Air out the back packs, pick out new lunch boxes, hit the warehouse and discount retailers for markers, pencils and glue sticks. It's school time! What exactly does that mean for you and your family? Does it mean you need to get the kids re-adjusted to an earlier bed time and wake up time? Are you first week in the carpool? Maybe you need to check where the new bus stop is. All this seems completely normal and habitual for some, but for those of us who choose to educate our children at home... It's a whole different box of crayons! How blessed I felt this year when I again realized I didn't have a teacher wish list, or class supply list to fill.
Are you considering the homeschooling of your kids? This is indeed a great decision that you will be making and that will have some tremendous impact on the life of your kids. But do you know where to start? In order to make the most of homeschooling you will require some materials. The aim of this article is to provide you some more information on this subject to help you start homeschooling your kids in the best possible way. The curriculum is the first thing that you will need to think about when starting homeschooling. This will allow you some more time to focus on teaching your kids rather than spending time collecting information here and there in order to devise the study plan.
Your Mom is our first teacher. It really doesn't take long at all for the child to soon realize their first teacher is indeed their mother. Moms are not the type of teacher that show up in a classroom, nor do they stand in front of a class presenting lectures in a typical school setting. They are in their home every single day, and the classroom size is that of only the students which are her children. In fact, many studies show that when it comes to homeschooling, children are actually excelling and ranking high in college entrance examinations. If you are considering becoming the homeschooling teacher of your kids, and taking on the responsibility for your child's education within the confines of your own home, there are indeed some great potential benefits for your kids.
Being a former teacher, I believe mentor texts are so important. They are great to use when teaching your child. They offer modeling for skills that you need to teach. If you are home schooling your child you know that a lot of times you are searching through books trying to find ones that model the skill that you need to teach. Sometimes you just need a book with rich vocabulary, other times you are searching for a book that has good transitions, and still other times you are trying to teach quotations. Instead of finding worksheets to teach these skills and isolating the skills, mentor texts provide the same skills, but in a true to life setting.
When my son turned two years old, I was faced with something I wasn't expecting at his young age... a STRONG desire for learning! I know children are inherently curious, but this was different... he was asking about letters, wanted to know more about them and begged me to tell him more! I was suddenly faced with a strange dilemma... do I nurture this want for learning? How in the world do I do that? Do I follow his pace and just make it fun? Do I break out the workbooks and lesson plans and start 'schooling' him? So, how early can you start homeschooling? I knew I wanted to nurture my son's natural curiosity, but still allow him to just BE a two year old!