8 Tips for Homeschooling Your Kids

Great tips for homeschooling your kids! Help make learning at home easier for Mom and Dad with these great tips and resources!

This has been an interesting year to say the least! Our children have been home from school for months, and I’m more grateful than ever for all of our teachers. Teaching our children from home is hard, but we’re finally getting into a groove and a routine that is working. I wanted to share some great tips for homeschooling your kids in case anyone else needs help getting through these next few months!

*This post was sponsored by Shaw. As always, opinions are 100% my own. For more information, please see my disclosure page.*

8 Great Tips for Homeschooling Your Kids

1. Create a schedule . . . but hang on to it loosely

Schedules and expectations are a very important part of successful homeschooling. When my kids and I started without a schedule in place, they asked at all times of day to do more, and it was completely exhausting. Other times, I started late and the kids were playing and it was very difficult to pull them away and get them to work.

Set up times when you will work, when you will play, and when you will eat, and draw a picture schedule or write one out so the kids know what to expect.

Even though this is important, remember that you are still a parent at home with your kids, and it’s ok for the schedule to change here and there. A sick kid may cancel the day’s plans, or more time outside on a surprisingly beautiful day can call for an adjustment to what you have scheduled.

2. Set up your classroom or work zone

A classroom or work zone is key to keeping kids focused on their work. We tried homeschooling from the couch… and failed, lol. I finally set-up a desk with some pens and paper and the kids were actually excited to “go to school” in the morning.

3. Find your child’s learning style

If you plan to work at home with your kids, it’s important to learn about different learning styles. Do your children learn by listening? Are they visual learners? Or do they learn by doing activities? Do they do better with pen and paper or a computer?

Finding your child’s learning style can help you make tasks that they find difficult a little bit easier. If you’re looking for a great variety of learning resources, check out #LearnTogether, brought to you by Shaw. They have brought together a wide variety of activities for every learning style and age group that you can do at home.

Check out EVERFI’s educational resources, made available thanks to Shaw for more learning ideas!

4. Don’t be afraid to fail

We’re not teachers… we didn’t go to school for this and spend hours learning about teaching skills and classroom management, lol. Sometimes things are not going to work, and that’s ok.

If your schedule isn’t working, add an extra “recess” tomorrow, or switch it around and do the harder classes first. Change and adjust until you find what’s right for your family.

5. Use your child’s currency

Did I mention that we aren’t teachers?! lol. Find what motivates your kids and use it as a reward system or an extra motivator.

Do they miss their friends? See if they can video chat after they are done their schoolwork. Do they love time on the iPad? See if you can download some great learning activity apps to help motivate learning!

6. Remember Life Skills

Need a break from classroom learning? Take this time at home to learn about important life skills. In our home, we’ve been cooking and baking together, safely learning about woodworking with Daddy, gardening, and taking care of our animals.

We have lots of time at home to enjoy with our kids, and the hands-on learning that life skills provide is just as important as the math and literacy that they are learning. Find a balance and use this extra time at home to do some of the life lessons that we don’t usually get as much time to teach!

7. Breaks are necessary

Don’t forget to give your children a break. There’s a reason kids get multiple “recess” periods every day at school. They need time to just be kids. To play, imagine, run, and be free.

Schedule in their breaks or just add some in when they need some! Either way, successful homeschooling is going to rely on giving your children time to just be kids.

8. Parents need self-care too

Finally, don’t neglect yourself! In the midst of all of this homeschooling, make sure to take some time for yourself, in whatever self-care looks like for you!

Take a long bath, read a book, binge watch Netflix… whatever you need to do to be the best parent/teacher you can be. Don’t forget to take care of yourself.

Don’t forget to check out how we made this beautiful DIY Homework Station.