ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Tips to Improve Learning in Your Homeschool

Updated on March 26, 2013

Teaching your own kids brings both joys and frustrations. It can be a challenge to get a child who hates to write or do math to sit down and focus. But there are some ways to reduce the frustrations they have. Finding ways to make learning fun can also take some of the drudgery out of schoolwork.

Use Drawing to Reinforce What You Teach

Drawing can be a great way to reinforce content. Drawing and labeling maps and bones are obvious examples. But drawing and art projects can be used to help your child learn many different things. As an example, we recently covered cells in science. I had my 2nd grader draw pictures to help her learn the various parts of cells. I told her that a membrance holds everything inside a cells and asked her to draw something that holds things. She drew a plastic bag. I told her that ribosomes create proteins. She drew a factory to represent ribosomes. Your child is more likely to pay attention to what you are teaching when you give them something like this to do.

Have Review Days

I teach science, history and geography three days a week. At the end of every second week, I do a review day to cover everything we went over the previous 5 days. I use the drawings that were created as part of the review. I mainly ask questions during the review to determine how much my child understood and remembered. This way I know whether we need to go over something again.

Find Fun Ways to Teach Some Things

Learning can be hard work for kids. It helps to make some things fun. If you have a tablet like an iPod or Nexus, or an iPhone or iPod, apps can be a great way for kids to learn things like spelling and math facts. Drawing, like I mentioned above, can be another fun way. Having kids demonstrate concepts can help to. Have your kids do a hunt for common nouns. Play educational games like Math War. Have them demonstrate various verbs. If you can afford it, get a subscription to BrainPop or check out fun educational videos from the library. Check Youtube for animated educational videos as well.

Use Incentives

Have a reward system for good behavior during school time. I give my 2nd grader an allowance but she gets a portion each day for doing schoolwork, piano practice and chores. If she complains or refuses to do something, she will forfeit that portion of her allowance for that day. I keep plenty of change on hand, so she can get what she has earned at the end of the day.

You could also use a sticker system. I did this in kindergarten. For each 5 stickers she earned, she earned a trip to the 99 Cents store to pick out a prize. For older kids, you could have them earn 30 to 40 stickers to earn a prize.

Youtube videos can make learning more fun

Teach Most Hated Subjects First

If your child hates math, teach that first while they are still fresh. Leave favorite subjects and activities until last.

Break Up Hated Subjects

If your child hates math, break up the work into different sessions. For example, if your child has 3 pages to do in their math workbook, have them do 2 pages in the first session and one in second second and save math facts for after lunch. This can be far less frustrating for your child. If your child hates to write and they have to write a paragraph, have them write two sentences in the first session and two more in the second.

Take Frequent Breaks

Children get restless sitting in one place for a long time, so it's best to learn in short chunks of time. Lots of breaks improve concentration. I usually start the day with a 45 minute session. After that, I do 30 minute sessions. Then we do a 10 minute break between sessions. Set a timer to ensure that the break isn't longer than that. We also do a 45 minute lunch break.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)