A homeschooling teacher will face a number of hurdles and discussing how other homeschool parents have dealt with similar issues will help them come up with their own solutions. Here are a couple of common issues that many homeschool families face, and potential solutions.
How many hours do you homeschool?
A regular school curriculum can hardly ever be implemented in the homeschool family set up. The homeschool students will mix up school lessons with chores around the house. They will take breaks which are definitely longer than an average school break for their mid-day meal. So how do you decide when to teach and how long to keep the kids in the homeschool classroom?
A general rule of thumb that many homeschool teachers follow is to teach the children in primary school grades the number of hours of their grade. However this is a better estimation. Grade one to three students are taught for a total of two hours, and grade four to six students for a total of three hours in the day. Those in grades seven to nine will study about four hours a day. While grades ten to twelve will study five to six hours a day.
Dealing with learning roadblocks
Often the lessons being taught are easily assimilated by the homeschool students. The homeschool teacher is aware of how to address the learning ability of each student personally and uses it to their advantage in the homeschool classroom. However, occasionally the homeschool family will hit a roadblock. The student struggles to understand a particular concept and the teacher is at her wits end to explain it. It feels that both of them are banging their heads against a wall and nothing constructive is coming through.
In such a situation it would help to take a step back and not force learning. Keep your cool. It’s not a matter of life and death. Ask other homeschool teachers how they taught the concept. Get ideas off the internet on how you can explain the lesson differently. Find videos or books related to the concept that the homeschool student could watch or read on their own. Something will eventually click and the homeschool student will get past the learning roadblock.
