Tag: homeschooling

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10 Homeschool Scheduling Ideas To Help Foster Learning

Creating a homeschooling schedule can be really difficult and if you are new to homeschooling, in particular, you may have trouble coming up with your own schedule. Sure, many school districts will help to come up with some schedule, but your child probably won’t benefit from it. To make your own, think about these ideas:

Start With MindFinity

Starting with games from MindFinity to help to get your child thinking and moving early in the morning. This will help to make the rest of the day a success as well. MindFinity takes only a few minutes, but it can boost Inventive IQ and teach your child the foundations of polymath thinking through offline play in pattern recognition, pattern design, analogy and real time composition.

MindFinity delivers a weekly packet with daily activities for each weekday that can be expanded in dozens of ways. You’ll get your brain going too, helping you feel sharper as you start your day. For more information about MindFinity, click here.

Allow Your Child To Dictate

Remember when you were a kid and you hated to do reading first because you were tired and the silent time made you want to fall asleep? Or maybe you hated having math at the end of the day because it was so hard for you and you dreaded it all day long.

Talk to your child about what they want to do first. 

Schedule In Breaks

Breaks are important. Sometimes everyone needs a break and it will help you to get through the day without any breakdowns on your part or with your child.

Start With The Hard Stuff

If there is hard stuff (either for them to learn or you to teach), consider getting it done right away. There are certain lessons that just take everything that you have and it is best to get those out of the way while everyone is still fresh.

Don’t Be Afraid To Space It Out

If you have something that is really difficult to do, break it up into smaller chunks of your day. This will, once again, give everyone a chance to breathe and reboot if necessary.

Don’t Be Afraid Of “Time Back”

If your child gets something within the first five minutes of the lesson, and you don’t have any enrichment ideas or don’t think they are necessary, don’t be afraid to move onto something else. Sometimes kids don’t need repetition and hours with a subject if it just clicks for them.

Don’t Be Afraid Of Needing More Time

If something isn’t clicking for your child, take more time with them. Maybe you need to approach the subject from a different angle, find a new way to present the information, or just have more time practicing.

Know When To Call It A Day

One of the beauties of homeschooling is that if your child isn’t in the mood to do something that day, you can call it a day and pick it up again tomorrow. You can’t do this all the time, but once in a while can be a good mental health practice.

Know When To Keep Going

Similarly, if your child is really enjoying a subject, project, or book, keep going! Don’t be afraid to extend the day if you can.

Snack Timing Matters

Food is fuel and will help your child stay focused and on the right track – if you choose the right foods. Don’t give your child a carb-loaded snack right before silent reading time and then expect them to stay awake.

MindFinity Helps Supplement Homeschooling and Remote Learning

If you are trying to homeschool your child, then you know that there can sometimes be a bit of a wall when it comes to planning out new, exciting lessons. You aren’t a teacher who has 30 years of experience in making lesson plans!

MindFinity can help you by introducing different activities that will have your child learning and get your own creative gears moving. For a few minutes every day, you won’t have to plan out the lessons. Instead, they are delivered to your inbox and you can build from there.

For more information about MindFinity, please click here.

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How To Homeschool In Elementary School – 11 Tips

If you’re homeschooling your elementary student, you know that there are going to be some hiccups and hard times on your pathway. This was never going to be something that was extremely easy, you just knew that it would be worth it because the public school system is outdated and isn’t teaching children to think or instilling a love of learning in our kids.

We have some tips that will help you make the most of this experience with your child. These may seem basic, but they are going to make the biggest impact on your child’s education.

Start With MindFinity

Starting with MindFinity will help to get your child thinking and moving early in the morning. This will help to make the rest of the day a success as well. MindFinity takes only a few minutes, but it will teach your child how the foundations of polymath thinking, pattern recognition, pattern design, analogy and real time composition.

MindFinity delivers daily activities to your inbox. You will be able to get the rest of the day ready or enjoy another sip of coffee while your child has fun and learns at the same time. For more information about MindFinity, click here.

Create A Daily Schedule

One thing that public schools get right is that they put our kids on schedules. You need to do the same – find what works and stick with it. It doesn’t have to look like a traditional school schedule, but it should start and end at the same time every day. Don’t start at 9 AM one day and 1 PM the next unless you have no other options.

Write Up A Curriculum

Write down what you want to do on a given day, in a week, or for a particular month. This will help to keep you organized and ensure that you cover everything you need to cover. You will likely get some sort of curriculum from your partner school, but you will want to expand on that.

Don’t Be Afraid To Slow Down

If you think that your child is struggling with a certain lesson, slow down. Try to use analogy, and the “coach your child” approach in MindFinity. Then go over the basics again or work in more practice. Don’t be afraid to go off track to ensure that they know the material.

Don’t Be Afraid To Speed Up

The opposite is also true: if your child understands addition and doesn’t need to keep doing drills, skip over them, and move onto the harder stuff. There will come a time when you are glad you didn’t waste time.

