Whilst there are many reasons why parents decide on homeschooling in India. It can vary from bullying, staff ratio, quality of education, or they just want to teach their child according to the child’s learning style, etc. While the reasons may be endless, there are a few things that everyone should keep in mind after deciding to homeschool.
While you may have liked the idea of homeschooling very much. But it certainly feels daunting at first because of many unknowns like lack of experience, no formal training, what to teach, etc. You may have many many answers that need to be answered. While we have written a special post answering those questions. In this post, we’ll only focus on a few things that every homeschooling beginner must keep in mind if you are located in India.
So without further ado, let’s get down to making your homeschooling journey a successful one.
- First – CHILL! You will figure everything out, give yourself grace and time to do so.
- The second thing that you should do is make sure that you learn about the regulations governing homeschooling in your state. Education laws are made by states. So they vary by state from one state to another. Check out our post on Homeschooling Laws in India (by State).
- Designate a separate area of your home to serve as the “classroom.” It should be someplace that is comfortable and free of distractions that are only used at ‘school time’.
- Find out if there are other homeschooling families in your area and ask what homeschooling groups they belong to. These groups often organize field trips that you can share, discuss their approaches to homeschooling, and share stories and advice. The advantage of being a part of one of these groups is that you know that you are not alone and will have someone to call if you are having teething problems when you first start.
- Find and join a homeschooling co-op. If there isn’t one locally and there are enough homeschooling families – start one. You can get better deals on your education resources if you are part of a co-op. you could bulk buy the things that you all use most and share the things that are only needed for a short time.
- Involve your child in the curriculum. Let the child choose some of the workbooks for each subject, but with your guidance as to the appropriate grade level. The more your child is involved in the process, the more excited he or she will be about the subject matter.
- Make learning a habit. Look for teaching moments e.g. if you take a walk to the park, turn it into a lesson in science and nature, if you go on a road trip turn it into a map-reading and geography lesson.
- Connect with other home-schooling families through community groups or online. Such groups often organize field trips, discuss approaches to homeschooling, and share stories and advice.
- Keep your child active. Homeschooling children must socialize with others. Encourage your child to become active in sports, music, or clubs, just as any child attending school.
- Allow your children to design their social life in one way or another. So they don’t get to be timid or scared to deal with the outside world when they become adults.
- Use unique learning tools to keep your student interested.
- If you have more than one child, know that they may both need separate plans/strategies. Likely not for everything, but some brains are just wired differently for certain subjects.
- Even if you perform 10% – 15% of what you expected from yourself. Even then your child will be many times better than a good student of traditional schooling. Your child will be able to better cope with what life has to offer.
- Find support for you, even if it’s someone in another state that you can only video chat with. Having like-minded support in your arsenal will help you get through the tough days, and there will be tough days (see #5).
- There will be hard days, very hard days, days where all you get done is sending the kids outside. This is ok. Remember field trips, library day, and movie day in school? Yeah, our teachers just couldn’t take it anymore and needed a break too. 😉 Bad thing about that was, that we couldn’t all go our separate ways and play/knit/sew/bake/take a walk. You can! Regroup tomorrow.
- Slowly you will find your groove. What you plan out in your head or on paper may very well be the wrong plan for your kids, but you will find what works by maintaining some flexibility.
- “Comparison is the death of joy.” ~ Mark Twain ~ No truer words have been spoken. Do NOT compare yourself to others. Period. PERIOD I SAY!!! There will always be a mom with seemingly unending energy and money to have all the “best” curriculum and supplies and cook all natural foods and garden and, and, and! Don’t do it. Make the homeschool that YOUR kids need, that works for YOU. Once you have a few years under your belt, you won’t even think about this. Really.
- Make your schedule work for you, seriously YOU. Need long weekends? Do school 4 days a week. Spouse works away from home and comes home sporadically? Schedule around that. This adventure is yours and no one else’s.
- Get professional help when your knowledge is not adequate. Online classes can be a great balancer when you lack a particular skill.
- If you went to a traditional school, your homeschool should not look like one! If science is super interesting one day and lasts 2 hours or more, don’t cram all the rest of your schedule in just because it’s on the schedule. Be flexible! when the kids are interested in something – roll with it!
- Have fun. Enjoy your kids. They will be grown before you know it. And, hide some chocolate for yourself in the top of a closet somewhere. You’ll need it at some point 😉 For real!
- And, as a bonus – You don’t have to spend a fortune on curriculum. There’s tons of stuff online that is free of cost, not to mention your city library! Don’t make the mistake of thinking expensive = success/good match for your children/golden ticket.
To get the most out of homeschooling your child, you both must enjoy it. Your child is depending on you to provide him with the very best education that you can.