“Keep learning, praying and educating yourself as you seek to educate them.” Charlotte Mason
Dynamic teaching promotes dynamic thinking to children. Home Schooling is very dynamic. Meaning parents, teachers, and mentors provide a learning atmosphere and technique that promotes good critical thinking skills. We develop the child’s self and social awareness, we teach the young minds to share and apply theories and principles in the real world and learn from it, we give them freedom to experience life with their senses, to reflect, solve problems, be engaged, challenged, and reason out in a good and effective educational setting. We equip our children with dynamic skills that will forever instill and inspire them to serve his family and others as a citizen of this universe. So then because the scope of home schooling is broad, getting started is far from being easy. But then once everything is set up, the home schooling journey is great, fun and a whole big adventure for all of us.
Getting Started
- Designing the curriculum. Curriculum is like a backbone of an institution. It supports us with various goals and methods that are constantly changing to adapt to ever –changing circumstances. It is the curriculum that gives a solid direction to the home schooling program. Educators need to plan well and establish a strong and good curriculum to achieve a successful purpose.
“We give our children a carefully – thought- curriculum that would not only educate them well, but also to teach them how to keep learning for the rest of their lives, to self –educate” Sonya Shafer (Simple Charlotte Mason – Getting Started in Home Schooling)
What are the things we need to consider?
a. The Child’s cognitive level regardless of age. We need to modify the curriculum if it needs to be done to accommodate the child’s cognitive level. Parents and teachers must always remember that ‘excellence’ matters a lot to children. They gain confidence over things that they are well-capable of doing given the right challenge. “The brain learns best when it is trying to make sense, when it is building on what it already knows (prior knowledge)”. (Brain-based Education).
b. The Child’s Interest. Learning happens when we let our children unfold knowledge before them based on their interest. As educators we have to deal with the child as a unique entity having his own self – being, and is capable of choosing and making decisions. We can only assist and guide to understand and weigh things out with limitations based on the principles we imparted. This way, the child develops a curious mind therefore; make dynamic discoveries and interpretation of the world around. Knowledge learnt this way will be retained throughout life.
c. Environment. As I mentioned in my previous post about “home schooling”, I believe that our home is the first classroom. Different parts serve different functions. We have to create a specific place for learning and at the same time making each part an integral opportunity for a dynamic change.
i.e. We learn ‘cooking’ in the kitchen, and so the kitchen is an opportunity for a dynamic change and the child understands well the function it serves by him being in the real setting and doing what we are supposed to do in the kitchen.
Moreover, parents, teachers, mentors must also provide an environment where good manners, discipline and beautiful ideas emanate.
d. Materials and Resources. We are surrounded with every available resources there is. Open their doors wide to the best resources we can provide. Let them choose, pick, read, watch, create!
e. Scheduling. Educators (Parents, teachers), we are the captain of our home school. We plan, we create the scaffold, and we frame our objectives to produce an effective curriculum. We have to lay – out a well – balanced and flexible time for each and every task based on the child’s attention span and interest, and the level of difficulty of the task at hand.
f. Lesson. It involves different subjects, topics, books, activities, framework, arts and crafts, music, etc. I put this at the end because I believe this is the last thing we need to worry about. When everything else up there is done and checked, lesson planning will not be a problem. Note to self: Lessons must be incorporated into real life situations if there is a need to. It is fun to learn that way.
i.e. You guys are learning “money”. Seriously it’s real fun to learn outside the textbook when you are applying what you learn about money to save, buy, sell, make a budget, take a public transportation and pay fare etc.
- Join any Support Group
As educators ourselves, we have to extend our connections to significant people who have the same advocacy. We can brainstorm ideas, gain more insights, we can share our personal experiences in home schooling and they can also help us be more productive, effective and successful in our journey.
- Educators’ (Parents, teachers) dedication to the home schooling process
Home schooling is a life – time journey because as we all know learning goes on and on and on. Every day there is something to discover, and change is absolute. We must put our hearts into it, love and embrace what we do and be proud of all the success we have accomplished, and be proud as well, of all the trials we have been through.
4. Let the journey begins. Have fun!
“There is no greater pleasure than serving as a catalyst for another person’s journey towards fulfilling their true potential” Steve Gutstein.
