9 Top Tips to Teach Your Child at Home

Here Are the 9 Most Popular Tips to Effectively Teach Your Child at Home

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The 9 Best Tips to Teach Your Child at Home

Many of us find ourselves in a new position of opportunity this year. The Coronavirus or Covid19 has brought upon many in our world to think of an alternative way to school our children. Some of us look at this alternative as an opportunity to strengthen the bonds within our family. Homeschooling is the option that many families are choosing this year. Are you one of those families?

I have been homeschooling for 5 years and I want to offer these tips for families who may be new to homeschooling. I remember the doubt and questions that began when I started. Let me encourage you and tell you that your are capable and are the perfect person to teach your own child!

Here are some important tips to keep in mind as you move your child from the classroom to your home:

Tip #1 Focus on Relationship

This is your child and you clearly love them and want the best for them. Sometimes we don’t focus on our relationships as much as we should, though. Homeschooling allows you to bond over learning. Read alouds are a perfect way to snuggle up with your kiddos, laugh, and enjoy one another. Don’t let frustration and anger seep into your homeschooling day. Remember that you are teaching someone who may struggle to understand a concept or not perform as you expect them too. Don’t belittle, put down, or shame them. But take every opportunity to encourage, love, and direct them.

There is so much freedom in homeschooling to allow for relationship building and to create beautiful lasting memories. While we are still confined to our homes because of Covid, we can get creative with learning opportunities (link to creative homeschool ideas).

Tip #2 Don’t Expect to be teaching 6-7 hours a day

School for your child will NOT take 7 hours!!! I used to teach in a traditional public school. A math lesson in my classroom, for example, could last up to 45 minutes (or more). However a math lesson for my daughter might only be 15 minutes (or less). There are several reasons for this. First, much of the time in a classroom is taken up for classroom management: passing out papers, making sure everyone has their supplies, maintaining order, etc. A teacher must pause often to check for understanding and address behavior issues in a class of 30-40 students.

How Long Should Our Homeschooling Day Be?

When you are homeschooling your own child, you only have 1 (or maybe a couple of more depending on the size of your family) to be concerned about. Because you are their teacher, you know when they understand a concept, if they need further explanation, and so on. You can teach a math concept to your child, practice the concept with them, and check for understanding in as little as 10 minutes. So, by the time you have touched on all of the core subjects (math, reading, writing, history, science, elective), your school day may be anywhere from 2-4 hours long.

Should I follow a Schedule?

As a former elementary, middle school, and high school teacher, I know the importance of structure for kids. Having a schedule is nice so that you know what you are trying to accomplish in your day. But keep in mind that flexibility is important as well. Teaching at home allows for you to dig deeper into a subject than you originally planned for. For example, you are doing a science lesson on birds. You planned to work on science for about 30 minutes. However you notice that your child is super engaged, excited, asking questions, and is completely fascinated with hawks. Do you stop them because you have to follow your schedule? I say no!! You roll with your child’s excitement and press on with science. Get more books out (if you have them) about hawks. Help your child find the answers to their many questions about this species. Don’t move past this amazing learning opportunity.

Remember that your science lesson doesn’t just have to be a science lesson. You can incorporate some history, phonics or sight word searching, etc. When my daughter became fascinated with birds, specifically hawks and other raptors, it trailed into many other subject areas. She wrote stories about them, learned how to draw them, and researched them whenever she had a free moment. She even to this day has the dream of one day becoming a falconer (a dream that still lives today). This is all because we allowed for the freedom of a flexible learning schedule.

So, Should you follow a schedule? Yes, have a schedule, but don’t let it own you. You own it, so make it work for your family.

Here is a sample of my homeschooling schedule:

So, What Do I Do With All of this Extra Time???

Oh my friend, all of this extra time allows your child the freedom to be creative, explore their interests in a deeper way, and allows for playtime. Your child’s brain is developing in such an amazing way, so giving them this free time to think and explore is essential for their development.

Tip #3 Follow these Money Saving Tips for Homeschooling Curriculum and Supplies

There are a variety of ways to save money while homeschooling. There are several homeschooling websites that offer free curriculum and ideas. You can purchase used curriculum on sites like Ebay (check out my store here) for a better deal. Just remember that prices of used items will go up as the school year begins. The best time to buy used curriculum (I have found) is from November-February. The dollar tree is an amazing resource for supplies and materials. (See my post on Dollar tree hacks (coming soon).

Allinonehomeschool.com is an amazing website that offers free Christian curriculum.

KahnAcademy.org is free content for multiple subject areas and is a great resource for Homeschooling.

www.Ck-12.org is a website that offers LOADS of free curriculum and textbooks. This is a fabulous resource. I have used it mainly at the high school level, but I know resources are available k-12.

Guesthollow.com offers science curriculums mostly for free. There are a couple of items you may have to pay for but the site is very helpful.

