Looking for Lessons for Your Home School?
If you've recently decided to home school your children, or if you're a home school veteran, you are probably always looking around for interesting lessons. Since home schooling is a practical as well as an efficient way to educate children, lessons for the home school can be found all around you. But before you take our your checkbook to pay for expensive textbooks and workbooks, stop to consider two very important elements. The first one is determining what kind of a learner your child is, and the second question involves long-range goals.
Choose Home School Lessons for the Learner
While catalogs and home school conventions offer a variety of interesting lessons and curriculum, it's important to keep in mind the way the material is presented. Some children are hands-on learners and need to physically touch a concept to master it. For this type of child, math manipulatives are excellent for teaching foundational counting, addition and subtraction. Counting blocks or beans may be necessary for them to master these ideas. This student may also excel with curriculum that encourages projects, like dioramas, science experiments or outdoor activities. Yet, there is another type of child who can readily understand the subject matter and is actually bored by having the concepts "acted out". This student may need to focus on literature-based lessons, with opportunities for verbal or writing exercises. Once you understand the type of student you have in your home school, selecting the appropriate lessons and books will be a lot easier and meaningful.
Home School Lessons for Long-Range Goals
Before setting up your lessons for home school, it's helpful to have both short term and long-range goals in mind. The short-term goals may be making sure you adhere to your state's requirements in terms of teaching the core subjects. However, long-range goals will have more of an impact on your choices of lessons and books for your home school. Since no one knows your child better than you, here is a golden opportunity to guide your student into areas of study in which there is a genuine interest and aptitude. Many parents can detect their children's passion for certain subjects at an early age and can mold their education around it. For instance, if a child expresses a concern and compassion for animals, the parent-teacher can offer opportunities to follow this interest through appropriate lessons as well as outside activities. Trips to the zoo, volunteering at an animal shelter and guided nature walks are all realistic lessons that can be incorporated into your home school.
