When I started homeschooling almost two decades ago, I did school at home. What I mean by that is I had this nice table that we all sat at and we did a certain subject at a certain time and I had a TON of subjects. I taught my kindergarten sons cursive and Latin, besides all the other subjects… at least for the first month. And then I realized that if I kept up the pace, I was going to totally burn out and my kids were going to hate me and, more importantly, hate learning. I’m hoping that every one that is able to homeschool their kids for the next few weeks doesn’t have as steep a learning curve as I did. I’d like to offer a few suggestions that might make it easier for you and your kids.
- Read to your kids. And this doesn’t mean just your littles. I remember one year when my oldest was already a teen and I decided to read a book to all five kids. They loved it! We looked forward to the time we read each day. We talked about it and compared it to other books and movies. If you don’t like reading out loud, listen to an audiobook. There are free books available. When my older kids were little, every day at lunch we would listen to a Jim Weiss story. It kept them entertained without constantly having screens on and it gave me a break from talking. I remember taking them on a three week trip in summer and we listened to a couple of Harry Potter books in the car. It totally saved my sanity! They were quiet so they could hear the story.
- Play games with your kids. Most people don’t realize how educational games are! When my youngest was little I would take a deck of cards and we would play with the cards. First, we would sort them by color, then by suite. Then we looked at the numbers and we would sort them by those. We would also put them in order. As he got older we played more games. A great resource for math games that you can play with cards or dice is from Math Inspirations. I contacted Emily at Math Inspirations and she shared this link to purchase her Hands-on Math book. It has a ton of games that kids of all ages can play and enjoy. She also shared a couple of free resources that you can find below.
- Make learning fun. In school teachers have so many kids and so much they have to get through in a day. They do an awesome job but they are limited by their circumstances. You have fewer limitations. You kids don’t need to just do the assigned curriculum. Do crafts, watch documentaries, build things with Legos, draw, cook, start a garden. Make it fun.
- Find the learning opportunities in everyday life. In school often kids learn things but don’t get to see it applied in real life. Take this time to see learning applied. For young kids, it could be cooking with you and doubling a recipe. For older kids, it could be helping you budget or learning about the upcoming presidential election. Make it real. I have put a link to a couple of modules of my REALLife curriculum on my website for free. Check it out and tell me what you think.
- Help your child find their genius. This is the most important one. In a traditional schoolroom, it is hard for a teacher to personalize your child’s education. While they are home with you, you have the opportunity to do just that. If they love dinosaurs, dive deep into dinosaurs. You can count them, color them, write all their names down. There are so many ways you can cover all the major subjects while still inspiring your kids. How about if you have an older student who loves makeup? Have them do some research on makeup and the best makeup to use and why. Which ones do animal testing; which ones use only natural ingredients? The topics are as unique as your kids are. Do your kids only want to play video games? Have them research them and make a PowerPoint about the history of their favorite game.
I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have anything you would like more help with! I would love to help!