Thinking of homeschooling your child now that you got a taste of it? Don't wait until August, pull them out of school today! Here are some ideas to get you started.
1. Find out from HSLDA what the homeschooling laws are in your state and move on it today by following them.
2. Read up on deschooling your child and work on that from now until the fall.
3. Attend a homeschool conference in your area once things return to normal (contact your state homeschool association for info). Some are holding these online right now due to the virus.
4. Limit your child/children's use of media to 1 hour per day (DVD, Texting, Internet, gaming, TV, music etc). It is very easy to fall into the trap of the electronic babysitter during times of crisis and stress.
5. Work on getting chores assigned and teaching child/children how to do them correctly.
6. Work on building relationships through games (taking turns, being polite, losing is OK).
7. Teach siblings to get along and to rely on each other.
8. Break the 'parents are dumb and friends are everything thing' mind set.
9. Work on subject matter your child struggles in (times tables, math facts, spelling, writing).
10. Teach home-ec skills (cooking, baking, laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, making menus).
11. Teach finances (bill paying, credit card use, student loan debt, budgeting). Listen to the Dave Ramsey or Money Matters podcasts.
12. Teach your values and convictions, discuss why you are home educating.
13. Have family Bible devotions each day start with 10 minutes if this is new for your family (if you are a secular homeschool family find something to read together that adds value to your family).
14. Volunteer and have fun with it! (once the Shelter at Home is lifted)
15. This should be number #1, but it is so important I put it last. STAY HOME ALL BUT 1 DAY PER WEEK once the virus restraints are lifted. (well, you can leave for church on Sunday/Wednesday hahaha). This concept can be hard for current homeschool parents to understand, however when your children are new to homeschooling, you need to deschool which includes unlearning bad habits and stereotypes that children learned in school. Bring the family back together as a whole.
This time of deschooling is to help you get your child's heart and mind back. Kids may sleep more, getting up to catch that bus by 6:30am and not getting home until 4:30pm plus evening sports and then homework etc is VERY tiring on growing bodies. Family time helps with the transition from peer dependency to family dependency, life is not all about texting friends and hanging out at the mall. There will be time for all the other stuff as time progresses and you have your kids hearts back.
Think about how crazy EVERY PLACE will be once everyone is off of the Shelter in Place time. Help your kids learn to enjoy spending time as a family, learning to rely on one another for life long relationships. Before you know it, you will learn to Car School and will be involved in all sorts of things if you desire.
These are all suggestions you can try throughout the next 5-6 months depending on when you decide it's time to look into the academics of homeschooling and how you plan to proceed with this (unschooling, textbooks, Charlotte Mason, Eclectic etc) in a way that works best for your family. This will help you to find your groove and help your kids to settle into homeschooling.
There will be time for co-ops, homeschool groups and all that as you move along between now and the fall. Right now is the time to bring your relationship back as a family. This time also helps remove the peer group dependency and the past peer pressure issues. You may even learn a thing or two from your children about good and bad experiences that they had in their former school setting.
This is a time for you to reconnect with your children, for siblings to love each other again and to learn to look out for each other. There will be times for field trips and the library etc, but you need this time to deprogram your children from their years of sitting all day at a desk, having to raise their hand to use the restroom, throw away trash, or sharpen a pencil. Think about how your kids are hungry and thirsty all the time now that they are home due to the virus. Now think about how they must feel when they are at school all day hungry and thirsty and can't eat or drink until lunch time.
Last but not least, keep in mind that homeschooling is NOT school at home, it is not recreating the classroom in your house. We already know that classroom settings fails many children, classrooms do not work for most children. Our children are not little cookie cutter children, they are created as unique individuals by God. So, once a week during this deschooling time, head out during the school day when everyone else is trapped in their seats at school, and enjoy the park, the library, children's museum and you may just meet other homeschool families that can help you along your new journey (of course wait until the order is lifted saying that we can leave our homes first).
Remember this golden nugget, each homeschool will look different, you don't need the magic curriculum and some days, learning does not come through textbooks.
