Helpful Homeschooling Tips
I have either been working with homeschool students or homeschooling my own children for the last nine years. I will say upfront that you have to find resources and a rhythm that works for you and your family. Homeschooling is a personal decision and we all arrive at it for various reasons. I have learned a lot in the last few years, and I continue to learn each day. I have used trial and error, and I have found specific curriculums and routines that work for us. These may or may not work for you. However, I wanted to share a few homeschooling tips for getting started. I hope they work for you too, but if they are not exactly the right fit I hope you can have at least a place to start.
1 - Routine
Your routine may look very different from mine. I would still encourage you to find one. I have found in my years of teaching and parenting that children respond and find security in predictability and structure. Do you have to be overly structured? No! After all, the flexibility of homeschooling is one of the most desirable things about it. I do find that students tend to be available for learning when they have a general idea of what is expected and what will come next. I tend to do my instructional time in the mornings because that is when my own children are most rested and ready to learn. We follow the same setup, subject order, and break routine (with the occasional switch up). My Orton-Gillingham principles guide me in a lot of areas of instruction, so the O-G motto of “structured flexibility” has helped shape my homeschool routine. If you have a student with a language-based learning difference or ADHD, a flexible but guiding structure and some predictability will be helpful. I have taught these learners and I parent one of these learners, so I am speaking from experience. Stay tuned for a post that outlines our day in-depth.
2 - Your Learning Spot
My house is not a big house. It is the perfect house for us, but it does not offer a lot of designated spaces for our homeschooling work. My family is very understanding with all of my unique storage areas and the school clutter that tends to gather in our common spaces….like the dining room table. I have found it helpful to have my space for my instructional materials and my kid’s space. They have a place where they know their materials will be and they can go to that same space each day to find what they need. In my spaces, I have my pens, highlighters, planning materials, and my binder with the week’s work inside. I may be out of a traditional classroom, but you cannot take my love for Flair pens away. I still have a ridiculous pen collection that makes me happy! The space for my kids includes their materials for our work together and their work on their own. You can see their shelves with textbooks and materials in the picture to the left. They have designated pencil boxes for school purposes. Yes, I include these because it has their pencils with pencil grips, colored pencils for our projects, crayons that aren’t scented and are distracting, etc. Do we have all of the other fun stuff too!? Absolutely! In fact, I am not sure who loves the new glitter crayons more: me or my daughter. However, I want our school space to have minimal distractions. I do have a small desk for the times I want my child working with me at a desk. We are also flexible in completing work outside, in their room, or in a different location in our house. Homeschool families are the original flexible seating implementers. My rule of thumb is that you have to be doing your work accurately, with no distractions, and if it doesn’t work we change locations. If we are writing, I have my child at a desk.
3 - Curriculum and Standards
Your curriculum has to be right for your learner. I have opinions on certain curriculums but won’t share those here because I cannot speak for your child. I do have a curriculum I use as a guide for math, science, and social studies. For language, I teach an Orton-Gillingham lesson every day. This lesson includes vocabulary, comprehension, writing, grammar, phonological awareness, and of course phonics. I use the Orton-Gillingham principles, which you can read about here, to guide all of my instruction. I have taken Marilyn Zecher’s Multisensory Math class and use that lesson plan and approach to my math instruction. I do have a supplemental curriculum that I add for math. Do I follow state standards or Common Core? Yes...sort of...let me explain before you quit reading. A benefit of homeschooling is to not have to teach in preparation for a test and to be able to individualize for your own child. I love that about it! I do want to refer to the standards as an overview, not a requirement. I think it is important to have a general idea of where most second-grade students are expected to be learning. Do I adjust them based on what I think is appropriate? 100%! Do I teach the concepts I feel are what my child needs or is interested in? Also a 100%!
I think having a guide with the standards, emphasis on guide, to give you a big picture is not a bad thing. My advice would be to read them for your state, be aware, be flexible with the curriculum, and find what will provide sound instruction for your child. Whether your student is looking to learn a trade or pursue further education beyond high school, there are certain skills and base knowledge we all benefit from knowing. My family also does a lot of experience-based learning, which you will not find in a workbook. So make sure to have a big dose of that as well!
4 - Think Long Term
I keep a report card for each year. It is not required, but I find it important to document. I include days we were in school, academic progress, and areas of study. If you have concerns about your child’s learning, you will also want to keep notes on this piece. If you were to ever need a psycho-educational evaluation for accommodation purposes it is helpful to have a record of your own. As your child gets older, they might have the opportunity to attend a dual enrollment or college and career planning program. These programs are offered by some community colleges, and it allows the student to achieve high school and college credit at the same time. You will want to keep track of the courses you have taught because sometimes there are certain requirements to attend these programs. For example, a high school student I worked with needed Chemistry to begin the program at our community college. We had to plan ahead to ensure this was in place for her to go. I also switched from a report card to a transcript when my students began high school. I made sure to build the transcript to include the information requested by the state, institutes of higher education, and in our case the NCAA Clearinghouse. Yes, homeschool students are recruited! You want to make sure that your records are in place if that time were to come!
5 - Grace and Space
If you are new to homeschooling, the days when it is really hard and you all feel like you have hit a wall, will be an unwelcome surprise. My advice is to give yourself and your family grace. We all have bad days. They happen in your classroom at home or in a classroom at a school. On those days, switch it up. Take learning outside or seek out an experience-based learning option (hello local library). Just because you have a bad day or even a bad week does not mean you are failing at homeschooling. You will also want to give space. I love being a mom, and it is the one thing I always wanted to be when I grew up. I would give up every other accomplishment I have ever achieved to be my kids’ mom. With that said, it is sometimes hard to find space for a breather for yourself and for your kids. Taking a walk, going outside, scheduling time on the weekend for you to have a few hours to yourself is needed.
You also need to preserve and protect the parent and academic instructor roles. They can coexist and can coexist well. You still want to make sure that each plays the role intended in the life of your child.
Sometimes the instructor in me wants to push through a lesson, but the mom knows my child didn’t sleep well and has hard few days so it is not what is right at that moment. Maybe they just need a different task or some time to reset. And guess what- that is ok!
My advice is to talk to veteran homeschoolers, read the advice of others, and have an open mind. Your homeschool will be as unique as your family. It is not for everyone, and I appreciate that. If you have decided to try it out or if you have been doing it for a while, I hope you found this read helpful. I would love to hear any tips that you would add. Leave a comment below to add to the list! If you are new to the homeschooling world, leave your questions in the comments and I will do my best to give an answer or point you in the direction to find the answer. Thanks for reading!
This information is the intellectual property of ©2021 The Instruction Hub. Do not use or repurpose without expressed permission from The Instruction Hub. Please give The Instruction Hub an attribution if you choose to use, reference, or quote/paraphrase copyrighted materials. This includes but is not limited to blogs, social media, and resources.