Archive

Posts Tagged ‘books’

Avoiding Burnout in Home Schooling

December 5th, 2009 Gail Jones No comments

It doesn’t matter if you are teaching in a traditional school or in a home schooling environment, there will come a time when you will experience burnout. This is something that you have to avoid so that your educational progress is not adversely affected.

Here are a few helpful tips that you can make use of to prevent possible home schooling burnout:

Know your limitations. From the very start, you should already know your limitations and your child’s limitations. You must be capable of taking things slowly sometimes, especially if your child is still young since you have to bear in mind your child’s learning capacity. Most students are average learners, obviously, so you have to take the lessons based on your child’s learning pace. Never expect your small child to read complicated reading selections nor your teen to ace SAT exams.

Try not to follow strict schedules, because this can put pressure on your child. You should simply set an interesting routine for your child to follow. Children spend most of their time doing routine activities like getting up in the mornings, eating hearty breakfasts, reading, writing, doing light chores, etc. You must insist that they finish their routine activities before they can play outside or with the computer. Even the routine activities vary from day to day but you have to make sure that your child follows these routine activities. You can throw in occasional incentives or fun activities if they finish their routine tasks early.

You should try to get into the spirit of home schooling with your child, since it is one method of developing a strong relationship with your child and if you and your child can relate to each other, you will find it very much easier to handle curriculum struggles and motivation issues later on. Aside from motivating and guiding your child, you can also follow some of your own hobbies like gardening or cooking. If your child sees you enjoying your own interests, then he or she will also be inclined to do likewise.

As your child is in a home schooling program, you should not attempt to copy a traditional schools environment. Try to use non-conventional methods when teaching your child. Home schooling is also about flexibility and creativity, so if you can achieve a light-hearted but firm atmosphere, you can more than likely avoid burnout.

Always try to remember that with home schooling, you don’t have to structure your teaching methods in the traditional way. You can just do things in a fun way especially with very young children so that they learn naturally. Just ensure you keep the day in the right perspective to prevent burnout. Although your children might forget some of the day’s lessons, that’s all right too because somehow they grow in intelligence as well as in physique.

Your children will always think back on your home schooling days together and remember with fondness how well you treated them. The old song goes: “… there’s no place like home” and for little students, home is the best place to learn the first lessons of life. If your teenagers are already in high school or college, they can still pursue home schooling if they so desire. That would also a good idea since you would get a chance to watch your offsprings’ development.

Parents always look after their children’s best interests, so, if after careful consideration, you still think that home schooling is the best option for your family, then go on with it. Just follow the tips mentioned above to avoid burnout. Have fun activities from time to time to prevent monotony.

If you are practicing avoiding burnout in home schooling then please visit our website at Home Schooling

Home Schooling and its Effects on the Family

November 2nd, 2009 Colin Jones No comments

If a survey by the National Center For Education Statistics is to be believed, almost 1.1 million children took home schooling in 2005 alone. That’s a lot of children. Not so long ago, homeschooling used to be an extreme statement - something like a declaration of independence.

It was the conservative Christians who pushed for homeschooling in the 1980’s and legalized it in every State. But nowadays the average homeschooling pupil is not religiously motivated.

More recent surveys indicate that parents are actually fed up with the public school system where a lot of the learning is superficial and compulsory. They are also concerned about the negative environment in school, ranging from drugs and abuse to negative peer pressure.

As a result, we have a surprising mixture of people who make up the homeschooling world of today. They cut across all religious creeds and all regional borders. Their chief aim is providing meaningful and productive learning through a method that strengthens the bond between all the members of the family.

These families all have one main thing in common - a long standing commitment to the sanctity of childhood. The children of these families are accorded a primary position. Many believe, and, I think, rightly so, that home schooling allows parents to bring up their children in a more natural and caring environment.

Public schools can make a child nervous, diffident and thoroughly nasty. Children who get their education at home are protected from these damaging, negative influences until they reach an age where they can withstand them.

Home-schooling draws the whole family into the quasi religious task of teaching. Everyone has a role to play. Both the parents together form a bond with the children. Any experience can be turned into an educational experience. Both the parents are aware of exactly what is going on in their child’s education.

Parents also have a greater say over the type of religious and moral values that the child is learning. Even watching a film together can become an educational experience. Trips to the libraries, zoos, museums and other places become educational as well as recreational.

A home-schooling family is primarily dependent on the income of one earning member. That means that often outgoings have to be curtailed and proper planning of expenditure is a must. This helps to bring the family members together and everybody gets involved in the task of saving money.

Just having a parent at home to look after, to nurture and to care for the children brings with it a lot of love and caring. Even the husband takes part and there is just no room for boredom.

Yes OK, problems still do sometimes occur, and there will be many misgivings in your mind, but when you know that your kids can always count on you, and your kids know it too, then homeschooling becomes a very rewarding experience.

If you are practicing Home Schooling then please visit our site at Home Schooling Information