Tips For Successful Homeschooling

Tips For Successful Homeschooling

by: Desmond Edwins

There are many reasons why parents choose to homeschool their kids. For many it is because they want to add religious content to their children’s learning experience.

Making the decision to home school is usually a very difficult not and it is not one to be taken lightly. It is a personal decision that no one can make for you, but maybe I can help in the thought process by providing you with a comprehensive guide to making the choice to homeschool your kids a successful one.

When making the homeschool decision, you must first consider these things:

1. Time commitment that is involved. Homeschooling has a tendency to take up a lot of time in your day. It involves more than just sitting down with books for a couple of hours. There are experiments and projects that have to be done, lessons to prepare, papers to grade, field trips, park days, music lessons, and the list just keeps on going. You can go online and search for some sample schedules that will help to give you an idea of a typical day.

2. Personal sacrifice. The homeschooling parent has very little personal time or time alone and away from their children. If a lot of care is not taken to set aside time for yourself, it is easy for the parent to feel overwhelmed. Basically, the parent and child are together 24 hours a day and this can get frustrating on both sides.

3. Financial problems can arise. Homeschooling can be accomplished with very little cost to you; however, it usually requires that the teaching parent will not be working out of the home. Some sacrifices will need to be made if the family is used to two incomes. Of course, if you are a single parent, this could pose an even bigger problem.

4. Time for socialization. More attention will need to be given to getting your children together with his/her peers. The best part of homeschooling is being able to have more control of the social contacts your child makes. However, the downside is that you must prepare your child yourself on how to socialize with other kids. Homeschooling has a tendency to make your child feel isolated.

5. Household organization is harder. Housework and laundry and other house work will still have to be done, but it probably won't get done first thing in the morning. If you are a neat freak, you might be in for a big surprise. Not only does housework need to be let go at times, but homeschooling creates messes and clutter on its own. You will have to get organized so that you can keep your home together.

6. Both parents must agree to it. It is important that both parents agree to homeschooling. It is very difficult for this to work if one of the parents is against it. If your spouse is against it at this time, try doing more research and talking to more people so that you can be absolutely certain it is something that both of you can agree upon. Otherwise, the chances for success are much smaller.

7. Your child has to be willing. A willing student is crucial to the success of homeschooling. Ultimately, the decision is the parents to make, but if your child is dead against it, you might have a very difficult time in teaching them. The fact of the matter is that an unwilling child can sabotage his/her own school efforts.

8. Know that it works one year at a time. It isn't a lifetime commitment and doesn’t have to become one. If you find that homeschooling just isn’t worth it, you can choose to go the regular route.

There is a lot more to homeschooling than to just do it. As a parent, you must know that your child’s education is the most important factor in his/her future. You need to be thoroughly prepared for all of the time and commitment that is involved. If you are thinking of choosing homeschooling for your child (ren), this guide will help to make it a successful transition.

Making Science Less Abstract for Preschoolers

A simple experiment that can help preschoolers discover and enjoy the wonders of science.

Most childcare businesses supervise children for more than three hours a day, five days a week. Such long hours in care can have a serious impact on a child’s growth and development. Businesses that offer educational curriculums help children grow academically and help prepare them for school. Science plays an important role in the learning process and should also be included as part of the curriculum. Science encourages preschoolers to ask questions, make predictions, and find answers to some fascinating questions. Here is an interesting experiment that can help teach science to preschoolers. We came across ideas for this experiment on PBS Kids Website (www.pbskids.org). We tried it ourselves, at Young Achievers Inc., and it was an extreme success.

First, we had circle time with the kids and recited some classic nursery rhymes. One of the nursery rhymes was the age-old rhyme, Little Miss Muffet. After singing in our circle we asked the kids some questions about Little Miss Muffet. We discovered that they knew what Little Miss Muffet sat on, what she ate, and what frightened her. We then posed a thought-provoking question to the preschoolers. “Can the curds be separated from Miss Muffet’s curds and whey?” The children responded with interesting answers. Their answers became our scientific hypotheses. We documented all responses in large text on our chalkboard so that the children can see and value their predictions. We then headed to the kitchen "laboratory" to see whose prediction was true.

We had the kids sit at the table and measure the milk and vinegar portions for the experiment. They counted how many cups of milk were needed and how many tablespoons of vinegar to add. It was now time to blast the mixture into the microwave for two minutes. We recommend that an adult perform this part of the experiment to avoid placing children in harms way. After two minutes, the mixture was ready to be taken out of the microwave. We allowed it to cool for several minutes and then the children compared two samples of the mixture before and after it was placed in the microwave. They observed that the mixture was lumpier after being heated in the microwave. The children then strained the mixture by using kitchen towels. What remained was a white, rubbery substance - the curds. They were excited. They saw first-hand what Miss Muffet ate. Then they discovered through experimentation that curds can be separated from Miss Muffet’s curds and whey.

The children dyed the curds different colors using food coloring and made their own rubbery type of play dough. They loved touching the curds and feeling its texture. Some children even shaped the curds into cool looking dinosaurs and flowers with our help. At the end of the day the children were enlightened and had a great appreciation for science. They were all proud to show their parents what they had done. They were truly young scientists!

If you would like to try this with children at your childcare business we recommend the experiment for children ages 3 and up. The following materials are needed:

3 cups of Skim Milk

2 tablespoons of white vinegar

Microwave-safe bowl for mixing and heating

Kitchen towels for straining

by: Nicole Brekelbaum

Leadership Tips For Students

Today’s youth are living with an explosion of technological advances especially in the area of the internet, mobile applications and multi-player gaming. This increases the need for proper supervision and mentoring as they may be overwhelmed by the sheer overload of activities and information.

How is leadership relevant for them? Are they able to see beyond their examinations and their leisure activities?

Leadership values are crucial life-skills for students because they enable students to be able to manage their career-progression and financial independence when they mature. The accessibility of updated information is not a problem; however, there must be a leadership quotient for a student to make a decision and act on this information.

Here are some tips for educators:

A school’s achievement will have an indelible mark for students, especially in the area of school loyalty and branding. However, it is how the school reacts to unplanned events like losing in a sports competition that it is supposed to win easily, provides leadership insights to students. Leadership values are not only relevant for periods of success but also help a student go through times of adversity.

The interaction time for students and their teachers can be greater than with their own parents. This does not diminish the importance of parental guidance but at the same time puts a lot of responsibility for teachers to impart leadership principles. Students are very observant about how their teachers motivate them and put the extra effort to make their lessons more interesting. This is leadership at work.

Teachers have to ensure that leadership case-studies are relevant to the student’s understanding. It is absurd to get a leadership case-study from a business journal and expect the student to be “wowed’ by how a CEO had turned the financial fortune of an MNC or how a Military General won a battle with under-strength military force. These macro examples can be adapted to the daily experience like how students can organize a charity drive to raise monies for their school building fund.

Students should be encouraged to voice their opinion about how to take charge of global issues. This is important as leadership is within the context of an ever-changing global landscape, not in an air-conditioned class-room. A relevant class activity is how countries that were badly devastated by the tsunami disaster can put up a global warning system.

Following from the point above, students must complement their current affairs knowledge with good persuasive and presentation skills. They have to be convincing enough to lead the rest of the team members. This entails the blending of multi-media presentation tools with a lot of background research. However, with the usefulness of the search engine, a student’s research time can be drastically shortened.

All great leaders are supported by a world-class team. Leaders must have good people-skills and be able to bring out the best from the individuals in the team. These skills take years to be developed and it is important that every student is given a specific leadership task to fulfill.

by: Colin Ong TS