How to Home School Your Child - Honor Societies

Most honor societies or academic programs within a community are open to homeschoolers. If your child excels in academics, this may be a worthwhile program to look into. Academic programs and honor societies advance a child’s potential considerably. They also look good on college applications when you reach that milestone. These programs can be a little more difficult to find. If you have a homeschooling coalition in your community, they should have the information about any organizations in your area. There are also organizations that can be participated in through the internet, although these do not allow for the socialization aspect of the activity.

Community Volunteer Programs

All communities have some type of volunteer effort or organizations. Volunteering to help others is a worthwhile way to spend free time and it is something families can do together. There are a lot of advantages to volunteering for all participants.

Volunteering is often the first method of teaching children work habits, ethics, and values. They can take the skills they learn in volunteering and apply them to jobs in the future. Volunteer work is often considered when applying for a first job and shows responsibility as well as leadership abilities.

Volunteering also teaches children to appreciate their own lives, and care about the lives of others. Most children do not have the opportunity to develop these simple social skills; they are often oblivious to the world around them. Volunteering is typically not feasible for schooled children because they do not have time between classes and activities. Since homeschoolers have the advantage of schooling for fewer hours, there is a lot more opportunity for time to volunteer.

Homeschooling the Average Child

Now we are getting down the real nitty gritty. You have your school all set up and ready to go. But how do you actually teach your kids? This is the fun part.

You can teach using any method you want. Find something that works for both you and your child. Keep activities and lessons laid back and interesting. You can use whatever tools you want to keep your child actively engaged. This is the beauty of homeschooling. You have complete control over how and what your child learns.

By tailoring teaching methods to match your child’s learning needs, you are helping them unlock untold potential. When children are actively engaged in learning, they soak up the knowledge more easily. They will excel in assessments and projects and they can easily surprise you with their increasing talent for deductive reasoning and developing well thought out opinions. Children who are taught in a way that meets their individual needs are often much more advanced than children who learn in a public school setting.

Types of Activities

There are many different types of activities you may want to try. For math and spelling, computer games are a great choice. These games make learning fun. Your child will beg to play the game, not even realizing that they are learning at the same time. You can teach most basic skills in this fashion, using worksheets only to measure knowledge for the purpose of record keeping.

This is an excerpt from the book:How to Home School Your Child and Develop a Well Trained Mind