Want to know how to homeschool on the homestead? Whether you're set on homeschooling or still weighing your options, you might pick up a thing or two from these practical tips, ideas, and guide on how to homeschool!
How To Homeschool: What You Need To Know
“To homeschool, or not to homeschool”, that is the big question, especially for new homesteaders. Choosing to homeschool is never easy (because something has always got to give), but it is very rewarding. The pros and cons of homeschooling are still debated today and I am not one to convince you to or otherwise. I can only say, life on the homestead and homeschooling can never be more rewarding and satisfying. If you've come to terms with the few concerns about homeschooling, these tips and ideas may also help empower you.
1. Get Help, Give Help
If you're worried how friends and even family would react to your choice, find help from people in your community who are also homeschooling. You'll be surprised at how many are there who prefer their kids homeschooled. Actually, there are existing support group and organizations for homeschoolers in your community now. They could help you with information, regulation, and application process.
To save on the expense of school materials, you can probably buy used ones or put up your used materials for sale in your group. You can even arrange for a parent to teach your kids and for you to teach theirs depending on your specialty. This way, your kids can also get the acquaintance and social interaction they need with other homeschooled kids.
2. Organization Is The Key
Well, you can say, we homesteaders have control issues, but really, to be organized is what gets a job started and done fast and efficiently. You will need a lot of organizing when homeschooling and it will help you make the task easier.
Sometimes you will be tempted to just let the kids have their way when you think you have a lot on your hands. This is where following a schedule comes to the rescue. Remember, you become the teacher in a homeschool and you need to regulate. Follow a schedule where your kids have to be dressed and ready by a time assigned.
Just because you are homeschooling doesn't mean your kids can sit on the couch and work on their school tasks. Make sure to arrange a room or space for a classroom complete with a work desk and spaces where they can organize their school materials. This way, they will still feel bound to school work as they would in a regular school.
3. Integrate Homeschooling And Homesteading
While there are way more practical kinds of skills your kids can learn in the homestead like cooking, crafts, husbandry, and gardening skills, never overlook the academic aspect. But, where else can your kids learn about science best than in their immediate environs?
Be it biology, physics, and chemistry, you'll find your homestead to be the perfect laboratory. When it comes to arithmetic, let your little ones learn how to count with the chickens and eggs. Trust me, I never realized I would enjoy teaching academics when incorporated with homesteading.
With solar power and wind turbine installation and maintenance, your kids can even be introduced to both invention and engineering. Don't kids learn effectively with a practical application? Of course, never forget and deviate from the workbooks and paper works.
4. Work With The Seasons
Talking about seasons, I get to appreciate homeschooling in the homestead with the changing of the seasons. I don't have to worry about sending the kids to school in winter and on terribly rainy days. But, what I really wanted to talk about is how to make the seasons work to your advantage when homeschooling.
Both homeschooling and homesteading are important but homesteading needs to follow the seasons. You can always catch up on homeschooling but you can never do that with homesteading. Don't feel guilty when it seems like you are not able to follow the schedule for your kids. For example, planting and harvest time should follow a time period. In winter, pretty much majority the tasks are on hold, so this time, you can catch up on more school work.
5. Relax And Enjoy
Think about why you are homeschooling and the benefits you and your kids will experience. You can even make a list of the reasons why, so you can take comfort in the positive outcome of homeschooling. One item on my list is that my kids will never have to experience cafeteria food, but healthy home-cooked meals.
Seek humor in what you do every day because the kids are going to need some of it in their own lives too. It has been proven time and again that 'emotional quotient' is a hallmark of happy, contented, and productive individuals. Show your kids to find the funny side even in some stressful moments.
It's a private joke between me and my husband if we're even going to miss the kids once they've all grown up and moved out. But the truth is, we really will. Even when days are long and dragging with chores and studies, I realize that time is short and soon they will go on their own way. One of our comforts is knowing they are well-educated, both in practical skills from homestead life and from our homeschool curriculum.
Find out how to get started with homeschooling in this video guide:
Whatever most people say why they turned up their noses at homeschooling, for me, the benefits outweigh the concerns by far. With my kids appreciating our unconventional set up and us spending more time with each other, homeschooling was definitely the right choice for us. Finding out about how to homeschool and homestead made it happen!
Did these tips and ideas on how to homeschool helped you decide? Tell us your thoughts about in the comments!
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