Join Renew Donate Start Here! Q&A About Homeschooling In Your Province Events Calendar HSLDA USA

Printable Version

Previous Page

Useful Tips

Get Plugged In

Join your local and provinvial support groups, participate in local homeschool events, and talk with veterans who can show you the ropes. Our homeschool discount groups page is a good place to start.

Tune in to your child's learning style

Homeschooling enables you to tailor your child's education to his unique style of learning. "Children's overall learning style includes both the channel through which she/he learns (eye, ear, or hand) and the ways in which she/he is most motivated to learn-'thinking style'" (Mary Pride's Complete Guide to Getting Started in Homeschooling). Other resources:

• The Way They Learn by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias
• Help! My Child Isn't Learning by Dr. Grant Martin
• Discover Your Child's Learning Style by Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Kindle Hodson

Select a type of curriculum & method of homeschooling

There are almost as many curriculum combinations and educational philosophies as there are homeschooling families. Many families find their teaching style and curriculum choices altering to meet their growing children's changing needs. Here's a nutshell description of some general categories:

• Traditional-Textbook/workbook approach, emphasizing reading, writing, grammar, and spelling through drill and practice.
• Classical-Following the medieval "trivium," a child's education progresses from fundamental facts and skills to logic and advanced language abilities. Students study the great works of Western literature.
• Unit studies (instructor-designed thematic studies)-Progress in several disciplines is woven around a particular theme.
• Unschooling / Child-directed / Delight-directed-Allowing a child to learn by encouraging and equipping him to pursue his own interests (guided or unguided exploration).

One of the great things about homeschooling is that you don't have to be limited to just one approach-you can mix and match, taking what you like from each approach, to maximize your child's learning.

Attend a convention or curriculum fair

"At a curriculum fair, you have many of the homeschool publishers and their most popular products all gathered under one roof," explains Beverly McCord a curriculum fair organizer. "You can really pick up a book and thumb through it-you can't do that when you are trying to shop over the Internet or through mail order catalogs. You can get honest consumer feedback. Just stand at a publisher's booth for about 10 minutes and get an earful of what homeschoolers think about some of the titles of that publisher-which ones are the jewels that everybody's using and which ones are really not that helpful. Many of these publishers actually wrote the materials they're selling. I just love being able to talk to a live human being and really get my questions answered."

Tap into the used Curriculum market

Save money by borrowing, buying, or selling second-hand materials and swapping with other homeschoolers in your local support group, at provincial book fairs, or through used curriculum vendors.

Tips for Overcoming Obstacles:

Many parents have faced and overcome the same obstacles you may encounter in your homeschooling journey. In addition to asking homeschooling veterans for their advice, consider some of the following suggestions:

Winning Over Friends and Relatives

If you have some skeptical relatives or friends, you're not alone. Many homeschooling families have won the respect, and even changed the opinions of nearby critics through simply providing positive social interaction and allowing their children's educational success to speak for itself. You can make a difference by explaining why you are homeschooling, having your child put together a scrapbook or portfolio showing samples of his best work for the year, reporting standardized test scores, having your child write articulate letters, or encouraging him to perform some voluntary service demonstrating strong language, math, and/or social skills.

Tackling the "hard" subjects like calculus or latin

Maybe you could trade calculus for French lessons! Many homeschooling parents have found they can round out their children's education by trading teaching time in their areas of expertise-usually referred to as co-oping. Other options include private tutors (could be a friend or coworker) and community college classes.

Making a Transcript

The key here is not waiting until just before college or university. Help your student start planning his transcript as he's getting ready to enter the high school years.

Link: The law in your province
Link: HSLDA Membership Tour

Go to the Top

 

Previous Page