During our homeschool experiment (links are at the very bottom of the page), we’ve benefitted from so many bloggers’ advice and ideas. I’ve generated my own tips throughout the year as well. So I’m hosting this “HOMESCHOOL TIPS AND ADVICE” project to collect links for new homeschooling families, or those considering it. Please write a post to share your own tips, and announce/link to this post, so your readers can find all the great tips as well. Then post your PERMALINK here in Mr. Linky. If you don’t have a blog, please feel free to share your tips and advice in comments. I’ll leave this post in first position, while I’m on vacation over the next week. Thanks!
You’ll find plenty of veteran advice in the links below, but here are my suggestions for novice homeschoolers:
1. Homeschooling is a full-time job, so it should be treated as such, at least at the outset. Even if you choose to only school about half the day (like we did), most likely your children will still be in your care the rest of the time. And you need to consider professional development, interaction with other homeschool teachers, reading what works for others, and reviewing curriculum that meets your family’s needs. I’m a business owner and part-time writer, and although some homeschool teachers manage all those responsibilities very well, it was very stressful for me to juggle it all — and much slipped through the cracks. (There’s an excellent point about burnout in comments - please check it out.)
2. Ideally, both parents share the teaching in some way. If the mom is the teacher, it can help tremendously for the dad to take over the math lessons, or gym. In our family, Dad was “recess.” He was also Principal;) Both roles were critical for my son. Not only does this help to ease the burden of the primary teacher - it also requires the parents to communicate about curriculum goals, and present a united front.
3. Seriously consider teaching a single curriculum to more than one child at the same time, especially for science and social studies. Taking the time to teach separate lessons for all subject areas, to each of your kids, can be overwhelming. Science and social studies are two subject areas that can be easily modified for various ages, and your kids can work as a team to complete projects — each taking on age-appropriate parts of the lessons.
4. Find a way to incorporate breaks into your calendar. For some families, a four-day week works best. Some rotate a “break week” every five weeks, so that the teacher can focus on lesson planning for one week, then focus on teaching for four.
5. Take advantage of the unique opportunities you have as a homeschooling family. School on the weekend once in a while, so you can enjoy recreational activities during the week, when the lines are shorter. Visit museums after the school field trips head home for the day at 1:00. Ask about special homeschool tour dates. Sometimes you can gain special access to attractions, but those opporutunities aren’t always well-advertised.
6. Choose curricula designed for homeschool, or for one-on-one instruction. Although there are excellent materials out there for classroom teaching, many of them don’t include the teacher’s guide or answer keys. Without these, you may spend a lot of time researching answers to your own questions, let alone those of your kids.
7. Carve out time to read what other homeschoolers are doing. There is a great starting list below! I’ve been consistently amazed by the creative, simple, must-do tips I’ve read in the blogosphere. Take the time to bookmark your favorite sites (I use Bloglines, but there are many options) and read them regularly — every teacher needs a prep period. It will help you and your students as well.
Now it’s your turn. What works for you as a homeschooler? Please leave the permalink to your post below, or leave your suggestions in comments. And please link to this post so that your readers can find more tips and advice. Thanks!
HOMESCHOOL EXPERIMENT RESULTS SERIES:
WHY WE STARTED
the JOYS
the STRUGGLES
the FUTURE for us
UPDATE after we Quit Homeschooling
Family out of Sync
Other Homeschooling Experiment milestones:
The Beginning
Week One - Starting with a Frazzle
Five Steps to Drive Yourself off a Cliff
Week Two - Just when I thought I knew what I was doing
Week Three — Let there be CRAFTS!
One-month Review
D’s Review at One Month
Week Five - Stress and frustration
Week Seven - Flip-flopping curriculum
Note to self - Consider having low expectations some weeks
Two-Month Review — Some aha moments
Three-Month Review — Not all peaches and cream
Four-Month Review — Loving ancient history
Five-Month Review — What I underestimated
Six-Month Review - Let’s Just Skip this Month
Seven-Month Review — Curriculum Review
D’s research paper — Save the Earth Saturday series
Tales of a Fourth-Grade Guinea Pig
All posts about the experiment — including WAY-COOL FIELD TRIPS!
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Tags: advice, curriculum, homeschool, homeschooling, suggestions, tips
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9:38 pm
Hi, I saw on several sites that you were looking for tips. This is something that I had blogged about several months ago. I added my link a little early, so that I wouldn’t forget.
