So you decided to begin homeschooling your child. As a new homeschool parent, you can now take charge of your own child’s education and form a deeper bond with him/her in the process. While this setting sounds favorable to you and your child, instilling discipline in your home will be a great challenge.
Below are tips on how to guide your child during the transition and help him/her let go of the school culture as the norm and embrace a more flexible and tamed environment.
Be present. Give your child undivided attention. Avoid talking to your child while doing something else.
Be confident. Let go of the expectation that you need to be a professional teacher. Many parents of different educational backgrounds successfully engage in homeschool.
Be organized. Take advantage of the routines. Follow a routine that works and revise one that doesn’t. Fine tune your plan as you discover your child’s learning style. Have a schedule set up for activities and feedback at the end of each session.
Be flexible with expectations. Be patient and gentle. Anticipate challenges for yourself and your child. Give yourself and your child plenty of time to adjust.
Be objective. Sometimes, you might also experience feelings of frustration. During these times, remember that your goal is to make progress. Just keep things moving forward. Don’t allow challenges to make you question your ability and capacity to educate your child.
Practice precise communication. Be specific with your objectives. Communicate what needs to be done that day. Always remember to tell your child that you are on track. If a child goes off track, figure out why and guide him/her how to get back on track.
Enjoy the process. Take advantage of playtime. Make things fun. Appreciate your time together.
Enable and empower. Enable your child to make decisions. Empower your child to be independent. Alternatively, try getting your child to teach you when you are having difficulty with a certain task
Get some help. You benefit by receiving support from a community of like-minded parents who also homeschool their children. Team up with other homeschool families. Use the resources of credible home school programs like the VCIS Home School Program ™ as a guide to help you.
The VCIS HomeStudy Program™ follows a personalized learning success program where each program is designed to adapt to a child’s unique learning style. Textbooks challenge each learner to think about the topic he/she is studying. Each concept is clearly explained and comes with comprehensive questions, skill building problems, hands-on activities and essay questions. Often, all you need to do is to follow the guide. On top of the academic learning activities and sports, expressive and performing arts programs and competitions are available. Parents will also be invited to join the VCIS HomeStudy™ trainings and seminars to fully equip them to successfully engage their child in home school.