Some parents doubt their ability to homeschool their children. This is normal and almost every parent will worry about their children's future and whether or not they're capable of providing an appropriate educational foundation for it.
If you've been considering homeschooling your children, here are some of the essential skills and qualities you'll need to ensure they get the best education possible.
Qualifications for Homeschooling Your Children
Homeschooling (or home education as it's officially known in New Zealand) doesn't necessarily require any formal qualifications. That doesn't mean that any parent can do it as there are requirements, but there aren't any specific qualifications required.
Parents interested in homeschooling their children in New Zealand need to apply to the local Ministry of Education office. This is so that their children can be given an exemption from compulsory education and this comes with certain requirements.
The application needs to include several details including:
- Your home education approach, philosophy, and/or curriculum
- Intended learning areas and/or subjects
- Descriptions of resources and reference materials
- Short- and long-term educational goals
- An example of a special project
- How you plan to measure progress and learning goals
- How regularly your child will be taught
What this means is that while you don't need any formal qualifications to homeschool your child, you won't be simply given a Certificate of Exemption for them to be homeschooled without proving to the Ministry of Education that you've carefully thought about how you'll educate them in a way that's as regular and as effective as the education they'd receive in a state school.
Understanding Teaching Approaches and Pedagogy for Homeschooling
Children can be homeschooled in a variety of different ways and this is arguably one of the biggest advantages of homeschooling your kids. Homeschooling doesn't even necessarily mean that they have to be taught in the home; there are options to teach them outdoors, in museums on trips, or remotely with an online private tutor, for example.
You have to learn how to effectively homeschool your kids if you plan on doing this all yourself. In addition to subject knowledge, you also need to learn how to effectively transfer that knowledge to your children.
An expert in a certain area doesn't automatically make for a good teacher. As their only teacher, you'll need to become an expert in various teaching approaches so that you can constantly adapt.
Not every parent will be a natural born teacher and you'll need to understand a topic and then make sure that your child understands it. In some cases, this will mean doing your research.
Research Skills for Homeschooling Your Children
While you need subject knowledge, this can often be acquired. As you'll likely be your child's only teacher, you won't automatically be an expert in every subject you have to teach them.
To effectively homeschool your children, you need to be able to quickly research topics and subjects and become well-versed in them so you can teach your children.
You won't always have to be an expert in these areas, you just need to be one level above your child so that they can learn what they need to know. Of course, extensive subject knowledge makes it easier to explain things, but in some cases, you won't need to know everything.
Be Patient and Understanding
Homeschooling can be confusing for children, especially if a parent needs to delineate when they're the teacher and when they're the parent.
Some kids will get this immediately, especially if their homeschooling has a fairly rigid structure and they know that when it's time to learn, their parent's behaviour will likely be different.
This isn't to say that you have to act like a typical teacher, but when your child needs to learn, you might have to make it clear to them that it isn't time to joke around. Of course, homeschooling does allow for more relaxed learning environments, but being overly relaxed could become confusing.
You've likely been teaching your children their entire lives, but you haven't necessarily been providing them with a formal education. This change in roles may affect your relationship with your child and as a parent, you need to be patient and understanding, especially when they don't understand something, but you probably knew that already!
When they encounter difficulties, you also need to be there for them.
You need to be aware of how they’re progressing and what they need help with. That said, when you’re in teacher mode, you won’t be the same as when you’re acting as their parent and making them lunch or getting them ready for bed.
Learn to Adapt
While homeschooled children don't need to follow the New Zealand curriculum, it is available for parents who want to follow it. However, the freedom that homeschooling affords means that no two days are the same and you have to adapt and be able to change the lesson plan when you see that something isn't working.
You'll want to plan your lessons to offer a structure, but you also need to be adaptable enough to throw out the plan or change it if there's an opportunity to learn more effectively.
If you've planned an activity and your child isn't quite getting it, you can change it. This doesn't mean just letting them off the hook when the work gets difficult, but if you've misjudged their abilities and made something too easy or too difficult, a different approach might be needed.
Similarly, if they're getting bored with a certain topic, you might need to change things up to make the lesson more exciting or even teach a different subject for a bit and come back to the subject they were getting bored of.
Learn to Plan Effectively
Some of the best advice on how to homeschool children is to plan. You don't need to follow the curriculum, but you do need a plan. Though you need to adapt when the plan hasn't worked out, it's better to have one and not need it to need one and not have it.
Your plans should be based on what your child needs to learn and how they like to learn. A plan also can give children structure and it's good for them to know what they should be learning so that they can also be somewhat responsible for their education.
While you can be flexible with schedules and timing, it's a good idea to at least have a rough idea of lesson times, break times, etc. If your child is working well and not hungry, you could postpone lunch for a while. If the weather's horrible when it should be break time, why not let them enjoy the outdoors when the conditions are better suited to it?
Every Day Can Present an Opportunity to Learn
While you should have a clear separation between your child's formal education and when they're free to enjoy themselves, there's no reason why you can't integrate learning opportunities into their everyday lives. After all, this is something you can do as a parent and since you know exactly what they've been learning, it's much easier to plan activities related to their homeschooling.
If you've been teaching a certain subject and there's a local museum exhibition on it, you can always plan a trip to it either as part of their homeschooling or just as a fun and enriching activity.
The quality of homeschooling depends fully on the parent and how they intend to homeschool their child. With the right teaching approaches, a homeschooled child can learn far more effectively at home than at school.
If you don't feel up to it, though, you can always get help from a private tutor. If there's a certain subject you feel is too difficult for you to teach, then hire a private tutor to step in for those lessons.
You can also hire a private tutor to act as an educational consultant to help you plan lessons, structure your child's homeschooling, and provide advice and feedback on teaching approaches.
There are plenty of tutors on the Superprof website all over New Zealand and around the world. Even if you can't find local tutors, there are lots of online tutors who can provide tutoring in a variety of subjects and at any time of day.
If you're on a budget, group tutoring is also an option and if you know of other parents homeschooling their children, you could organise group tutoring for them, allowing you to save money while also having more control over their education than you would if they were in a local school.
Since many of the tutors on the Superprof site offer their first lesson for free, you can try out a few options before choosing which one's right for you and your child's homeschooling.
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