off somewhere in there.
November to December, 2 weeks off during holidays.
January to February, 1 week off in there.
March to April, 1 week off for Easter.
May to June, 1 week off somewhere in there.
July to August, 2 weeks off for summer break.
We do take lessons with us on vacation but we aren’t strict about doing them. I don’t like to take more than a solid week off with NO lessons or I find the kids are more resistant when we get back into the regular schedule.
Consider your family’s schedules & activities – sports, co-ops, do you start slower on Mondays? Fridays you are worn out? Make it a catch up day. Work around what’s best for YOU. We have crazy schedules in spring & fall and that’s when weather is nicest so we’re not strict about lessons then. In summer & winter when the weather is extreme we are inside more (and have less scheduled stuff like soccer & horseback riding) so we get more lessons done during those months.
Daily scheduling – do you like having a schedule or routine? Do your kids? Try making one up with pictures and putting it on a poster? Or have NO routine at all if that’s best for you. 🙂
– Start with good breakfast and (if you care) everyone dressed.
– Give younger kids focused time, reading story together, circle time songs, etc. Charge them up first so you can focus on older kids. Get them busy with fun activity so you can begin lessons.
– Start with important subjects if you really want to get them done first.
– Don’t forget pausing to get wiggles out, do something active. Break for snacks.
– Don’t let lesson plans dictate to you. Adapt to meet your needs!! If your child has a concept, don’t feel you must review and do all work. Move on, the beauty of homeschooling.
– Keeping track: do you like having a lesson plan in advance? Writing down what you’ve done that day after the fact? Summarize at end of week or month? You pick how to keep track. At young age you may not need daily details and a semester or yearly summary will work: we read these books, did this math text, studied these people.
Time management:
– menu plan, freezer meals, bulk cooking, etc.
– make chores part of lessons and assign to kids. Assign a task a day? For us it’s Monday: linens & laundry, Tuesday: floors & bathrooms, Wednesday: dining & kitchen, Thursday: living room & sunroom, Friday: catch up, Saturday: outside, garage, cars. If we don’t get to it today then I’ll try again next week. 🙂
3. Learning styles – under 8 years may be hard to identify learning style but try to figure out what is your child’s learning style? Love language? What is your teaching style? How do you best focus (environment – noise, lighting, seating, temperature) and how does your child best focus? Create a learning space that fits your child with access to everything you need – writing utensils, paper, art supplies, pencil sharpener, clear table space.
For young children, movement is unavoidable. 🙂 Make it part of the process – toss a bean bag while spelling, bounce on yoga ball while narrating. Let them move, knead silly putty, write letters in salt box, roll a ball with their feet while they are writing letters, hop, crawl, jump on trampoline. For some children the physical movement helps them focus their minds. Our rule is if they are quiet, they can do whatever they want while we read aloud.
Getting information into a child – if you are teaching in a different learning style then it’s like you are speaking a foreign language. No matter how many times you repeat yourself they will NOT understand unless you try another approach and find their key. If they don’t understand in the method you are teaching then what can we change so we’re speaking the same language? (I have lots of quizzes on learning styles and book references if anyone wants them.)
Are YOU visual, auditory or kinesthetic/tactile? Most children use all three until we get them into a classroom and force them to become a specific type. Use all three methods whenever you can – have them draw the letter, say the letter, hear the letter, shape the letter with their body, find a scrabble tile of the letter, shape playdough like the letter, sing the letter. Get creative!
4. Persuading a reluctant learner – read up on Charlotte Mason habit training. Even with a young child, explain why this is important in a way they can understand. President Hinkley has some good quotes about the value of hard work and teaching our families to work together. Are you expecting attention that’s not age appropriate? With young children keep lessons short, engage their attention, take breaks to move their bodies, and try to get important stuff done first. As kids get older pass more of the responsibility to them and the habit training pays off! At high school encourage independence in what they are studying, setting goals, record keeping, building their portfolio, focusing on their talents and gifts, explore possibility of being apprentice, working, volunteering. The more input they have, the less reluctant they (hopefully) will be.
