Homeschooling Best Practices
Make homeschooling best practices a part of your regular routine with a little help from EZ-Teach. In this blog, we’ll outline 5 best practices to help make you and your family’s homeschooling experience a success!
1) Create a Dedicated Learning Environment
2) Incorporate the Benefits of Public School
4) Integrate Real-World Skills
EZ-Teach exists to help homeschoolers, educators, and students. We aim to help strengthen individuals and families through resources and advice. If you want more information or wish to speak with someone from EZ-Teach, please reach out. We’re happy to help!
Follow our 5 homeschooling best practices and stand out as a teacher. (Image Source: RDNE)
Homeschooling Best Practices:
Five To Try!
1) Create a Dedicated Learning Environment
Sometimes in homeschooling, kids need a clear set of boundaries to help them separate school time, downtime, time for chores, etc. To ensure children understand that homeschooling is a dedicated learning environment, try the following:
Establish a Routine
Create a daily schedule with fixed times for lessons, breaks, and activities. This helps instill a sense of predictability and seriousness about learning. You can use visual schedules or daily routine charts to help organize and display tasks or activities in a visual format, making it easier for children or individuals to understand and follow their daily routines. Here are some examples:
Picture Schedules: Use images or icons to represent activities (e.g., a book for reading, a bed for naptime).
Timelines: A linear sequence of tasks with time allocations.
Checklists: Include visuals and text with checkboxes for completed tasks.
Magnetic or Velcro Boards: Allow activities to be moved or rearranged.
These aids are especially helpful for younger children or individuals with special needs, providing clarity and a sense of structure.
Designate a Learning Space
Set up a specific area for studying, free from distractions like toys and electronics. This physical boundary helps children associate the space with focused learning. Check out our other blog, How to Build the Ultimate Homeschooling Classroom for inspiration!
Set Clear Expectations
Define goals and rules for behaviour during "school hours." For example, no interruptions during lessons or using polite words. Here are some clear expectations you can set to create structure and accountability, whether in homeschooling or other settings:
Behavioral Expectations: Communicate respectfully, listen to instructions and focus on tasks, follow rules for breaks, take responsibility for belongings.
Academic Expectations: Complete assignments on time, ask for help when needed instead of giving up, and do your best!
Finish all tasks on time, whether they are written, reading, or hands-on projects.Time Management Expectations: Arrive ready for lessons, transition smoothly and calmly between tasks or subjects, and use breaks wisely.
Social Expectations: Collaborate positively when working with siblings or peers, share materials and take turns, participate actively and contribute your thoughts and ideas, and respect the opinions of others.
By setting these expectations clearly at the start and reinforcing them consistently, children learn what’s expected of them and develop good habits over time.
Track and Celebrate Progress
Keep a record of achievements through progress and achievement charts, portfolios, or journals. Use tools like Trello, Google Sheets, or dedicated homeschool apps to document milestones, completed lessons, and grades. Or record short clips and take photos of projects, presentations, or activities to look back on their progress over time. Share progress with your child to show the importance of consistent effort.
Celebrate progress through certificates of achievement that can be printed out and displayed. Have fun reward days or create a “wall of fame” to display each child’s best work, achievements or progress charts. You can also arrange a show-and-tell session where you organize a time for your child to share their work with family or friends, boosting confidence and pride.
Tracking and celebrating progress not only reinforces the value of effort and achievement but also keeps children motivated and excited to learn!
Dress for the Occasion
Encourage your children to get dressed for the day, avoiding staying in pyjamas. This small action can signal a mental shift to a learning mindset. As a parent, you can also keep the same guidelines in mind so your kids Mom and Dad mean business and also that they take pride in their job as their teacher!
Creating a dedicated learning environment through the design of your physical space, your expectations, and your standards will help kids settle into routines and know when it’s time for work, play, or rest.
Some homeschooling best practices are similar to traditional public school routines.
(Image Source: Norma Mortenson)
2) Incorporate the Benefits of Public School
Just because people choose to homeschool doesn’t mean that public school is bad. There are many benefits to the traditional public school setting. You can incorporate aspects of traditional school systems when they enhance the learning experience. Try these suggestions:
Follow a Curriculum
Adopt or adapt a public school curriculum to ensure children learn age-appropriate skills and knowledge. This alignment also helps if they transition back to traditional schooling. Take a look at the curriculum we have available here on our website.
Incorporate Group Learning
Simulate classroom activities by arranging study groups with other homeschool families or joining co-op classes. This fosters social skills and collaboration.
Schedule Recess and Lunchtime
Include regular breaks to mimic school routines. These breaks allow kids to recharge and approach lessons with renewed focus. It is also an opportunity to learn about proper self-care and nutrition.
Use Timed Assessments
Introduce quizzes or tests in a timed format to build familiarity with traditional evaluation methods. This can be especially helpful if you plan on sending your kids to a public high school.
Celebrate Milestones
Host events like graduation for completing a grade level or a science fair for project presentations, adding a sense of accomplishment similar to public schools.
These practices help balance the seriousness of homeschooling with the familiarity of a structured school setting, ensuring children receive a well-rounded education.
Personalize your child’s learning based on their own natural curiosity.