Make Sure Your Child Is Hydrated

A lot of kids are chronically dehydrated because they get so focused that they don’t drink. Teachers will work water breaks into their daily schedules just to ensure that kids drink water.

If you notice your child yawning or falling asleep, be sure they take a few sips of water. Model that behavior as well – make sure you drink plenty of water.

Establish A Learning Space

If you can, make a learning space. This can be in their room or in the kitchen, but ideally is a space they use solely for learning. Decorate it with themed decor, make sure they have access to all of their supplies, and allow them to personalize it a bit like traditional students would their desks or lockers.

Connect With Other Homeschoolers

Your partner school should give you a list of other homeschoolers in the area. If they don’t, you can connect on social media. Work together to develop lessons that work, go on field trips, and just socialize your children more.

Get Your Child Involved In Other Activities

If you homeschool, your child is allowed to join sports teams and activities at the partner school. It is a good idea to get them involved so that they can meet different people, get exercise, and explore their interests.

Utilize Different Forms Of Media

As a homeschool parent, you have so many different forms of media at your fingertips! Use books, magazines, YouTube, movies, television, real-time experiences, podcasts, and more to make each day feel different and exciting.

Go Outside

Recess works wonders for many kids – they have a lot of energy they need to expend!

MindFinity Helps Supplement Homeschooling

If you are trying to homeschool your child, then you know that there can sometimes be a bit of a wall when it comes to planning out new, exciting lessons. You aren’t a teacher who has 30 years of experience in making lesson plans. 

MindFinity can help you by introducing different activities that will have your child learning and get your own creative gears moving. For a few minutes every day, you won’t have to plan out the lessons. Instead, they are delivered to your inbox and you can build from there.

For more information about MindFinity, please click here.

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Schooling

Homeschool vs. Public School vs. Private School: What Is Best?

As a parent, there are a few choices that you will have to make that have a lot of strings attached. One of those is whether to homeschool your child versus public school or even private school. Admittedly, there are benefits to all of these institutions, just like there are some issues with them. 

Homeschooling: Can You Do It?

Homeschooling is an option that is best for parents who don’t work or those who are willing to use “pod education” styles.

Why homeschooling? The main reason parents school this option is because it helps them to completely personalize their lesson plans for the strengths and weaknesses of their child. Parents spend a lot of time with their children, getting to know how they think and bonding with them. Homeschooling allows parents to speed up or slow down lessons to better fit the needs of their children.

The problem? One of the biggest issues with homeschooling is that children don’t get as much social interaction as they would in public school. Yes, they can be in a pod, but most of those children are all from the same or similar backgrounds. 

Public Schooling: Is It Best?

For the most part, public schooling is the default for most parents. This is a free resource that guarantees your child an appropriate education. There are public schools located all over the country with transportation to get there,  making it easy for working parents to ensure their children get what they need.

Why public school? There is something to be said about sending your child to public schools so that they get the socialization they need to thrive. They are exposed to many different types of people, including those who they wouldn’t meet in their daily lives.

The problem? Most public schools teach to the lowest common denominator, not really helping children to succeed or thrive. Those children who are naturally gifted tend to get pushed off to the side with a book or given extra worksheets. Class sizes continue to grow, pushing those children who struggle into “low level” tracks from an early age.

What About Private Schools?

For many people, private schools are completely out of the budget unless they can get scholarships. Private schools have many of the same problems that public schools do, but they just put it in shinier packages. 

One thing to consider is that private schools tend to have smaller class sizes than public schools, but they don’t have “tracks” that most public schools do. Everyone gets to be together in one classroom. Private schools can also be a bit “cliquey” which can be a problem for children who don’t fit into those molds.

Even so, private schools have programs that can be extremely beneficial for students as they age. They also have alumni networks that can help them with college admissions and jobs into the future.

MindFinity Helps Supplement All Of These Schooling Types

As you can see, there are pros and cons to every type of schooling. MindFinity has been developed to help kids from all different educational backgrounds. Ultimately, it will depend on parents to ensure that their children are thriving in whatever school system they are in – plenty of successful people come from all of these backgrounds.

For homeschoolers, it helps to break up the day and presents information in a way that no other program does. Even better, it can help parents get ideas for how to present new and interesting topics.

For public schools, it helps your child learn how to think and learn instead of just dumping information onto them. 

For private school kids, it helps to encourage polymath thinking and can help to fill in some of the gaps that private schools may have. 

For more information about MindFinity, please click here.

At the end of the day, if you are weighing homeschooling vs public schooling vs private school, the decision will have to come down to what works best for you, for your family, and for your children. Sometimes, it is a combination of all three, and other times one track will work. Some students start as homeschooled and then go into public or private schools as they get older. The best thing you can do is pay attention to your child and try to meet his or her needs where they are – and don’t be afraid to try something new if what you were doing isn’t working anymore.