9:52 pm
Thanks for hosting this! I look forward to reading everyone’s tips.
10:13 pm
Thanks for hosting this. I enjoyed putting my thoughts together because it always solidifies it again in my own mind, which is always a good thing. I also enjoyed checking out the other blogs.
10:21 pm
Thanks for hosting this. It’s going to be interesting to compare the different approaches. For instance, I like all of your tips but #1- which seems like a recipe for burn-out to me. And my tip (about putting the schedule in its place) will probably sound like an recipe for losing your mind to somebody else.=)
Excellent point about #1 - my point is that homeschooling should be your primary focus, not one job of many. For me, THAT was a recipe for burnout. I’m so glad you joined us. Thanks!
11:25 pm
Thanks for starting this! I hope the collection of posts you get is helpful to a lot of families.
11:27 pm
Thank you for putting this together! I am looking forward to discovering new home schooling bloggers and reading all the suggestions.
12:22 am
Thank you for hosting, I can’t wait to read what other’s have written!
1:03 am
Fun, fun, fun. Did your Mr. Linky.
Thanks for letting me join in your project.
6:52 am
Great idea, mine is posted (finally, in the right spot. :D)
7:01 am
Mine’s Up! I’m enjoying reading the others too!
7:13 am
[…] Tips and Advice June 22nd, 2007 by Summer Minor Pass The Torch has her Homeschool Tips and Advice post up. Everyone should rush over there now to check it out. And because for whatever reason mypost didn’t save and I was in too much of a rush to double check it, here’s my post for it off the top of my head. […]
7:20 am
[…] My post is now published for Homeschool Tips and Advice - please share your links there. […]
8:24 am
This is such a great idea, thanks for hosting this! I put up two homeschooling posts on my blog and I can’t wait to go through and read everyones posts now!
9:05 am
Thank you so much for this!!! This is going to be way better than any book. I can’t wait to sit down and read all these. This is going to be my first year homeschooling–couldn’t have come at a better time!
11:08 am
Thank you so much for putting this together. I am always on the lookout for great homeschooling tips!
11:39 am
Mine is up– can’t wait to read the others!
12:10 pm
Homeschool Tips and Advice
“HOMESCHOOL TIPS AND ADVICE” project to collect links for new homeschooling families, or those considering it.
12:56 pm
Homeschool Advice
This post if part of Kelly’s Homeschool Tips and Advice Collaboration…
5:13 pm
What a great idea….I just posted Top Ten Tools for Homeschooling Parents. It’s from my newsletter
Good luck with your homeschooling experiment!
9:48 am
This really is a great idea. Great blog!
I have a quick note - One of the great trauma’s in most children’s math-learning lives is the “multiplication tables.”
You can de-stress and learn or teach a much better way at http://learn2multiply.com.
Hope it’s ok to plug that here, but it can save families a lot of grief.
Biran
7:23 pm
A topic for the new and veteran homeschooler: Coping with Burnout …. before it gets the best of you!
7:26 pm
Seven Habits of Highly Effective New School Years….lots of homeschoolers contributed to this project.
3:04 pm
My link is to a post I did some time back. Several comments have been left, even as recent as a few days ago, so I thought this post may be encouraging and helpful to others. Blessings!
3:27 pm
Love the tips (and photo). I’ll keep this in mind if I decide to homeschool my kids.
By the way, my 4-year old has a great tip in dealing with stress.
“Daddy,” my 4-year old once said while I was trying to figure out a jigsaw puzzle. “Are you stressed out?”
“Uh-huh,” I said.
My 4-year old hugged me and said, “Daddy, take a deep breathe, close your eyes then snore.”
Mike
http://somethingaboutparenting.typepad.com/
11:35 am
[…] We also hosted a homeschool tips and advice project, which generated excellent suggestions for families new to homeschooling. I also link to key posts below. […]
2:55 pm
Kelly, this is a GREAT resource post (even though I have no plans to homeschool…). I do have several friends who homeschool, though, and I’m happy to pass along the ling to this post.
I’m sure this will be helpful to more people than you’ll ever know!
9:39 am
I don’t think my sanity could take homeschooling. Trying to teach my son to talk and understand things is hard enough for me. Plus having him at school gives me a break every day xD
3:55 pm
Thank you for this resource!
7:42 pm
[…] for yourself where you need to go next. For more great homeschooling advice, take a wander over to Pass the Torch, an innovative homeschool tips and advice […]