Homeschooling is very much like traditional schooling in one important way. The teacher needs to be inspiring to help the student learn more effectively. This means that when the lessons are fun, the student is going to learn more and want to learn as much as possible. It sounds like a lot of responsibility, but it isn’t that difficult to be a more inspiring teacher.
As a homeschool teacher, you are more in control of the teaching strategies so it is actually easier to be a more exciting teacher and make the lessons more engaging. Instead of simply going through the motions, you can create a lesson plan that inspires and excites without making things too difficult on yourself at the same time. In this article, we will go over several ways to make homeschool lessons more fun.
1 – Run some experiments
The scientific method is a lesson that helps children understand how to learn and use critical thinking skills that follow them throughout their life. When children can learn to ask the right questions then they will have the skill to get them through a lot of different situations.
Kids learn best by doing when it comes to science and they also think that it is more fun. Instead of teaching lessons out of a book then try some simple experiments that they will enjoy doing. You just need to have some classroom supplies for teachers and a plan to help them get the most learning possible out of the experiment.
An experiment will be fun but you have to make sure it is in the context of learning a greater lesson than just the result of it. In other words, they should be able to understand why the results happened and apply that to other things. Observation is a very powerful skill to have. Ask them a lot of questions so they can use their power of observation and come to some conclusions that help them use critical thinking skills.
Don’t limit these experiments to only science. You can run some thought experiments with mathematics and even language so they can get the same kind of thought-provoking lessons. This is fun and engaging and a great way to teach them things they would ordinarily be bored with.
2 – Use the outdoors
Sitting in a classroom is not only boring but is also stifling. Even if your classroom is the living room of your house, kids will eventually get bored and tune out. Luckily, there are lessons to be learned everywhere so you can move the classroom to the outdoors.
This can mean that you take the same lesson plan that you had done for that day and use an outdoor setting to teach. Or, you can actually use the outdoors as a lesson and use it as a teaching tool. There are loads of things that kids can learn outside that excite them and will stick with them longer than a book lesson.
The fresh air will give them more energy and the sights and sounds will inspire them to learn. Look into ways of incorporating what you have been teaching lately by looking around in nature. The kids will love it and it will also help you get out of a rut and routine by shaking things up a bit.
3 – Don’t rush things
Every child learns at their own pace and is not always going to be able to learn on your schedule. You may have every lesson planned down to the last detail but you can’t force the pace of them if your child is not keeping up. This can have an effect that essentially creates a learning wall that they are not able to get past. When this happens they shut down and will be hard to work with. This is the opposite of fun and needs to be avoided.
Make sure to not get too focused on your schedule and work with how your child learns and at what pace. It could be a certain subject that is the sticking point and you’ll need to change your strategy for that one.
Take the time to respond to their needs without pushing them too hard. There will be times to get tough to make sure the work is getting done, but if you try to rush things when they are legitimately stuck on something then you risk sabotaging your hard work and effort across the board.
