The majority of home school families have both parents involved in both the teaching and the planning.
Each year before embark on another year of home schooling you should take the time to get out this simple list of things to do and get done before your homeschooling year begins.
Home schooling a child requires much dedication and encumbrances on your time. Neither your home teaching nor your family time should be at the mercy of ill-planned or inefficient home school schedule.
So with that objective in mind let’s look at a few areas that will help you be successful when teaching your child at home.
Before you start any journey you need a map. Teaching at home is no different. In this case, it’s your goals and objective.
I don’t mean just a general idea you have rumbling around in your head. Write out your goals both for your school year and for each subject or unit study. I found it helpful to create a timeline with the goal for the year and the objectives as milestones throughout. You will be able to find publishers and curriculums that work well as a road map and tracking tool for you if you wish.
As you do keep in mind each of your kid’s strengths and weaknesses, also, learning styles and character. Standardized tests are available for you to use as a benchmark when teaching your child at home. Be sure to plan for non-academic studies and character building studies and activities that fit your beliefs and philosophy. And as you begin finalize your plan, share this roadmap with your kids and get them excited about all they’ll do during the homeschooling year.
Your homeschool materials should be a list of ideas, materials, and supplies that relate to your home schooling and teaching goals and objectives that you have written down. You should use your goal and objective list to stay focused on what types of homeschooling materials and supplies you’ll need.
Gathering you supplies this way will help you stay within your budget. Be sure to get this nailed down as early as you can so you can get any supplies ordered that need be. And at this point, if you have more than one child you are homeschooling take a good look at which areas all the children could work at close to the same level. This will also help your budget as you won’t have to replicate some teaching supplies.
When it comes to your budget, one of the benefits I discovered about home schooling my children was that since I was spending less money each year on school clothes and the latest fashions and such, I was able to allocate more financial resources where the rubber meets the road with educational materials.
More on home schooling planning coming up next.
