HomeTeaching Tips
I find I sometimes run out of time because we are having so much fun, what should I do?
There are two schools of thought on this:
The first school of thought is based on If you want to complete the curriculum, exactly as it is written, and complete all of the work in the day provided, then the time allocation on every area needs to be very strictly adhered to, otherwise it is impossible to complete everything within the set time limit and school will run over time.
The second school of thought, (which we personally prefer) is that if the children are on a roll, enjoying a particular area, loving the internet, up to their elbows in paint and glue making a history project, or engrossed in their drawings...let them continue. It doesn't matter if you don't complete everything in a day...there is way, way more in this curriculum than you would ever cover in a school. (So if you choose this option, then relax and ENJOY!)
Does it matter that I’m not a qualified teacher?
International research has proven that when home-schooled children that come from homes where Mom and/or Dad is a qualified teacher are compared with children who come from homes where neither Mom nor Dad is a qualified teacher – they perform exactly the same academically. There is nothing to be gained either way. Interestingly enough we often get feedback from our clients who are ex-teachers who say that they actually battle from time to time to adjust to home-schooling. Remember from our perspective, home-schooling is not the importation of the classroom into the home… rather it is first and foremost the discipleship of our children to prepare them for life; and we achieve this by putting the “home” back into schooling. No one on the face of planet earth knows your children better than you do. To find out more about this topic Click Here.
What would you advise in regard to dealing with a child that performs well when answering questions verbally, but fails dismally when it comes to writing tests and exams?
All we can do is offer you some general tips and ideas that you can try, but we by no means offer these to you under any pretence that these are scientifically proven and psychologically sound; rather these tips are simply gleaned from our experience over the years:
- In the week coming up to a test in a particular subject, pray and exhibit total confidence in your child and make at least 20 positive comments about their performance in the course of that week.
- Downplay the test – in fact don’t even call it a test – rather refer to it as a Fun Quiz.
- Ensure that they are having adequate sleep and that their diet is under control.
- Limit TV or any kind of computer games to a maximum of ½ hour a week. It’s a proven fact that the speed of energy change from this type of device is known to cause and exacerbate Attention Deficit.
- On the morning of the Fun Quiz, pray with them – pray over them throughout the duration of the Quiz and pray against outside interference of a negative spiritual nature… then only mark the sections of the Quiz right that are correct. Verbally quiz them on the answers that may be incorrect without making any comment that they were incorrect. In this way you can determine whether the error was stress induced or caused by insufficient knowledge/preparation.
- Praise them after the test for the things they got right; and ignore the incorrect answers - regardless of what result they got.
Consider all of the above a four week experiment. As with any scientific experiment one needs to keep the approach absolutely consistent; therefore, be sure to implement all of the above carefully and consistently for the full four week duration. Do not expect to see an improvement until the END of the fourth week.
More than this the approach we suggest for Quiz taking should be applied to every moment of home-schooling, i.e. a positive atmosphere of acceptance should be maintained. If you see no improvement after four weeks, then there may well be some underlying trauma of which you are completely unaware. In this case, we would recommend that you take your child to a Christian Educational Psychologist.
All of the above applies assuming that there are no character issues such as disinterest, lack of application, lack of obedience etc. that need addressing.
Can you suggest any good books that I can read that will help me in terms of marrying home-schooling and socialisation?
As a home-schooling mom of two, I say stop letting people get away with ignorant remarks about how your child will be socially deprived if they are home-schooled. Do the research and be ready to point out that in fact your children will be BETTER off socially than their institutionally schooled counterparts
We would highly recommend you read to wonderful books on this subject and will be a great help to any home-school parent who has ever experienced angst over the question of socialisation:
The Socialisation Trap, by Rick Boyer; which deals more with the negative aspects of socialising kids in the age segregated environments so common in modern institutional school settings.
But What about Socialisation? by Susan A. McDowell. Have friends or family members been bothering you about the socialisation question? This book is a quick and easy read. No grandparent who has time to complain about your decision to home-school will have any excuse not to read through this book. Also if you find yourself questioning your own decision to home-school because of other people's attacks regarding socialisation then this book will help to remind you that you are doing the right thing. Ultimately it will be your comfort and confidence that will convince people to stop attacking your decisions. If you are wavering on the issue then people will sense that and swoop in for the kill. If you are confident however then people will sense that too and they will begin to question their own ignorant ideas about socialisation.
Do you address several subjects each day or dedicate a day to a subject? What would you advise?
Our timetable uses the Charlotte Mason approach of several short lessons rather than long, drawn out ones. However the timetable is flexible and our recommendation is to try the timetable as it is prescribed for a week or two, and then evaluate how it works for you. Some families using Love2Learn like to do all their History on Monday, all their Science on Tuesday, etc. What works for you is the best solution.
Is it important for my child to learn cursive handwriting?
We strongly encourage families to teach their children to write cursive. From feedback we’ve had from our Tutors for our Cambridge levels (Grades 10+), it’s interesting that they have observed that students who only learn to print and not write cursive sometimes struggle to finish their exam papers, because they cannot write fast enough!
Love2Learn Curriculum progressively builds up handwriting/penmanship and culminates in teaching cursive handwriting in Grade 3.
