When you start to wonder if you’re messing up big time, it’s a good idea to reexamine the reasons you started to homeschool in the first place. What was your main motivation? Has that changed at all? Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves of the original goals. If you decided that the public school wasn’t a good option, keep that in mind.

Another good idea is to look at other homeschoolers. Meet some people who are teaching their kids at home. The first thing you’ll notice is that no one educates their children the same way. If you want to be sure that you’re doing the right thing, then you need to look at your family and your kids’ needs. Each child is different, so they need the schooling tailored to them.

If you’re worried that your child isn’t learning enough, look into doing state exams to prove to yourself that your children are getting a good education. You’ll likely be surprised! Even if you aren’t, this will let you know which areas you need to improve in.

Beach Trips

While at the beach, you can see tides and currents in action. Let your kids dig in the sand and mention how the sand is made up of tiny bits of stone. Have them collect shells and water worn glass that you can study back home. Tide pools offer a wealth of learning opportunities, too. Take pictures and you can look the animals up back home.

Visiting Relatives

Whether you go to visit relatives or they come to see you, summer is usually a favorite time for this. You can use this time to learn a little about the history of your family, family trees and also to reinforce manners.

Road Trips

While in the car, take advantage of this time to play family word games, listen to books on tape and discuss the scenery. You can also let the kids take turns navigating, putting map reading skills to use, and learning the rules of the road. It’s never too early to learn!

What are you doing this summer? How can you turn it into a learning experience for your kids?

There are many stories of people heading for greener homeschooling pastures. One family was warned by a social worker who delayed the paperwork required to take their child while the family fled to Central America. Another family moved to Austria, but they will never be able to return to Germany, since as soon as they step foot in the country, the government will put their child into protective custody.

Another German family has made the news because of their move to the United States, a move they made in order to maintain control over what their children are being taught. After a terrific stand off with the police that ended in their children being dragged to school, the Romeikes headed for the US and pleaded asylum. Their case was heard today in court and we should learn soon what the results are. You can read more on this story here.

For most North Americans, these stories are something of a horror show. But what we don`t recall is that only a few short decades ago, teaching your child at home was illegal in both Canada and the US. In fact, when I first started school at home, in first grade, my parents instructed us not to tell anyone that we were homeschooled, for fear of the law!

Kids tend to learn a lot better if they realize that there is actually a good reason to learn something. An example: I did very poorly in my last few years of math. I didn`t understand the need to learn things like geometry and algebra and since it didn`t come easily, I really didn`t make much of an effort. Fast forward a few years and I had a job at a construction site where suddenly all those abstract concepts became concrete! Suddenly, I DID need to know how to calculate an angle . . . it was necessary to figure out the beam positioning for a roof. In a couple of months, I learned everything that I had neglected to study properly for the past three or four years! Showing your kids how their learning fits into every day life is a great motivator.

So, how can you turn every day tasks into learning experiences? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Banking: Have your children open their own bank accounts, calculate interest on deposits, etc. Let older kids help you with balancing the checkbook and working out the family budget. They`ll gain a healthy respect for money and it`s a great way to reinforce math skills.

Cooking: Your kids can help you with everything from selecting the food in the supermarket (price comparison, reading ingredients, choosing quality over price, etc.) to cleaning, preparing and cooking the food. You can “teach” things like fractions, multiplication (measuring ingredients, doubling recipes, etc.) and nutrition to your children as you do this.

Mail: Whether posting or picking up the mail, this could be the perfect time to talk to your kids about how the postal system works, where the mail is coming from and maybe even bring up the history of mail . . . most kids find the idea of the Pony Express to be quite fascinating. It may even spark some research by curious young ones.

What other tasks do you do around the house or while running errands? What can your children learn from this?

I can`t tell you how many times I`ve heard people complain about the educational system . . . in three different countries, so far! The majority of parents agree that the public schools simply aren`t doing a good job of educating our children. There are too many students in a classroom for a child with difficulties understanding the curriculum to get one on one help and while there are some excellent teachers out there, there are also some very poor ones and you don`t have much control over which ones your child will be learning from.

In addition to this, many parents are discovering that they just don`t agree with what is being taught in the schools. It doesn`t matter what your religion, chances are your local schools are teaching at least one or two things that you wouldn`t choose to teach your kids. For Christians, the fact that the Evolution Theory is being taught as fact is a major put-off. But even if you do agree with that, are you in accordance with sexual education being taught at lower and lower grade levels?

Homeschooling is a way to take education back into our own hands, where it belongs. If you look at history, even 100 years ago, children received the majority of their education from their parents. Their family values and beliefs were passed down from generation from generation, as was the tradition throughout history. It`s only in more recent times that we`ve allowed our children to spend so much time being taught by strangers, people we don`t even know have our children`s best interests at heart.

Choosing to homeschool is a way to ensure that what you value is imparted to your children. As a homeschooling parent, you are in control of what your child learns and how they learn it. You can be flexible, allowing your visual learner to study one way, while your kinetic learner takes an entirely different course. One on one attention abounds and any problems can be sorted as soon as they are encountered, rather than leaving them because there are no resources to deal with them.

Parents who aren`t satisfied with the way the schools are doing things are starting to take things into their own hands. This is a great reason all on its own to homeschool, but we`ve got more for you in coming weeks.