Due to the pandemic, many parents now work from home and they are prepared to divide the time between them and teach the kids at home. Largely due to digital tech developments, it is much easier to homeschool your kids, indeed, many schools in Australia have already moved to online learning, in a bid to stop the spread of the virus.
If you are thinking about teaching your kids at home, here are a few tips to help ensure a positive outcome.
- Broadband Internet Connection – This is an absolute must, regardless of your child’s age and learning about IT should play a major part in early learning. As their teacher, you might not know the answer to every question, but fear not, Google does!
- Education Standards – Regardless of where you live in Australia, the state will require you to present your planned curriculum, complete with lesson plans and details of all the learning outcomes. Your kids will have to sit exams at least once a year to show that they are keeping pace with the Australian National Curriculum, which is one requirement when you homeschool your kids.
- Preparing the Home – Aside from a central study area, make sure that the home looks appealing; a wall-hung vanity and some new furniture would help to create the ideal learning environment. Sometimes good old teaching tools are best; a double-sided whiteboard on wheels is recommended, which can be used in many ways (it can even be used as a projector screen). Never forget that all of your home is a classroom, especially outdoors and if you adopt a learner-centered approach
- Encourage Self-Learning – If you can instil a lifelong love of learning, this is one of the most valuable assets a person could have and being able to search online for information really does empower the learner. This will also help you with preparing lesson plans and sourcing student handouts, which, as a teacher, you will find invaluable. Lead by example and sit down with your kids and search for stuff using Google, then you can give them search challenges, which will hone their searching skills. Learning greatly affects our mental health in a very positive way. Here are some tips to cure boredom while learning at home.
- Talk to the State Educators – Many parents homeschool their kids in Australia and the Department of Education has a lot of free resources, which you can use to support you while teaching your kids a dynamic curriculum.
It is important to research active learning and understand why it is the best possible way for a child to learn; take a look at the famous educator Rudolph Steiner, who pioneered learning by doing. Your role will be more of a facilitator than a teacher, as you encourage and support your children; you are also a learner, as we all are. You will learn many new things and as both parent and teacher, you need to figure out discipline; you know your kids better than anyone and a major role of a teacher is to generate student interest.
You and your partner will learn a lot from the homeschooling experience, plus you can teach your kids what you think are important life skills.
