Children homeschooling, Main things to do with kids at home.

Homeschooling has always sounded extreme to some, yet once started parents were astonished by just how easy it is to become a homeschooling parent.

Homeschooling needs to fit into your life, that is the NUMBER ONE rule, but what do you do to make your children’s schooling life a success at home?

Here is a quick list of at-home things that are part of a standard homeschooling family’s life.

• Cooking – Math, Geography, History, Reading, Measurement, Life Skills.
• Gardening – Math, Earth Science, Food Production, Comprehension.
• Reading – History, Fun, Geography, Social Sciences, Culture, comprehension, Literacy
• Writing – Fine motor skills, Comprehension, Creative License, Literacy.

This is just a simple idea of what is always in a homeschooled family’s life.

Most of the things that you do at home are educational for the homeschooled child, and nearly all are included in the day-to-day life of those children.

So what do we add to our children’s homeschool lessons?

With the above covering so many subjects day to day,, we also add daily math for 30 minutes-1 hour along with 1 hour of reading of choice and handwriting lessons.

These are the bookwork portions of our life and the kids love these subjects.

Added extras are Spelling and Grammar conventions for our kids and these are only done occasionally as most of the time it is completed in the writing portion of our bookwork.

Our children do between 3-4 hours of bookwork schooling per day and also do it year round as it can travel with us, also life doesn’t stop just because a school term has.

What does our homeschool schedule look like then?

Here is our daily timetable, it isn’t strict at all but we have the core side of it settled on and if they miss a day we generally don’t worry as they can do it on a weekend if we get busy.

• Kids wake up, make beds, get dressed, and chow down breakfast.
• All the kids need to start lessons by 9am, although they generally have them completed before 9am and head outside for the day.
• Reading for 1 hour around the middle of the day, we are in Australia so it is pretty hot outside.

This is it really, the kids sometimes get up at 5am and dive in to finish their work, and other days they start at 9am and finish before lunch.

It is really not a strict system as their work can always travel with us and they are just as happy to do it in the bush as they are at the dining table.

Each of our children is able to work independently, although saying that may give the impression this was always the case.

To start with, they had to learn to read and write, which meant a lot of time was spent teaching them, then they had to comprehend the work they were able to read, which also meant a lot of explaining time as well.

Once this was achieved thought they were now able to work independently and were happy to head to mum or dad if they needed something to explain.

Now our children are in years 5, 4, 3, and 1 but they are also capable as homeschoolers to advance in the subjects that they excel at.

For our family, although they are “graded” as they above years, each is moving to the following year’s math and two of them have asked if they can try advanced math for their ages.

Also, they are not confined to an “age level” book selection, if they can read it they are allowed to read it.

Boys, they can be lazy on the writing and reading side of things and this can be discouraging to parents as they can feel like they are failing.

Don’t feel this, as boys are boys, they are generally hands-on, outdoors, and mischievous and that is all NORMAL boy behavior, nothing is wrong with them they are just boys.

Most boys, with the correct learning style boys, will excel in so many ways, their comprehension, and understanding are more visual than the book.

Simply put, let them be hands-on, draw in mud, do math with rocks, do gardening, reading cooking instructions…. things like this really light a boy’s life up as they are always hungry, always wanting to get dirty and always wanting to explore.

Go with it……

Girls can also be hands-on, visual, or auditory depending on the girl…

Every child learns differently and that is the best bit about homeschooling, YOU learn your child/ren’s learning styles.

What are the extra benefits of homeschooling?

• Advancement in education in areas that they excel in.
• Self-confidence
• Lack of bullying
• They are their own person, with no influence on their beautiful personalities
• They are less inclined to sit on electronic devices when they have the big outdoors to create, design, go on adventures, and explore.
• Always have plenty of social opportunities for activities with other homeschoolers.
• Wherever you travel homeschoolers are ready to meet up for play dates.

So may reasons to be able to join this experience and if it is something that you are thinking of trying, just have a look at your local facebook page for homeschooling groups in the area.

These groups are always prepared to welcome others, even if you haven’t yet decided to do homeschooling yet.

So embrace the journey and enjoy the closeness that homeschooling can bring to your family.

Have fun on this with it and let it fit into your life, not your life into it as your family is an amazing community filled with love and educational opportunities.