Home School Ideas Needed: Help Me Be The Best Teacher
by Melissa Robinson
Hi Melissa, I am so glad you decided to homeschool your daughter. Homeschooling some children is definitely harder than homeschooling others, that's for sure! I had difficulty with one of my children too. As far as the teacher/student issue, I am not sure if this is exactly what you mean, but one of my kids struggled with the reality that I was both the teacher and the mom. My daughter would often ask me, "Are you my mom right now, or my teacher?" I would answer, "Both!" I think sometimes some kids have trouble with the fact that mom has the role of both teacher and mother. Maybe this is more of an issue with kids who have gone to school before starting to homeschool, I don't know. I would recommend finding out what your daughter's learning style is as well as what interests her. Customizing her learning around her interests will help make school more enjoyable for her (and you) and may help with the struggle with your new teacher/student and mom/daughter roles. One year I let my daughter who loved to write, write a book for her curriculum. Instead of having her wait to write until after she finished all her regular schoolwork – which never worked, I allowed her to write her book for her schoolwork. All her subjects except math were part of this project. She wrote a historical fiction book and she had to research the time period, the setting/s (geography) of the book and different chapters, etc. One of the events in the book was a plane crash in the Canadian Rockies and she had to study emergency/survival skills to learn how a person would survive in the wilderness for a long period of time. I am not sure what grade your daughter is in, but there are some great homeschooling unit studies that you may enjoy together. Joining a homeschool co-op was very helpful for us as a family. My kids got to see that they weren’t the only ones being homeschooled and they got to develop friendships with other homeschooled children. Going to co-op each week has always been a highlight for my kids. The parents that you meet will also have some great home school ideas for you too! I have listed some great how to start home school books that parents would benefit from reading – check them out! You can find a lot of them at your local library. I hope this helps! If you have other questions or comments, please feel free to post below. Other website visitors may share their stories, must-read books and helpful advice as well. Blessings, Heather PS I just found this service - its a new company, so I don't know much about it, its called Kidzmet and you can find out what type of learner your daughter is, etc. Looks helpful. They offer a free screening, etc. If you try it out, let us know what you think and if it would be helpful to other homeschool families. Would you like to leave a comment, ask a question or share some helpful advice for parents who are just beginning or struggling with homeschooling? Use the links below... |