– When possible, give them choices (assuming they are options you can live with.)
– Recognize when they are pushing your buttons, step back and see if your response is appropriate.
– Don’t argue. You are the parent.
– Ask, “What can we change to help you accomplish this better?”
5. Choosing curriculum – textbook, unit study, living book, classical, charlotte mason, unschooling, school at home. Pick what fits you and your child best and don’t feel bad if you decide to change from year to year or even mid-year! Better to realize you chose the wrong thing and fix it quickly rather than waste time with something you don’t feel is best.
6. Spiritual schooling – don’t forget to be prayerful about your schooling, incorporate your beliefs where you feel is appropriate, and use church resources (there are so many resources through LDS catalog and the church website for music, provident living, scripture memorization, etc, etc.) Remember that your relationship with your children is far more valuable than getting the lessons all done and you are your child’s most crucial example of Christ like love. What are your goals? The academic learning is important but the character training, the development of Christ like attributes and a love of learning, is more important than getting the multiplication facts memorized.
7. Teaching ideas – where you can, teach your children from the same text for scripture study, art, science, history, etc. Math & language will need to be individualized but reading aloud can be done regardless of age. When reading aloud, give younger kids a wiggly toy, coloring pages or project to focus on and keep them quiet.
Bus stop approach – start with everyone, drop kids off with other activity starting with youngest. Younger kids can go play while older kids keep working. Create a “busy box” for the younger kids.
Start with family circle time/devotional time. We do welcome song, ABCs, days of week, months of the year (all songs) and planet song. We count by ones for little ones up to 20, then older kids take turns with counting up and down by 2s, 5s, 10s, etc. Older kids practice memorization work – primary songs, scriptures, poems, etc. Read story, nursery rhymes, etc. Do something physical (we do motor lab) as part of circle time – exercise, yoga, relays. Then let little kids go play, already charged up with some mommy attention, and tackle lessons with older kids. Have older child read story to younger child while giving another child one-on-one attention. Our goal is to get language & math done before lunchtime, though we often pause for a snack break in there. Then lunch, then we do quiet time.
We do quiet time after lunch and while little ones nap you can read to older kids. Pause after reading aloud and have kids narrate back, starting with younger kid.
After naps we do our “special” – art, music, science, history, etc. Math & language is daily, and one special per day. But math or language is not a book lesson necessarily, it may be reviewing flashcards or making a book report mobile or something else. (I have to remind myself that just because I didn’t get a lesson done from the text doesn’t mean we didn’t get a lesson done!)
If you have a baby, do lessons while the baby naps or nurses. We do a lot of reading aloud while I nursed.
Tools – binders, page protectors, dry erase markers, pens & pencils, good quality pencil sharpener (cheapest we found was at Mardel’s), dry erase board or chalkboard or easel, 3 hole punch, scrap paper, art supplies. Have them on hand…
Learn through play – know what concept you are focusing on (fractions – bake something, counting – have child divide up cookies on plate) and make it part of day.
Recognize when your child has lost focus and redirect/reengage or give them a break and come back to it. Set a timer? (Works for some kids, too much pressure for other kids.)
Once an independent reader, give children more control over what they study and their schedule. Set guidelines (must do one math lesson a day, practice piano, read aloud to me, do one language lesson, etc.) But give them autonomy within that structure – what topics would you like to study? What book for book report, do projects this morning or afternoon? Work towards them having their own schedule book & check in with you throughout day as they need help. Set goals together to help them understand how it works.
8. Organizing – this was a TON about clutter and sorting our homes. Too much to summarize. 🙂 Let me know if you want to read through that section.
9. Support groups – co-ops are a valuable resource but come with a great deal of logistical and emotional cost as you sort out what you need, deal with group dynamics, etc. Do you need academic group? Social group? For kids or for you? Park day? Field trip group? More formal co-op with specific curriculum? Don’t over commit but when you find what works for your family be sure to jump in and contribute to the group.
Okay, that’s all. I think I wrote about some of the individual meetings on this blog already and you can find those here.
