Where to volunteer?

It is always a good idea to keep the child’s interests in mind before volunteering.

Animal Shelters

These shelters are normally understaffed and don’t have a lot of money available. Children, who like animals or those interested in a career in a field that has to do with animals, will benefit from this. Even little ones can help here even if it is just to play with the puppies and kittens. Children that are scared of animals will need some assistance from the parent at first, but it can be an ideal way for them to overcome their anxiety. Parent involvement would be necessary, especially with sensitive children. You will also have to be firm otherwise you might end up with a zoo at your home.

Retirement Villages

Many of the elderly that are living here are very lonely and would love some young company. The fact that they might not be mobile anymore or are suffering from visual impairment won’t take away the wisdom of a lifetime that they have to share. Older children can volunteer to go and read to someone once or twice a week for an hour or more, depending on the situation. The parent might have to attend the first one or two visits, but after that it can create some free time for the parent while the child is doing something useful.  The child will be practicing his or her reading skills on someone who actually appreciates it.

These are just two possibilities, but just asking around in your area will certainly make you aware of all the help that is needed. Community service will teach a variety of life skills and has numerous socializing benefits.

Part of the fun of homeschooling is getting the classroom ready. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Sometimes a layer of paint and some colorful curtains would be enough. Ideally the child should have his or her own desk. If there is more than one child each should have a separate desk. This will immediately rule out fighting over space and stationery.

Space to pack books, files and other resources is essential to prevent chaos in the classroom. If there is more than one child it is advisable that each child has a drawer, box or any other storing space that belongs to him or her.  With smaller children every pen and pencil and whatever else they use in the class should be identical and well marked. It still doesn’t guarantee that they won’t fight over it, but there is a better chance of peace if most things they work with are the same.

If you don’t have extra space for the classroom and have to work from the kitchen table or dining room, make sure that each child has a portable storage container for their books and other belongings. The alternative will be a chaotic kitchen or dining room and it will soon starts to irritate the rest of the household.

If your school is in a separate room a white board can be fixed against a wall so it doesn’t take up extra space. If you are going to move around with your school, a folding white board will be the best. Black boards and chalk are messy and should rather be avoided.

Give your school a name. It can be any creative name or simply uses the child’s name or surname. It creates an own identity for your school and the children will feel more part of the school culture and can identify with their friends in public and private schools.

Older children can help with ideas on how to decorate the classroom to turn it into their own special space.

It is your choice if you want to do it as a family with your children or if you want to include other homeschooling children and parents in the field trip.

Short day trips close to home can be fun with other homeschooling children of the same age. Sharing ideas and impressions with other children, who are not siblings, would create an opportunity for your child to experience how other children from different upbringings, cultures and belief systems view things.

Longer trips around your own country or abroad can be done as a family trip. Attempting this with other people you don’t know well and have different habits from yours can many times be more tiresome than interesting and relaxing. These trips can be planned around a vacation. Travel is one of the best forms of education.

Decide beforehand what you want the children to learn. A trip to France can include history, art, geography, language, life skills, travel skills and much more. Collect all the pamphlets and resource material available at museums and art galleries for later use. Retain all maps, restaurants slips and theatre tickets to use later for projects or journals.

Children on a field trip should never feel stressed and forced to remember everything. Rather teach them to collect information in an informal way and to observe and enjoy everything they encounter. Older children can take photos or make videos of interesting places and events. All of this can be used as resources for school tasks once they get back home.

Keeping a diary or journal in which they write down their experiences can also be an excellent form of resource material. Ensure there is enough time for them to do this every day.

No matter whereto the trip is or how long it will be, there will always be something they can learn from it.

Sport

Even if a child is not very good at sport he or she should be encouraged to take part in one way or the other. Except for the socializing benefit many children don’t get enough exercise any more. Sport doesn’t have to be contact sport or very physical to make it enjoyable. Swimming provides excellent exercise and most children enjoy it. Others might be interested in something more individual like horse riding or golf. The biggest reason children start hating sport is because of the pressure some parents put on the child to be the best. The other benefits of sport are much more important than constantly winning. If you live in remote area where there are really no sport activities for children at least make an effort to let them get some exercise, if it is swimming, bicycling, hiking or just kicking a ball outside.

Cultural Activities

This can include activities of a specific cultural group such as cultural dancing or games. Dancing is an excellent activity that is fun and teaches various skills. It also provides great exercise opportunities and is very social.

