Is homeschooling good for your kids?

This question has become a necessity during the pandemic days when schools have remained closed for a year now and there is no ray of hope for their full reopening in the near future. It’s high time now to start thinking seriously about homeschooling for our kids so that they do not miss studies, however bleak situations may be.

Alternative forms of schooling, including homeschooling have become unavoidable during this time.

Myths of homeschooling

There exist many myths regarding homeschooling these days. One of them is that homeschooling can be repetitive and boring, when in reality it is not so. If we apply our mind to it we can make it full of fun and adventure.

Children can be engaged in novel and creative activities with the aim of developing their knowledge and language skills. Another myth about homeschooling is that it limits learning. This is also not true, because children have it in their genes to learn and to adapt. In fact, the flexibility offered by this method goes a long way in providing us opportunities to design their time schedules to suit their learning capabilities. Besides learning new things every day, children are also enabled to acquire social conduct, personality development and creative talent.

They get time and opportunities to discover their passions, their ambitions and dreams.

It is also a wrong belief to think that only parents who are qualified as teachers can homeschool their children. It is an inborn passion that helps parents to take up this work and they can get wonderful results if they decide to take care of their children on a regular basis.

Ways of homeschooling

Parents have the option to take help from each other, as well as through NGOs and other supportive online groups and forums. They can arrange for regular meetings anytime according to their convenience to discuss ways of improvement. Educational tours and visits can also be arranged. Kids never remain behind when it comes to socializing with other children and sharing experiences with each other. The only need is to use our common sense and invent better ways to achieve successful goals.

Educational games and exercises are very helpful in activities at home. A good way of learning could come from attaching a few children from immediate neighborhood and friends. In this way, group learning can be achieved and even parents can share their skills with each other for their kids. Technology can be extremely helpful in enabling immersive hybrid educational curriculum where students can educate themselves with collaborative support.

What’s the need for homeschooling?

It’s a way of providing learning at home in a conducive atmosphere, with ample space for exercise of the mind as it helps to prepare for making room to think and ruminate. It also helps in developing a wider horizon and concentration.

One thing that this is great about homeschooling is that a number of options are available at our disposal to experiment with. It provides us with opportunities to fit the child’s needs to family lifestyles. It may be the traditional method or the classical method according to our choice.

In the traditional method, we can tackle the situation with textbooks, workbooks and regular quizzes and tests for children. Workbooks typically include multiple choice questions and fill-in-the-blank types of questions that are usually meant to support information learned from related textbooks. Some people try to set up desks and a designated classroom area in the home. With this type of homeschooling families take up a topic and incorporate a range of subjects about that specific topic. So, we have the freedom to incorporate not only History/ Social Studies, but also Science, Math, Spelling, Geography, Language, and more. We could include physical education, music, singing, drawing, painting, handcraft also.

Some homeschoolers like to adopt the classical method where they would first focus on imbibing language learning and grammar among their youngsters during the first stage, till the fifth grade. Then after the fifth grade, when children can more fully understand the relationship between events and the concept of cause and effect, they can step up to the logic stage. During their teens, however, they can progress to the rhetoric stage, in which they have reached the ability to express their original thoughts both in speech and writing of what they are studying.

Some homeschoolers adopt the Unit Study method, which allows parents to pick up one subject at a time and teach it for the day. The Montessori parent-teacher method is also a good method. In this method, the children only need slight hints to get started and then continue to develop themselves for the rest of the way.

Conclusion

Closure of schools around the world during this pandemic era has compelled parents and

teachers to homeschool their children for continuing their educational program and also to ensure their safety. Naturally, they have to be very serious about homeschooling as it is the only way out. Parents have to work in collaboration for the achievement of maximum results through alternative ways available. Education cannot be stopped at any stage or postponed because of lockdowns. Setting up learn and play environments have to be done to minimize the harms of school closure. Thanks to the available online resources which can be used with benefits that would have been unimaginable. Such available online resources can work wonders to get along smoothly if we are seriously interested in our children’s welfare.

They get time and opportunities to discover their passions, their ambitions and dreams.