How do I begin to prepare my children for homeschooling now?

Question

I have a 2 1/2 yr. old and a 9-month old and I'm strongly considering homeschooling in a christian setting. I would like to know the process to homeschooling, the effectiveness of it and any other information that would be helpful.

Answer 1

I would suggest you put effort into preparing yourself, too. Being a teacher takes more than just love for your children and a Christian setting. It will also take more than simply "knowing" more than they do. You will need to spend a lot of time planning units and instruction. They should focus on content, as well as the psychological and physical stages that children go through. You will need to know what learning difficulties and other problems children encounter and how to meet the child's unique needs. You might want to think about what your very long-range goals for their education should be and whether you can realistically provide it. Then, work out some detailed ideas about how you'll do it. These goals and plans will need to be reviewed, revised, and followed constantly over the next 15+ years.

Teaching is an enormous job, no matter who you are, what your background, who your students are, or how many students you have. It could be extremely rewarding and will be extremely challenging. Spend these early years preparing yourself, so that you are best able to ready your children for everything they will want to do and encounter in their adult lives.

Some basice child development, child psychology, foundations of education, etc., courses at a community college or university would be very helpful and maybe give you a wider perspective on what you're getting into. Aside from that, you can do self-study and reading on these topics. Your local library probably has loads of relevant books and materials. Get involved in your local homeschooling support group or activity group. Sign-up for online newsletters.

Answer 2

I agree that we are our children's first teachers and that we teach them daily. While I am not preparing my child for homeschooling, I am supplementing his learning experience. I recently read an article in "Time" magazine that talked about our children not being prepared for the future. They recommended one site that parent's and teachers are going to for answers called curriki.org. Also, check out www.lessonpages.com. I have been going there to get projects to work with my 3 1/2 year old.

Good luck.

Answer 3

You don't need to prepare your children at all for homeschooling. Just like you don't need to prepare your 2.5yo for when s/he'll be 3 or 5 or anything like that.

You do need to prepare yourself, however, for when they hit mandatory schooling age. My constant recommendation is to find a local homeschooling support group, if possible. There's nothing like sitting around, chatting with homeschoolers, asking them all your questions, checking out their resources, to get a good feel for how it all works. Also, start reading books on homeschooling from the library. There's a wealth of information out there!

Homeschooling is effective if the parent makes it effective. Just like anything. It's like asking, "What's the effectiveness of being a parent?" It's going to depend on if you are committed or not. Parents who are committed make homeschooling effective. Figure out what it means to you to be effective in homeschooling and what you would do to ensure that it is effective.

btw, you do NOT need to do the whole teacher preparation thing one person suggested. That's all coursework that a teacher does to be able to work effectively with the hundreds and hundreds of different kids they end up working with in their careers. You do not need that to be able to essentially tutor a few kids at home. You also do NOT need to plan units or anything like that. That is one approach to homeschooling, but certainly not the only one.

And if you are interested in Christian homeschooling materials, A Beka, Bob Jones University, Alpha Omega and Sonlight are some popular places. You could start checking out websites or catalogues.

Answer 4

Check out K12.org I use them and it is a very open type school it teaches about different religion's we are in K/1-st grade. The school's now are a mess! My son loves it! And remember we are our kids first teachers and we should control the things they learn. Start going to the dollar store and school supply stores and buy stuff and teach them now. We have leap frog stuff and they have stuff for babies and toddler's. I have been homeschooling for a year and a half I would never put my son in school.