More and more Australian parents are turning to homeschool for their kids; it might be because they have time on their hands and have some criticism of the current formal education system. We all want the best for our kids, it’s only natural and you won’t be the first couple to take on the role of educators for their children.
Create a Curriculum
Wherever you live in Australia, your children will have to pass certain state examinations to ensure that you are providing a comprehensive education; providing your kids pass these tests, the state will not interfere in how you go about teaching your children. There are a lot of free resources online to assist you with every aspect of homeschooling; you and your partner need to devote time to researching effective strategies for teaching your kids and equipping them for the real world.
Creating a Study Room
It is essential that you assign a room for study and with preschool furniture from Australia’s leading school furniture suppliers, a whiteboard, and a desktop PC, you are good to go. The room should have good natural light and the walls ready to pin student work, plus you need a whole heap of toys, games, and other learning resources.
The Importance of IT
We are living in a digital age and while your kids might already have a better understanding of IT than you, they still need to develop their IT knowledge and skills. Take Google, for example, teaching your kids about advanced search features, they can become competent self-learners. There’s nothing that can’t be found on the World Wide Web and by making computers and the Internet a part of the learning program, your kids will be competent in all aspects of IT. Cyber-security should be included in the curriculum for secondary kids and all children should be able to build a basic website.
Active Learning
History has shown that adopting an active approach to schooling empowers students in many ways; they develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills using a project-based approach. Simply put, engaging the student to take an active role in the learning is more effective than the traditional teacher instruction where the students sit in rows and the teacher teaches. Click here for further reading on online learning, which is fast becoming the norm.
Setting a Learning Schedule
Children need some form of order in their lives and that means you need to set a weekly learning schedule. Discuss this with your kids and this will give them ownership of their own learning; ideas include:
- Physical Exercise
- Reading
- Writing
- Art
- Music & Movement
If you set aside 30-40 minutes per activity, this is an ideal period of time, but if their interest is waning, move on to the next item on the schedule.
Online Resources
The Australian government provides many resources for home-schooler parents, which is a great help; lesson plans, activity ideas, and student handouts can all be downloaded and printed, while you can receive advice from professional teachers.
