More and more people are starting to take their children out of the conventional school system. It’s not altogether clear as to why this is, but it’s a phenomenon that spans borders, in the United States and the United Kingdom especially. Instead, they are choosing to replace that conventional education with home education setups, as a means to have more control over the learning their child experiences.
Note – this doesn’t not necessarily mean home educators have full control over everything their child does and how their educated is validated. Many countries have strict criteria for how home educators must operate, what curriculums they can choose from, and they will often be subjected to regular inspection, at least annually. So, this is nowhere near ‘the easy way out,’ or an inferior option, in fact, many parents do their utmost to make sure the education their children receives is competent, careful and well-measured.
If you’re considering this move, it’s important to go into the process as informed as humanly possible. In this post, we hope to get you started in that direction by offering three tidbits of helpful advice:
Make The Most of Field Days
Now that you can curate your own school trips, you might find that the options open up. You don’t have to consider planning for thirty or more children, nor do you need insurance, nor do you require many volunteer parents to come and help your school field trip. You can just go to the planetarium, aquarium, think tank, museum, or historical landmark with your children and make the most of it. This can be a great way of actualizing your learning as necessary.
Religious Studies
Spirituality is a great subject to include in a child’s curriculum if you want to give them a more secure and organized outlook on life. Faith is necessary for children to develop a positive outlook on life. If the child’s family follows the Christian faith, a specialized Bible study guide can be used during your study sessions. Be sure to talk to the parents about this before incorporating faith-based studies into your study sessions.
Inject A Little Fun!
Injecting a little fun into your experience can be a great idea. This might involve dressing for the role such as with teacher summer shirts, putting on a cool home play to show to your relatives (a way of consolidating learning about Shakespeare, for instance), as well as embarking on creative projects that don’t replace written work and study, but can help inform it by using play to help our children explore a topic from all angles. Maybe you could even run a home sports day. Don’t assume that fun the oppose of learning, as everything you can do as a home educator will confirm the opposite.
Join A Group Community
Home education may seem like a pretty isolated endeavor, especially if it’s just you and your child. But don’t worry – there are many wonderful groups out there geared to helping you with advice and wisdom. Facebook Groups are perhaps the most common area here, but user forums can also be a big help. When you join a group community, you can ask questions, discuss topics, and perhaps get tips that you may not have understood elsewhere. This can make a lot of difference as to how supported you feel, even if it just means being told of other teaching resources you can use.
With this advice, we believe that home educators can continue to perform the wonderful job they’re already doing.