Tip #4 Have the Right Supplies For Teaching Your Child at Home

Here is a list of supplies that every homeschooler should have:

1. Books, books, and more books! (link to our favorite homeschooling books)
2. Good quality art supplies (Click here for a link to my art and homeschooling article)
3. Pencils and sharpener (I am obsessed with Ticonderoga)
4. Lots of blank paper of all types (Colored, lined, blank, art paper)
5. Personal white board and markers (a magnetic whiteboard is a plus!)
6. Whiteboard markers
7. Journal
8. Art Notebook
9. How to Art Books
10. Curriculum (see above for free resources)

How to Organize your materials and Supplies

Depending on if you are a minimalist homeschooler, an eclectic homeschooler, or a very organized homeschooler, there are a few simple tips that will help you keep your supplies organized. I love the cube organizers for my books and baskets. I also love using rolling carts like this one, and this one. click here to see my youtube video (coming soon 🙂 showing how I use this amazing rolling cart for my homeschool organization.

Tip #5 Create a Space Dedicated to Homeschooling

A homeschooling space doesn’t have to be an entire room, but make sure that you have a space where you can easily access your materials and books. I started homeschooling in my dining room when I began several years ago. I liked that we were schooling in a central area. I could make lunch in the kitchen and talk with my kids while they did their work. We invested in a small shelf and boxes for organizing and then we used a rolling cart for all of our supplies. This worked for us for a couple of years. However, when my husband was required to work from home due to Covid, we had to move into a spare bedroom because we were too loud for the conference calls my husband was on for work.

Being in a separate room has its advantages. We can make a mess and close the door behind us. We can stop at a lesson and carry on with it the next day. However the draw back for me was feeling like schooling was disconnected from the main part of our house. If I had to make lunch, I had to walk to a separate part of our home. If the children had questions, I wasn’t readily available.

Tip #6 Seek out Encouraging People as you Embark on this Homeschooling Journey

This is super important. Right now during the pandemic homeschooling is a bit more of an “accepted” form of school, but when things are normal, be prepared for contention from others as they learn about your choice to homeschool. I have heard it all from loved ones to complete strangers at the store. My favorite was my pharmacist handing me my medication and letting me know that my children would be socially awkward if I continued to homeschool them. When you face adversity or are having a bad season in your homeschooling, it is nice to have a place of refuge where you can share your heartache. I have a handful of friends and two family members that I know will encourage me when things get tough.

Some of your encouragement may come from friends that you know, however you can also look for online resources such as blogs and professional websites about homeschooling. I have also received a lot of encouragement from Reading good homeschooling books as well. I always try to have one book about homeschooling on my nightstand. Right now I am reading through: “Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of your Child,” By Anthony Esolen

Here are some other amazing homeschooling books that I recommend. Let me know what you think about them or what your favorite homeschooling book is.

Tip #7 Be Willing to Change

Sometimes we choose a curriculum and have high hopes, but as we get into the school year, the reality is that the curriculum just doesn’t fit our child’s learning style. When My daughter started kindergarten I purchased a particular reading program that was recommended by a friend. I put everything together and began to use it. After a couple of months it became obvious that it was too redundant for my daughter. She was bored and didn’t want to do the lessons and the activities that came with it. Because we had already informally completed some reading and phonics lessons prior to kindergarten, the curriculum wasn’t meeting her educational needs. I kept with it as long as possible because I didn’t want to waste the money, but in the end, we moved on to something more challenging and at her level. I was glad we did. I saw a positive change in my daughter and she had a renewed desire to read and be challenged.

So, it is okay to switch your curriculum if it isn’t working for you. Try to stick with it for a couple of months and if there is no improvement, start asking around and researching for something better suited to your child’s needs.

Tip #8 Don’t Forget Breaks and Snack Time

It is so fun to take a break from learning and eat a tasty snack. This can be something simple like water in teacups with pretzels on the side, or something a bit more fancy such as homemade donuts with tea. Whatever it is your family likes to serve up and eat, don’t forget to take those little breaks from learning to refuel. Go outside and eat a snack and play. You can even resume some of your lessons outside if the weather is nice.

Tip #9 Have Fun!

This seems so easy, but it takes some of us moms a little more effort. I admit, I tend to be more serious and task oriented. This is unfortunate for my playful and happy children. I say things like: “hurry up, just get this done, we need to finish, blah blah blah.” I need to keep my eyes open to have fun while we learn. One of the goals of homeschooling my children is to create a love for lifelong learning. I desire for my kids to never look at learning as a boring task. This sometimes requires me to go a bit above and beyond to make sure that we are having fun learning. Can I turn our lesson concept into a song? Can we play a learning game to memorize math facts? Can I play dress up with my kids to act out a time in history? There are so many fun and engaging ways to make homeschooling fun for our children. There are so many resources to help you out as well.

Read this Article about simple ways to add creativity to your homeschooling day.

Click here for my Sample PDF Schedule

Teaching your children at home doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Follow these tips as you get started. Don’t be too hard on yourself to learn everything at once. Give yourself grace as you figure out what works for your family. Once you get into a homeschooling groove you will be able to take a step back and see what a privilege it is to be your child’s teacher. My hope is that homeschooling will draw your family closer together and that you will see the silver lining in choosing an alternative style of schooling during the pandemic.

So, although life will be different for everyone during this coronavirus pandemic, take heart, you can teach your child at home! You are qualified for this important job.

Let me know how your homeschooling year begins? Do you have any tips for others that are new to homeschooling? Do you have any questions? I am here to help!