(Image Source: Caleb Oquendo)
3) Personalize Learning
Leverage the flexibility of homeschooling to tailor lessons to your child’s learning styles, interests, unique needs, and pace. Personalization makes learning more engaging and effective. Here are some ways to customize the education experience as part of your homeschooling best practices:
Use Their Interests as a Springboard
Design lessons around your child's passions, like teaching math through sports statistics or storytelling through their favorite characters. Explore their curiosity. Let your child pick topics for research projects, science experiments, or book reports to foster intrinsic motivation.
Offer Choices in Learning
Allow your child to choose between projects, presentations, or written reports to demonstrate their understanding. Let them set goals. Work together to define learning objectives that excite them, giving them ownership of the process.
Adapt Teaching Methods to Learning Styles
For visual learners, use charts, diagrams, flashcards, or videos to explain concepts. For auditory learners, incorporate songs, audiobooks, and discussions. For kinesthetic learners, plan hands-on activities like building models, experiments, or acting out scenarios. Click here to see a resource from Wilfred Laurier University on learning styles and preferences.
Adjust Pacing and Levels
Go at your child’s speed. Spend more time on challenging topics and move quickly through areas they excel in. Offer advanced material by providing enrichment activities or introduce higher-level topics if your child masters subjects early. For struggles, use extra resources like manipulatives or games to help clarify concepts.
Incorporate Real-Life Learning
Let your child solve real-world problems, like planning a budget or designing a simple invention. Go on field trips. Visit museums, nature reserves, or historical sites to bring lessons to life. Integrate life skills. For example, teach math through cooking, science through gardening, and writing through letter-writing.
Use Technology and Online Resources
Incorporate interactive platforms. Use apps, games, and educational videos tailored to your child’s learning preferences. Hire a virtual tutor or enroll in an online course. Look for specific online classes if your child has a keen interest in subjects like coding, art, or languages.
Encourage Multi-Age Learning
Pair siblings or peers to collaborate on projects or teach each other, reinforcing their knowledge. Work on family-based learning activities like creating a family tree or hosting a mock debate.
Regularly Assess and Reflect
Remember to check in. Periodically ask your child what’s working, what isn’t, and what they’d like to change. Adjust lesson plans based on your child’s feedback and evolving interests.
Blend Subjects Creatively
Combine subjects, like writing a story about a historical figure (history and language arts) or designing a building (geometry and art).
By personalizing the homeschooling experience, you can tap into your child’s unique strengths, make learning enjoyable, and foster a lifelong love of education.
Integrating real-life skills and encouraging multi-age learning is easy in the kitchen!
(Image Source: Los Muertos Crew)
4) Integrate Real-World Skills
Incorporating practical, real-world experiences into your homeschooling best practices and curriculum enriches education by showing how lessons apply beyond the classroom. Here’s a list of ideas for making this approach meaningful:
Practical Activities
Cooking and Baking: Teach math through measurements, fractions, and budgeting for groceries. Use recipes to discuss chemistry concepts like heat reactions.
Gardening: Explore biology, ecology, and sustainability. Keep a plant growth journal to practice scientific observation and data tracking.
Shopping and Budgeting: Give your child a set budget during grocery trips to practice decision-making, math, and critical thinking.
Community Engagement
Volunteer Work: Encourage participation in local charities or events to teach social responsibility, teamwork, and communication.
Job Shadowing: Let your child observe professionals in their field of interest, connecting career paths to their studies.
Community Projects: Help organize a recycling drive or neighbourhood improvement project, blending teamwork and environmental science.
Real-World Problem Solving
Building Projects: Create simple machines, birdhouses, or crafts to explore engineering concepts.
Environmental Science: Investigate topics like pollution, weather, or wildlife conservation through hands-on experiments or fieldwork.
Financial Literacy: Introduce saving, investing, and goal-setting through real-life scenarios like opening a savings account or planning a small business idea.
Integrating real-world learning helps children see the practical application of their studies, making lessons more engaging, meaningful, and relevant to everyday life.
Teach kids the skills they need for independent learning and living. (Image Source: Kindel Media)
5) Encourage Independence
Teaching children to work independently fosters confidence, responsibility, and self-discipline. Here’s how to nurture these skills in homeschooling:
Gradual Autonomy
Start small and begin with simple tasks, such as organizing their workspace or completing a checklist. Increase responsibility by gradually assigning larger projects where your child needs to research, plan, and execute on their own.
Set Personal Goals
Have your child set achievable goals for lessons or personal interests, such as finishing a book or mastering multiplication tables. Make daily or weekly targets. Then make sure you provide time to reflect on achievements. Review goals together to build self-awareness and motivation.
Time Management Skills
Use a planner or calendar so you can teach your child to block out time for lessons, chores, and hobbies. Introduce deadlines by assigning due dates for tasks to build accountability.
Encourage Problem-Solving
Guide, don’t solve. When your child encounters challenges, ask guiding questions instead of providing answers immediately. Foster critical thinking by introducing puzzles, logic games, or real-world scenarios requiring decision-making.
Reward Independence
Be sure to acknowledge each child’s effort. Celebrate successes with praise or small rewards for managing tasks independently. Also, highlight their progress. Show them how their ability to work alone leads to greater freedom and achievement.
By fostering independence, you equip your child with skills that go beyond academics, preparing them for life’s challenges and opportunities.
Make Learning EZ!
EZ-Teach provides both homeschooled families and other educators with resources designed to make learning and education easy. We offer curriculum, online courses, ESL, tutoring, and advice to help both students and teachers alike. If you have more questions, we’d love to chat. Explore our website or click on the button below to contact us.
