Four Effective Tips For Handling Frustrations In Homeschooling.
In addition to the joys and benefits of home schooling, comes the daily, weekly, and monthly frustrations that may range from simple lesson planning and scheduling, to something more profound such as the questioning of one's qualifications or teaching skills.
Frustrations of any caliber tend to and can affect the productiveness and effectiveness of what is being taught, as well as the joy and fun of learning and obtaining new academic and everyday life-lessons.
When and if you find yourself overwhelmed by the frustrations of home-schooling, here are four effective tips that will help reduce and alleviate some of that frustration:
- Step Back and Regroup.
- Dwell on the Benefits of Home-schooling.
- A Quick Change of Scenery Will Do You Good.
- Get A Support Group.
* Step Back And Regroup.
As with anything that is a source of frustration in our lives, it’s always best to step back and regroup before making any decisions or taking any action.
Making important choices or taking action under duress can result in faulty decision making that can be detrimental to any and everything you’ve tried to build and establish.
How much more so does this come into play than the educating of your child/children. If it’s the best you truly desire for them, than it's vital that you give them your very best.
When home schooling frustrations arise, step back, take a deep breath, regroup and think about what’s best for your child and their particular situation.
Never do you want your reactions to adversely affect your child’s joy of learning.
Adding frustration on top of more frustration, will only lead to… you guessed it - more frustration.
* Dwell on the Benefits of Home-schooling.
Another great way of dealing with home-schooling frustrations involve dwelling on all the wonderful benefits of home-schooling.
Think back on why you choose home-schooling for your family in the first place.
Whether it was to spend more time with your family, or to meet the needs of their special circumstances, meditating on all the great pros to home-schooling will help keep your priorities in order as well as alleviate frustrations.
What are some of the benefits of home-schooling?
- More time with the family
- Provides more flexibility - time wise and scheduling wise
- This hand on approach to schooling enables parents to have a larger say in what their child is taught.
- Provides children with a more hands on approach to learning, per say the conventional “book learning”
- Children are able to explore the world a little more freely.
- The normally low student to teacher ratio provides more one-on-one attention.
- It’s fun and exciting for both parent and child.
- It keeps the parents brains sharp since they are learning along with their children.
- Peace of mind for the parent regarding the safety of their child/children.
Dwelling on just these few benefits of home-schooling (no doubt you can think of more) will definitely help alleviate some of the frustrations at times associated with educating your children at home.
The pros of home-schooling makes the frustrations attached with it pale in comparison.
* A Change of Scenery Will Do A Measure Of Good.
Although normally, the student teacher ratio is much lower in a home-schooling setting than it is in a classroom setting, you still find yourself sitting inside at a desk on a regular basis.
Since everything else is accomplished at home; you cook, eat, clean, sleep, play, and go to school at home; this familiar and constant scene can cause one to go stir crazy thereby, becoming a cause of frustration.
To alleviate this challenge, a change of scenery is in order.
Instead of doing class work at home, do class work outside; take a field trip to the museum; take a nature walk around your neighborhood; do class work in the library or at another home-schooling friends residence; take a short road trip while incorporating the facts about the city or town in your lesson plan; or do your class work in the park.
Education doesn’t have to be isolated to book learning. Bring education and learning to life. Make if fun and exciting. That’s the joy of home-schooling.
Your child/children won‘t need a permission slip; you all can just get up a go.
* Get A Support Group.
Just as your home-schooled child/children will benefit from the association with other children, you as a parent will benefit from the association of other parents who find themselves at times, secluded and sequestered by home-schooling.
Realistically, home-schooling tends to isolate both the student and the teacher, and that too can be a huge cause of frustration.
Therefore, join a local or online home-schooling support group that will provide you and your child with a great avenue to get out, socialize, and experience the world outside the home.
Better still, start your own home-schooling support group and invite other families that are embracing the joys and the challenges of home-schooling.
In addition, have a list of friends, family members, or acquaintances that you can call throughout the day or week just to stay sane and in touch with the outside world. Ensure your children have a support group of their own as well.
Encourage play-dates, group studies, group field trips, group science project days, or group reward days that reward a group of home-schooled students with prizes, fun trips to the mall, trips to their favorite resturants, or other exciting activities for their hard work.
What ever you do, try to make home-schooling fun and rewarding for your family - My motto is: education should be fun and exciting.
With these four simple yet effective tips, you can alleviate and reduce home-schooling frustration any time it rears its ugly head.
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