More than any time in recent history, parents are having to play the role of both family leaders and school teachers. Kids today are spending more time at home because of homeschooling. This can be problematic for any family that has become accustomed to dropping their kids off at school. It often serves as a much-needed respite for both the mother and father and is also a convenient way to find care for your kids if you are working. However, if you are a parent that is now homeschooling your children, you need to develop certain routines. The following information provides successful homeschool routines that any parent can follow to improve their ability to teach their children.
Schedules Are So Important
When a child goes to school, they are going to do so at predetermined times. There is often a mad rush for the parents, trying to get their child onto a bus or into the car so they can be dropped off before the bell rings. However, when you are homeschooling your kids, it is often difficult to maintain a rigid schedule. We are conditioned to rely upon the scheduling of our local school, yet we can still provide them with structured learning. By determining when school will start, and how long each class will be, we can create something very similar at home.
Routine Breaks throughout the Day
Just as a traditional school will provide breaks for the students, parents need to consider doing the same. Although it would be nice to save time and help them learn as fast as possible, not every child is going to understand the information. If you have a child that does require special care at school, such as extra tutoring, you will now need to provide that service as well. To make this easier for both you and your child, you need to have routinely scheduled breaks throughout the day. This will give both of you a much-needed respite from the demands that homeschooling will require. It will also allow your children, as well as the homeschool parent, to be more refreshed as they move from topic to topic.
Proper Preparation before the Next Day’s Lessons
Teachers are well aware of how much prep time goes into preparing for lessons. They will have a curriculum that they must follow, and to deliver the information in a sustained manner, they must first go over the subject matter. This can take hours, depending upon your familiarity with certain topics, as well as the amount of information that needs to be conveyed. You will have to prepare the quizzes, tutorials, and other forms of educational training, in the most helpful way. That is why it is important to spend at least one hour prior to school starting at home to ensure that this information is delivered properly.
Always Have Scheduled Testing Times
Perhaps the most important aspect of going to school is having deadlines. This is well known to those that take AP courses in high school or college courses at the local university. The amount of material that needs to be consumed and learned each week demands that deadlines be set in place. When your child has a deadline for completing their assignments, they will be more inclined to be highly focused. As with anything to do in life, you need to have reliable homeschool routines and deadlines to help provide this aspect of the educational process.
How to Address Issues That Your Child May Have
It is possible that your child may not understand the information that you will be presenting to them each day. This is a common occurrence for any teacher that has taught in a classroom. They are well aware that most students learn and consume information at different rates. Since you will know your child better than anyone, you will likely have a general idea of what their strengths and weaknesses are. By planning in advance to provide extra tutoring for these subjects, you can ensure that they will move forward and reach deadlines right on time. This will also require the parent to spend extra time learning each topic. The more proficient they are with the material that must be taught, the easier it will be to provide helpful information.
Homeschooling is something that not everyone can do. It requires determination, planning, and the gift of being an educator. If a parent hasn’t taught in the classroom before, they can quickly learn how to become one. Every day, parents across the world are educating their children, and these skills can be used when teaching their kids at home. As long as there are homeschool routines, deadlines, and enough preparation for the lessons, they will be successful as a teacher for their children.
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Julie Seeney
Tinybeans Voices ContributorA little about me : I’m a thirty-something Mom to one boy and one girl. I blog about all things to do with being a mom and encorage moms to take care of themselves during postpartum.
