Parent educators should continually strive to improve the effectiveness of their approach to home education. Particularly at the close of a school term, parents need to evaluate both the strengths and the weaknesses of their administrative and teaching strategies.
Although there are many ways to improve the quality of a homeschool, my first suggestion would be that parents begin to make a more deliberate effort to encourage their children to take more responsibility for their own learning and time management. In other words, instructors should slowly and steadily insist that students begin to set and accomplish reasonable goals for themselves on a regular basis. One practical way for parent educators to begin this process, is for them to challenge their students to become active participants in the scheduling of their weekly assignments at the opening of every week. This activity will not only help to foster better communication and coordination between parents and students, but it can also be used as a means to equip older students to eventually do most of their own scheduling and prioritizing of work assignments. The sooner that young people learn how to acquire knowledge and set goals without having to be prodded by others, the sooner they will become truly educated.
Another recommendation is for parents to take steps to identify their student’s specific God-given talents and career interests. Study your child’s life prayerfully to determine where God has gifted him, and what type of calling best fits his unique gifting. Once you have clearly identified your child’s interests and talents, then begin to diligently search for a person or organization in your area that would be willing to provide your child with apprenticeship training in a field that suits them well. For example, if you believe that one of your children shows great promise in the field of art or music, then seek to get him connected with people from the community that have expertise in these areas. The best apprenticeship opportunities are those that offer teens not only instruction, but also the opportunity to gain practical work experience. With few exceptions, students grow and mature best when they can exercise their talents in real-world situations.
A third suggestion is for parents to help their children understand why it is important for them to go beyond the scope of their actual assignment on a regular basis. Students need to learn the importance of showing initiative during the learning process and to appreciate that simply doing the minimum in any field of study will never bless them in the long run. Any young person that gets in the good habit of doing more than is expected of them, even if it is only a little more, will seldom fall behind in the race of life.
My fourth suggestion is that parent educators keep a close eye on how well their students are progressing in the critical areas of math, grammar and laboratory science. Recent studies published by the National Home Education Research Institute have revealed that most home schooled children tend to be above average in every subject area except advanced math, grammar, and laboratory science. Remember to inspect what you expect in every subject your student is engaged in, but particularly so in those disciplines that home taught children commonly find challenging. If parents lack the skill or expertise to teach advanced concepts in subjects such as math, grammar or science, they should take steps to locate tutors that can help to provide the extra instruction that their children need.
Fifthly, and finally, parents should take the time to schedule their field trips several months in advance. Do not rely upon your good intentions. Organize your field trips in such a way as to give you enough time to actually teach your students about why they are going to be exposed to some learning experience before you get in the car. Your children will get a great deal more out of each field trip when you do a little advance planning and teaching. For example, if you plan to go to the local fire department for a field trip, then do a series of unit studies on the role and routine of fire fighters before the actual trip to the firehouse. This will help to prepare your students so that they might be able to ask intelligent questions of those that they meet during their learning experience outside of the home.
While no list of recommendations is ever exhaustive or complete, I hope that at least some of the suggestions listed above will genuinely enhance the efforts of those who are seeking to train children in the way they should go.
Michael J. McHugh
Copyright 2018
