Getting Started with Homeschooling
Practical Considerations for Parents of School-Aged Children
© Beverley Paine
Index
Homeschool
Australia
Text And Student Work Book Approach
A combination of self-instructional and parent-guided text books are available, and many home schooling families choose to base their learning program around these. Usually this approach forms a core of study in traditional curriculum areas the parents may feel they lack expertise in, and need guidance to teach.
Using text books alone, without supplementing with planned hands-on activities, will quickly exhaust your children’s innate desire to learning. Children love to be doing, using their whole bodies, not just eyes and hands. Resistance to working from texts and student activity books may result from this type of approach to education, even if the work is limited to only two to three hours per day. Two short sessions, about half to one hour each, of ‘book work’ with a sizeable, activity filled break in between, would be preferable to one long session with a traditional ‘recess’ for a quick snack and leg stretch in the middle. Children do not spendall day attending to books in schools. There is considerable time spent in organising children, social activities and play. Home schooling research indicates your children will be academically ahead of their age related school peers if they spend only two to three hours in structured, planned learning activities during each day, not necessarily ‘book’ work.
It is very important to pay attention to your children’s preferred way of studying, and their learning styles, when using texts and student work books as the basis of your learning program. Make sure your child has ready access to water to sip or drink, or food if this called for, as this has been shown to keep the brain alert. Refer back to Part 4.4, Learning Styles.
Young children are more susceptible to ‘burn-out’ when learning mostly from commercial student work books. Older children, usually from ten years of age, will cope better, and some teenagers thrive on independent, self-directed, structured learning. You may find girls tend to cope better than boys at an earlier age. Again, it is up to the individual child and his or her learning styles and needs.
Most home educating families purchase at least a few well chosen student work books that are designed to be written in by the children.. If you choose to use these you may be able to use them for more than one child if your children record answers in separately in exercise books, thus keeping the work book as a text each child can use. This will save you money and time, but remember, although a book’s format may appeal to one child now, it might not work for another in a year or two. Unmarked books can be recycled, giving other families the opportunity to use successful resources. Photocopying pages is illegal unless otherwise indicated, usually in the front of the book.
At school, children are used to being directed what to do, and often work in small groups. You will need to allow time for your children to become accustomed to working with minimal supervision from texts or work books, especially on their own. This may take longer than you think, and is regardless of age. It will mostly be dependent on their personalities and learning styles. Be prepared to spend some time attending to their needs, or helping them learn study skills. You may need to read books on developing study skills to assist your children. Time doing this is well spent, and will reduce frustration all round. Having realistic expectations of what your children can do is critical for success in the home school.
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Excerpt from Getting Started with Homeschooling, Practical Considerations
© Beverley Paine, 1997
