Every parent wants their children to grow, but as homeschool parents the responsibility falls almost entirely on our shoulders. We are not solely their parent, we are also their schoolteacher.
Many homeschool families have chosen to homeschool because it is in the best interest of their child. They believe that they can give their children the balanced education that they can not get anywhere else. At times this can become very overwhelming, so it’s important that we find encouragement throughout our entire homeschool journey. Our ability to encourage growth in our children is dependent on our inspiration and dedication to homeschooling.
Every child is unique and will grow at different times and at their own pace. It is important to remember this because it is easy to look at someone else’s children and compare our child’s growth to theirs. This is not only unfair to our children, but it is also detrimental to our homeschooling journey.
5 Ways to Encourage Growth in Your Homeschool
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Teach your children the way they learn best
Some children love using textbooks, while others enjoy notebooking after reading educational literature. When we try to teach our child without considering their strengths and weaknesses, they will struggle to grow. You can encourage growth in your homeschool by learning how to teach your child according to their strengths.
[Tweet “The sky is the limit for homeschooling, don’t put your homeschool in a box…#HSMomNeeds”]
There is no better way to encourage growth in your homeschool than by letting your child direct their learning. We can try to teach them for years about things we want them to know or we can watch them learn by choosing their own topics and build upon them! Every topic or subject that our children want to learn about can have math, language arts, history and geography added to them in some way.
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Get creative
Homeschooling doesn’t have to be done “by the book”. You don’t have to follow a particular checklist for your homeschool (be sure you do follow your state’s laws for homeschooling). Become creative with the way you teach, activities you use and what you teach! The sky is the limit for homeschooling, don’t put your homeschool in a box or limit yourself to what others are doing!
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Don’t push too hard
When we push our children too hard for too long, we burn them out on school. They will shut down to all learning, even if it is about something they like. We need to make sure that we don’t over plan our days or our homeschool year. This requires paying attention to our child’s attitude, attention span and school work. When our children are struggling in one of these three key areas, we need to reassess our day and our homeschool plans.
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Praise and encourage your children
Often we don’t realize how important this step is, but it is one of the most important steps to encourage growth in our homeschool. When we take the time to praise and encourage our children throughout the school day they will want to learn more! Our children need to know that we see how hard they’re working and that we’re proud of all they’re doing!
Encouraging growth in our children is an important step in our homeschool journey…one that we can’t afford to miss. Take the time to watch, listen and learn how your children grow throughout all their daily activities. You’ll probably be surprised to discover the ways you can encourage growth in your homeschool by doing so!
How do you encourage growth in your homeschool?
Find the rest of the homeschool mom needs series here.