Church or Religious Activities

Youth groups at a church allow children to socialize with other like-minded young people of their age. It doesn’t matter if these are structured activities such as bible study or if it is social events. Children will get the opportunity to interact with other children who has the same belief system they have and it will provide them with a chance to make friends.

Modern children can easily retract into their own worlds and spend hours in front of the TV or computer. The result is overweight and anti-social adults.

Traditional Method

This is the best known form of teaching which make use of text books and worksheets. These types of text books and worksheets are readily available and some can be found free, online. Some online and purchased programs also use this method.

Unit Study Method

Instead of teaching subjects separately, unit studies work around a specific theme and all subjects are taught according to the theme. The value of this approach is that it reinforces the learned information constantly. If children learn the history of Ancient Rome, they will also learn the geography of the area, read books or plays from the time and study art trends that were popular.

Principle Method

This approach focuses on biblical principals and uses the bible as the basis of every subject in the curriculum. Children make use of a notebook in which they research a subject or idea, reason to find a basic principle, relate it to other study fields and then record their findings.

Unschooling Method

A specific curriculum isn’t followed but the learning follows the  interests of the child whether it is the stars, animals or computers.  Any resource material can be used and all facets of the topic are learned until the child is ready to move on to the next topic.

Classical Method

This happens in 3 stages. The first stage includes ages 6-10 and focuses on memorizing subject content. The next stage is for ages 10-12 where reasoning, logical discussion and lateral thinking are encouraged. The last stage is for ages 13-18 where communication and presentation of ideas are the focus.

Charlotte Mason Method

Charlotte Mason believed children should be exposed to as much information as possible from which they can choose what is appropriate for them at a given time.

One or a combination of these methods should be the right one for your child.

The location of the homeschool would be a determining factor in the establishing of a drama club. In an area where there are a number of homeschools you can initiate a drama club. There might be other children that would also like to do the subject but has the same problems that you have.

Where to Start?

Your local support group would be a good place to start. You can post a message on the message board for interested parents to contact you. Point out the value of a club like this for socializing activities. As one of the main concerns of homeschooling parents is socializing it will be an attractive opportunity.  All children participating in the club don’t have to take performance art as a subject. They might just do it for fun. You also don’t need a lot of children to start off with. Once there are 4 or 5 you can start your club. If the other children see how much fun it is they will soon join in.

Venue

If you or one of the other parents have space at home it would be ideal to begin with. A community hall, church hall or local school hall might also be available. If there is a fee involved it can be shared between the members.

Costumes, Set and Props

Theatre is primarily about acting, dancing and singing, but children love to dress up and have some props. You don’t really need to spend money on this. People regularly get rid of old clothes and things lying around in the house that they don’t use anymore. Collect everything and anything you can get. Children are very creative and you would be surprised what they will be able to do with items you see as rubbish.

A drama club doesn’t have to add an extra burden to your budget and the value of having it is priceless.

Brain Gym techniques assist with whole brain integration which is essential for optimal information processing. (See article on information processing).

Brain Gym consists of a set of easy and relatively quick exercises that should be done daily. Most formal schools focus on auditory and visual learners while there are many kinesthetic learners out there that are seen as naughty or it is assumed that they are suffering from some attention deficiency disorder. While this might be true it is also true that many times these learners have a different way of learning that are not catered for in the school and they are left completely in the dark.

The purpose of Brain Gym activities is to assist learners with the integration of the left and right brain hemispheres. Learners that hate math might be right brain dominant and are not that interested in detail and will prefer art subjects where their dominant right brain can function to its optimum. Once both hemispheres are integrated they will have the ability to enjoy the detail of math as well as the creativity of art.

The very first thing Brain Gym teaches is the value of drinking water. Water increases brain function and decreases stress. Schools don’t always allow water bottles in class but at home this should be a priority. If a child learns from a young age to drink water they won’t ask for sodas when they are thirsty.

Apart from drinking water there are 3 other exercises that children should do before they start their school day.

The brain buttons are soft spots, on either side of the sternum, just underneath the collarbone that need to be massaged for one minute.

Cross Crawl is the next exercise which is very simple. The left leg is raised by the knee and the right hand is placed on the left knee. This must be alternated with the opposite hand and knee and continued for at least a minute. The process requires action from both brain hemispheres.

