Archive for November, 2009
Homeschooling High School
The choice to homeschool your child through high school is not the only choice to be made. Through online and correspondance course, students can take accredited courses that will earn them their high school credits and diploma. Or, you can continue following the homeschool path and give them an equivalent education and then they can write entrance exams to get into post-secondary education. Accredited courses can be costly, and not all courses are offered so optional credits may be harder to obtain, but some families prefer to have the diploma at the end. Continuing on the homeschool path can enrich the students education in courses that they like and prefer. By this time, you are homeschooling pros so you can make your choice as to which one suits your family best!
It is great when students can move on to independent reading, but how do you know they are understanding what they are reading?
Reading aloud is still important to do even after the student has acquired independent reading skills so you know they understand what they are reading. You can take turns reading a story aloud to make your child more comfortable. Or have a storytelling session, have your child read aloud to you and the next day do the same for him/her. This can be further developed into creating stories as each person can add to the story as it is told. It is a fun way to make sure what is read is understood.
Wouldn’t you love to have an entire lesson in one box! Well you can with educational CD-ROMS.
Many educational computer games include the basics for lessons in English, Math, Art, Geography, and other languages. An hour of playtime with one of these computer games can include an entire lesson without the children even realizing they are learning. It is a lesson of fun in a box (monitor)!
A homeschooling family enjoys having time together but adding in planning for each school year can be time-consuming. Here are some time-saving teaching tips to help give you more family time, and less planning time.
When you schedule a week of school make room for a day to do errands. This can become part of the lessons, or a day of project/research work. Setting aside this time allows you to get things done without feeling the crunch of time constraints. At particularily busy times of the year use unit studies, curriculum that is already set up so there is little or no preparation work but lots of educational benefits. On weekend getaways or family vacations incorporate some lessons on geography, culture, economics and more. Filling in education in these extra places can help alleviate some of the structured work that needs planning. Finally, teach your kids how to organize themselves, find answers for themselves and structure their days, that means you have time to structure yourself without having to worry about keeping them on track.