Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Why Homeschooler Parents Need To Get Together More Often

Taking charge of your child’s education and ensuring they learn what they should be can be a full-time job. But helping them develop into fantastic young adults requires more than education. It requires socialization. They need to learn social dynamics, as well as group learning skills, that will help them later in life. It can be hard to connect with non-homeschoolers because of schedule clashes, so why not look into getting them together with other homeschoolers, instead?


Get connected and get organized
There might already be a collective group for homeschoolers in your area or you may have to start one. Using social media makes it a lot easier to connect with like-minded parents. Whether it’s an established group or one you’ve found, they might need use of some organizational skills to help everyone collaborate. To that end, you can make it a lot easier to keep in touch and exchange ideas through apps like an online directory. How involved every individual member is in this co-operative movement is their own choice, but it’s good to get everyone at least abreast of what kind of collaborations are on offer from you as well as the other members.


Find group activities that fit everyone
Every parent might have their own approach to how they teach their children. It’s important that you don’t try to or let anyone else railroad the direction of the group. No-one should be excluded because they didn’t want to participate in a certain activity or lesson. The idea is to pool resources and ideas together for those who want them, not to set a curriculum. If you want to show the benefits of the collaboration, however, it’s a good idea to put together a list of potential activities. Group learning is an important skill, and there are plenty of different ways to do it. It shouldn’t be difficult to find a number that the parents can all agree on.


Remember it’s about more than education
Children learn as much from each other as they do from being educated together. Both structured and unstructured play are important. Structured play helps them learn interpersonal boundaries with a little help. Meanwhile, unstructured play is how they learn about various social dynamics. They learn the problems and solutions themselves without having the answers handed to them. Of course, there’s also the fact that it’s just plain fun. It’s easy to miss the opportunity for collective fun when homeschooling, so consider recommending the occasional break day to the homeschoolers group. Whether that’s a relaxed picnic or a fun-filled day at a trampoline center. Don’t make education the only reason the kids get together.
By connecting with the parents of other homeschoolers, you can make a much more flexible socialization experience for you and your kids. Make sure everyone is comfortable with the direction the group takes, of course. You might not agree on teaching methods, but you can all agree on the importance of your involvement in the child’s development. Make that the cornerstone of all activity going forward.