When we decide to homeschool, it’s important to evaluate our own shortfalls as teachers. Everyone has an area of interest, and that’s wonderful, but it’s so very important not to let our children be left behind in topics we don’t like or understand as well. If your weakness is math or science, here are some homeschooling tips.
1. Teach the same lessons to all of your children together
Math and science don’t change, the more of them you learn. They just gain tiers of complexity. Is your first-grader learning multiplication and the order of operations? Teach your freshman the same steps in algebra. For example, 5(7-3) uses all of the same skills as figuring out 5x(7y-1). Learning that frogs make eggs can be the same lesson as how gametes combine and divide. Make your lessons work harder for you.
2. Let your children teach you
After you’ve explained a formula or a method, ask them to do a few examples and then walk you or their siblings through it. Teaching is the best way to cement newly learned knowledge in the mind. You can even ask them for homeschooling tips and ideas in subjects they struggle with, to see what you learn about how they learn.
3. Stay positive
You may not like math. It may all feel like tax time and tedium to you. But your children need to appreciate the subject; they’ll learn better if it’s not the low point of their studies. Be confident and cheerful about the lessons, and if you make mistakes, own up to them. Teach your kids how valuable mistakes are as learning opportunities.
4. Do hands-on lessons
Even if you don’t enjoy the subjects, it’s important that you not make your students figure them out from just books or worksheets. Math projects can be as simple as blocks or as complex as architecture. Take your children shopping, have them figure out the tax on your purchases before you ring them up. Closest answer gets a treat. Biology lessons that involve a butterfly net are always popular. Household chemistry can be thrilling and messy. Memorable is the key, that’s what makes lessons stick.
There is no end of advice available for any topic imaginable that you want to teach your kids. Browsing homeschooling tips on the internet is a good starting point to building your own perfectly-tailored lessons. It is just so very important that no topic be left behind.