The last exercise is the Hook Up which is done in a comfortable sitting position with the legs crossed at the ankles. The hands are intertwined at the wrists. While sitting like that the child should breathe deeply in and out.

Detailed explanations of these exercises are readily available on the internet. The best way, however, to learn these exercises is to attend a brain gym course.

We use our senses to process information. The senses on the right side of the body have different functions from those on the left and so have the different brain hemispheres. The right eye, for instance, is more prone to focus on the bigger picture while the left eye sees more detail. It is the same with the ear and the brain.

Each person has a dominant eye, ear, hand, foot and brain hemisphere.

In situations where there are no or very little stress the eye, ear or hand that processes the information sends that information to the brain hemisphere on the opposite side of the body without any difficulty.

During stressful situations the non- dominant senses and brain hemisphere “shut down” and the dominant areas take over.  If the dominant brain hemisphere and senses are on the same side of the body it means that all information processed by the hand, ear or eye it will firstly attempt to send the information to the opposite brain hemisphere as that is how information processing in the body works. Because that brain hemisphere is not dominant and appeared “shut down” the information has to be send to the other brain hemisphere. In this process information gets lost and it takes longer to reach the brain hemisphere capable of processing the information.

In these instances children will find it difficult to remember what they have read, seen or wrote.  Their ability to remember strange names from cartoons and books is because this information processing happens in a relaxed situation where learning wasn’t required.

To be able to process information quickly and efficiently both sides of the brain needs to be integrated.

Children in homeschooling might be in a more relaxed atmosphere than those in public schools, but if a child battles to concentrate, the fact that they are in a situation where learning is required will immediately cause stress.

Please read the article on brain gym to see how it can assist children with concentration obstacles.

Creativity

People tend to believe creativity is unnecessary in traditional careers such as engineering, medicine or the law. It is on the contrary essential in most careers. No new developments or technological phenomena would exist without innovative and creative minds. A creatively stimulated mind sees opportunities long before other people are even prepared to think about it.

Creative people are not scared to experiment. This is what they are taught in art subjects. They have to try new things. If theatre practitioners and artist were scared to experiment we would have still be in the medieval times with theatre and art.

Creative people are not scared of failure. Van Gogh didn’t stop painting because he couldn’t sell the paintings. He never tasted the wealth of his success, but today his paintings are selling for the highest prices ever at auctions.

Discipline

There are very few subjects that require the amount of discipline art subjects demand. Rehearsing a play or a piece of music day after day until it is perfect is not easy. No performer can walk on a stage and hope all goes well. They have to know it will be perfect. There is no second chance.

People that work in theatre know that they let everyone else in the production down if they are not on time or do not know their lines or piece of music for the performance. Children will soon learn these concepts if they engage in music or performance art.  The same can be said for fine arts. Finishing a big painting project, once the fun has worn off. takes discipline and commitment.

In certain states art subjects are required for graduating from high school. Even if it is not required and it is at all possible where you live,you should seriously consider exposing your child to one or more of the art subjects. Creative children will thrive and the shy ones will build their confidence.

Parent – Teacher

Many parents who homeschool were never in a teaching career. To establish specific school rules might not be as easy as it sound. Teachers also learn through trail and error. The more experienced they become the more they realize what works in a class and what doesn’t.  A parent that is generally slack with discipline will have to put even more effort into establishing specific rules and should make sure they enforce the rules. Parents are more subjective regarding their own children; where teachers see all children as equal and class rules will apply to everyone irrespective of how clever or cute they are.

Basic Rules

The school must start on time. That doesn’t mean you can’t be flexible with your times. During summer you might want to start school early in the morning to have more free time later in the day. In winter you might decide to start later and have longer school days. The important thing is that this must be communicated to child beforehand otherwise you will have constant arguments about this.

Plan beforehand the amount of work that should be finished in a day. This can be tricky as some children might rush through the work to finish early. It might take a bit of time and a few arguments, but the child will soon realize that a certain standard of work is expected and if the standard is not reached it will have to be done again.

Establishing a routine is very important. Break times are necessary but after the break school must start on time again. The child should know beforehand how long the break will be and must be ready to start working again on time.

These are just a few basic ideas and you will, as you progress, find your own rhythm. If something doesn’t work the way you planned it, it is not the end of the world. The important part is that you communicate with your child. It creates security if they know exactly what is expected.