Home Schooling Subjects What To Teach Your Children

Home Schooling Subjects: What To Teach Your Children

Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, and day after day, more parents decide to homeschool their children instead of letting them attend public schools. This may be due to countless reasons, nevertheless, home schooling isn’t any lesser than formal education.

The first dilemma that may enter a parent’s mind when he or she decides to homeschool his child is what to teach. Fortunately, some states require certain subjects to be taught to students. Colorado, for example, requires children be taught in communication skills of reading, writing and speaking, mathematics, history, science, literature, the Constitution of the United States and civics.

Different states require different subjects and different numbers of teaching hours for homeschooling; however, this should not limit the potential of homeschooling. Homeschooling is the most lenient of the schooling systems, and as long as the minimum requirements are attained, a parent shouldn’t have any problem.

One of the good points of homeschooling is the freedom to teach almost anything to your child. Parents should focus, aside from the general subjects, on things that their children are most interested in, on skills that they enjoy using, as these will be very useful to the child when he goes to face the real world.

Consequently, homeschooling need not be confined in the four walls of the house, as schooling in itself isn’t confined to the four walls of the classroom. Some parents of homeschooling children organize get-togethers and field trips with neighbors. Homeschooling doesn’t have to be an anti-social experience; rather, it should be a way to promote socialization using the parameters of the real world. There are no school rules, but the ethics of the real world apply.

There are may types of homeschooling approaches. Those most popular are structured, interest-initiated, and eclectic. Structured is more like the formal education you get at school and is probably the most formal of all approaches. The interest –initiated approach, on the contrary, focuses on real life experiences, and the children learn based on their interests. The eclectic approach makes use of a random, or chosen combination of all other approaches, depending on the family’s needs.

Indeed there are times that homeschooled children excel in socialization and communication more than formally schooled children. However, not all homeschooling is good schooling, and not all homeschooling programs are applicable to your child. This is why you, with or without professional programs, should monitor what to teach and when to teach it.

BONUS : Home Schooling Supplies: What To Use

Home Schooling has become such an alternative experience and although some people still find it hard to accept the fact that parents are taking responsibility for their child’s education, there is no stopping a parent who is determined to homeschool his child.

The first thing that a first time homeschooling parent would look for is supplies. It’s probably one of the first things that a curious parent would ask. All you need to remember if you are looking for supplies is that the internet is very large, and most likely, you will find resources there. Search engines are especially useful too; all you’ll probably need to do is type “home school supplies” into the search bar and voila, instant resources!

For those parents who choose a certain curriculum, almost “real school” like in itself, or are looking for ready made curriculum based programs, you can get ready made curriculum at correspondence schools, or you can make your own.

So the next question is, where can you get ideas on what to teach? If you are homeschooling your child, chances are you don’t want to employ the normal school type classes. Homeschooling can bring out the creativity in both the child and the parent.

As a parent, the first idea bank that you should look at would be your own experiences, how a certain object or event taught you a certain lesson while you were growing up. There is a big chance that, that certain situation or object can be found or reenacted in your own home, and who best to teach it than you?

Aside from your memory bank, you can also get ideas from several organizations dedicated to supporting home-schoolers. Camps and scouts may have materials that you can buy even if you’re not a member. You can also make use of old publications, newspapers and magazines as “textbooks” for your child, take his favorite story and make it into a lesson. For a greater learning experience, you can take your child to the library. The library would probably be the biggest resource for both you and your child.

Remember natural learning is accepted in home schooling, and supplies for natural learning can be found all around the house, the chair, the bath, even in various flowers and if you want you can recreate the atmosphere that children’s shows create on television. Using normal items, you can teach your children math, science, english, reading, almost everything. Just focus on your child’s interests.