Home schooling works in an informal environment, which is not often conducive to maintaining discipline especially when mom is the teacher. There is no external authority to impose discipline, without which the learning cannot proceed smoothly. Discipline is also needed to develop punctuality, orderliness and good manner. Hence special care needs to be taken to maintain a semblance of discipline and order in the study room and elsewhere for which the teacher and the student need to take certain precautions.
The rules and schedules of the classes need to be finalized before beginning the schooling. These should be fixed after taking the kid’s requirements into consideration, and once settled need to be pursued at all cost. The informality and flexibility of home schooling allows the teacher and student to choose the time, location and mode of the study and various other activities. But this should be within reasonable limit, and never allowed to get out of hand. The time table could be determined in consultation with the kid, but it should be fixed and implemented according to the teacher’s discretion.
A time should be fixed for doing home work and it should be regularly adhered to.Home work could mean making the child do an assignment from the day’s lesson without any one’s help. When formed as an early habit, the child may not find it difficult to sit alone and do the work. Or the teacher has to train the kid do that along with punctuality, courtesy and good manners. Timely corrections need to be made when the kid lags behind in any of these personality traits.
For best results, assign an airy and sunny part of the house for the studies. The teacher and the kid should be properly dressed and be present at the location on time with all proper study materials. The teacher should appear as a picture of cool professionalism. Such acts will impart a sense of seriousness in the kid’s mind. However, any well planned moves can go hay-wire, and if matters have not turned out as expected, the teacher need to be more patient and try repeating the procedures until the kid gets used to it. If the kid becomes inattentive, try to change the subject or take a short break.
Home schooling requires and lot of patience and hard work. If the kid is trained to follow the rules from the beginning it will form a habit. And the teacher will not face much problem proceeding with the schooling to its logical end very smoothly.
Posted on May 3rd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Behavior, Child Care, Learning, Toddler, school
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