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Homeschooling Basics

The most important thing to remember when homeschooling is that education is about educating the whole person. Whether you’re creating a homeschool curriculum, teaching, doing handwriting practice, or studying math, you’re teaching not just what to learn, but how to learn it.

Kids’ learning needs change as they age. And because homeschooling often happens while kids are still young, parents need to be able to adapt as those learning needs change. As children get older, parents may think about moving them from homeschooling into actual school, however, this can be a stark transition, so they may opt for private schooling instead as the classrooms can be smaller and more targeted. If this is a potential avenue, parents will need to make sure they can afford the costs by checking out websites like the School Guide, and others similar to it, for assistance at this time. A child’s learning is always adapting and parents have to be ready for whatever comes their way.

This is where things like reading, handwriting, and maths come in. You can’t teach maths without reading and you can’t learn to read without first reading. So keep up with the curriculum changes and, if you need to, change things out. But try to be realistic.

It’s also a learning experience for you personally, so incorporate the lessons you’re learning to teach into your daily activities, such as when you perhaps take some time out on the latest PayPal casino you’re trying out.

Penmanship is another important component in homeschooling.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve noticed younger kids’ handwriting change as they grow older. It’s not uncommon for them to write words backward, make mistakes, or write larger letters. Not much can be done when they’re younger. But as they age, it’s much harder to compensate for errors when it’s written and read.

As a result, penmanship can quickly become a problem and often, we stop handwriting altogether for longer periods of time. It’s not fun to get frustrated with your handwriting and parents aren’t helping kids learn to write effectively if they make the mistake of criticizing the younger kids’ handwriting. So, keep working with younger kids’ handwriting as long as they show a desire to learn.

Along with handwriting, maths is a major subject for younger kids to learn. While maths is a general focus for older kids in grades, middle school and even high school, most kids don’t start learning maths at a very high level. Kids often start with elementary school maths and their maths skills slowly increase.

Middle schoolers have maths classes at school. They have to take a college level maths course in order to keep their maths level high. Even in high school, maths is usually a focus for freshmen and sophomores, while upper-level maths and statistics courses are usually focused on juniors and seniors.

So, when you start homeschooling, consider not worrying about maths for your younger kids. While maths skills will help them with basic maths and most of elementary school math, much of middle school and middle school maths tends to focus on high-level, college-level math. It’s easier to focus on fundamentals of maths if kids are younger.

Which brings us to maths centres.

Maths Centres

My youngest is just beginning middle school. Along with penmanship and handwriting, maths is one thing I’m excited to teach him. He’s actually the only one of our five kids I’m planning to teach maths to.

Before my older kids start maths centres, I need to figure out what maths concepts they’re going to focus on and find appropriate maths centres for them. So far, I’ve found maths centres at Homeschool Coaches and Schoolhouse Puzzles. For handwriting, I found handwriting centres at Homeschool Buzz.