Post by nick on Mar 22, 2020 12:07:05 GMT
I assume a number of people on the board are having to home school at the moment. I'm a veteran home schooler (27 years and counting) as well as a teacher so I thought it might be interesting to start a thread with suggestions.
1/ Don't try and copy school. It wont work and is not the best way to go. The best way is to find activities that are educational but tangentially eg baking - weighing out ingredients (maths), trying different methods (science), reading and following a recipe (English).
2/ It takes time for people to adjust. A S Neill (Who started Summerhill - the school without rules) reckons it can take up to a year for children to adjust to a different way of learning. So it can be hard to start with but attitudes change especially if your kids are enjoying what they are doing.
3/ Use technology. Computers and the Internet are not evil. There are a huge amount of resources online. Museums often have interactive websites. And there are instructions/videos on most activities. I've been looking up science experiments in the kitchen and there are loads of them. Volcanoes are fun. If this thread seems useful I shall start a list of useful sites.
There are loads of sites for music creation for example.
My rule with the kids is that they showed me a website and I either said yea or nay depending on how useful it seemed. Games on Saturday morning or after an hour of work.
4/ It HAS to engage them. If something is boring then stop and do something else instead. Learning is a lifelong skill and you don't want to squash it. And there's so many things to learn.
5/ What skills do you have? cooking, singing, playing piano, bricklaying? Pass them on to your youngsters
6/ Don't do too much. Back to boredom - little and often works well. And go with the flow - look out for learning opportunities. Don't label them like that but guide them that way.
7/ Show by example. Read to them, read to yourself, learn a new skill (with your child is great). And don't be afraid to say that you don't know. In fact get them to teach you - it has been shown the best way for children to learn themselves it to show it to someone else.
Have fun
1/ Don't try and copy school. It wont work and is not the best way to go. The best way is to find activities that are educational but tangentially eg baking - weighing out ingredients (maths), trying different methods (science), reading and following a recipe (English).
2/ It takes time for people to adjust. A S Neill (Who started Summerhill - the school without rules) reckons it can take up to a year for children to adjust to a different way of learning. So it can be hard to start with but attitudes change especially if your kids are enjoying what they are doing.
3/ Use technology. Computers and the Internet are not evil. There are a huge amount of resources online. Museums often have interactive websites. And there are instructions/videos on most activities. I've been looking up science experiments in the kitchen and there are loads of them. Volcanoes are fun. If this thread seems useful I shall start a list of useful sites.
There are loads of sites for music creation for example.
My rule with the kids is that they showed me a website and I either said yea or nay depending on how useful it seemed. Games on Saturday morning or after an hour of work.
4/ It HAS to engage them. If something is boring then stop and do something else instead. Learning is a lifelong skill and you don't want to squash it. And there's so many things to learn.
5/ What skills do you have? cooking, singing, playing piano, bricklaying? Pass them on to your youngsters
6/ Don't do too much. Back to boredom - little and often works well. And go with the flow - look out for learning opportunities. Don't label them like that but guide them that way.
7/ Show by example. Read to them, read to yourself, learn a new skill (with your child is great). And don't be afraid to say that you don't know. In fact get them to teach you - it has been shown the best way for children to learn themselves it to show it to someone else.
Have fun
