Education, made simple

So, many friends now are asking me about homeschooling because their children have started in school and they are concerned that they may not really be learning what they need to learn.  For some people, schoolschooling makes the most sense for a variety of complicated reasons, but it is also a great idea to supplement their education at home.  If you did not have a great elementary education, or you were not educated in the US, you may not know how to do this.

I truly believe that the best thing you can do to help your children is to read aloud to them and to have a family silent reading time as well, once they are old enough.  You could use A Mother’s List of Books by Theresa Fagan to help you find books or read favorite classics from your own childhood.  If you need more information on this topic, I recommend The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease.  It is simple to read aloud year round, even to children who are in school, you could do just 15 minutes before bed.  You can rotate books if you want to fit in something non fiction (science or history), a children’s bible story and literature.

I say that all parents are home-educators, even the very best schools cannot possibly teach your children without a home environment that supports and encourages intellectual curiosity.  My parents did this naturally, they are both teachers and readers and we had a book loving home, which is the first step, and we had really great schools as well, but I find that in our crazy world where home life seems to be centered around juggling activities, many seem to need  a more concrete plan.

To that end, may I recommend the series What Your …. Grader Needs to Know.

An entire homeschool curriculum could be developed out of these books, or you can use them to check on the standards at your school and supplement as necessary.  You could even use them in the summer after that grade as a review and to create some fun family time.  On the history and science, for each topic you could just google a hands on activity to accompany it, find a short internet video to watch (history.com has great ones), or check out books from your library to go along with it.

Lastly, a friend recently gave me this wonderful prayer, which has been so helpful.  Pray daily, ” Lord, help me to give them what they need.”  Your children have emotional, spiritual, intellectual and physical needs and they seem to be changing often, so this prayer is valuable.  If we are praying this, and then trying to cooperate with the grace provided, we can be at peace about our parenting.

Have a blessed Wednesday!