Summary


As you have learned from this guide, Homeschooling children does not meant that they spend all of their time at home, nor is the learning process approached in the same way that it would be in school. In fact, many of the assumptions that are often made about learning found in public school teaching are the exact opposite in homeschooling.

The main element in successful homeschooling of your children is trust. You have to trust the children to know when they are ready to learn and what they are interested in learning. You must trust them to know how to go about the learning process.

While this may seem to be an astonishing way of looking at children, parents commonly take this view of learning during the childs first two years of homeschooling and it works.

Children are naturally curious and have a built-in desire to learn.

In a book written by John Holt, How Children Learn, it describes the natural learning style of young children in the following way:
The child is curious. He wants to make sense out of things, find out how things work, gain competence and control over himself and his environment, and do what he can see other people doing. He is open, perceptive, and experimental. He does not merely observe the world around him, He does not shut himself off from the strange, complicated world around him, but tastes it, touches it, hefts it, bends it, breaks it. To find out how reality works, he works on it. He is bold. He is not afraid of making mistakes. And he is patient. He can tolerate an extraordinary amount of uncertainty, confusion, ignorance, and suspense... School is not a place that gives much time, or opportunity, or reward, for this kind of thinking and learning.1

Children know best how to go about learning something for them. If they are left alone, they will know automatically what method is best for them. Caring and observant parents will soon learn that it is safe and very appropriate to trust this knowledge.

The perceptive parents are also aware that there are many different ways to learn something, and they trust their children to know which ways are best for them.

Children also need multiple amounts of quiet time so that they can think. Research shows that children who are good at fantasizing are better learners and cope better with disappointment than those who do not have this ability. But creative fantasy requires time; time is the most lost commodity in our lives.

Fully-scheduled school hours and extracurricular activities leave children with very little time for them to dream, to think, to invent solutions to problems, to cope with stressful experiences, and simply to fulfill the universal need for solitude and privacy.

Children are not afraid to admit to their own ignorance and to make mistakes. Homeschooling children, free from the intimidation of public embarrassment and failing marks, helps them to keep their openness to new exploration. Children learn by asking questions, not by answering them. That is your job.

Children take a great deal of joy in the values of whatever they are learning. There is no real need to motivate children through the use of rewards, such as high grades or stars, which suggest to the child that the activity itself must be too hard or horrible to do.

Think about it; a child would ask why is a reward, which has nothing to do with the work, being offered?

Children learn best about getting along with other people through interaction with those of all ages. They also learn best about the world through first-hand experience.

Homeschoolers learn directly about the world by being in it through such events as going to museums, theatres, zoos etc. Ironically, the most common objection about homeschooling is that children are being deprived of the real world.

Most parents understand how difficult it is for their children to learn something when they are being rushed, threatened, or given failing grades. While infants and toddlers teach us many principles of learning, schools have adopted quite different principles due to the hardships that occur in teaching a large number of same-age children in a compulsory setting.

The structure of school (required attendance, school-selected topics and books, and constant checking of the childs progress) assumes that children are not learners by nature; however they must be compelled to learn through the efforts of others.

Natural learners do not need to be in this type of structure. The success of self-directed learning (homeschoolers who regularly outperform their schooled peers on measures of academic achievement, socialization, confidence, and self-esteem) strongly implies that structured approaches inhibit both learning and personal development.

With this guide, you have learned everything that you need to know about successful homeschooling. If this is your chosen method of teaching your children, this guide will help. Look below for some great resources on homeschooling your children.