Due to constant traveling, I have been homeschooling my son for the last few months. We have gone through different stages where he enjoyed it or didn’t, and I’ve had a few struggles getting him to listen and to actually like doing work, especially math.

My son is seven years old and officially in first grade, although he does a variety of work, mostly on a second grade level. He loves to read, often asking to stay up late and read another chapter or another book (much as I did as a kid). Math is a struggle. He understands it and does quite well in it, but he gets bored and bogged down at times. I’ve used several different methods to make it more fun, and we seem to be getting somewhere now. I don’t use a ready-made curriculum, we’re learning together as we go.

So, some tips:

-Remember that every child, and every student, is an individual. What works for one kid may not work for another, even in the same family.
-Also, children are just as dynamic as adults—maybe even more so, because their habits and preferences are not yet solidified. They’re still figuring out who they are. Mine even changes his favorite color from week to week. So, what works one day may not work the next. Constantly observe and determine whether or not your methods are getting the job done and still making it interesting.
-Learning, especially for young children, should be fun! Constant repetition and dry routine is boring and can make kids think that they don’t like to “go to school”. Even with things like addition and multiplication tables, which must be memorized, you can make a game out of it to keep it fun.
-Help kids manage their time. My son has a lot of unsupervised time to do his work while I’m working on our home business and other things around the house and yard. I usually give him a list and a set of worksheets and he works on his own. Lately he’s had trouble getting finished in a reasonable amount of time. It seemed he was always doing the math and taking hours to get it done. So I made a schedule of what order to do the work in. Math comes last now, and he’s finished at lightning speed. He know that if he has any trouble to skip the question or problem and wait for me to help him out in the afternoon. On sluggish days we’ll often sit down together and work through problems together. Kids need time to do their lessons, but it’s important to have structure. If you need to, use an egg timer to separate out periods of time for different subjects or activities.
-Set up an award system for good behavior and performance. Stickers, computer or tv time, special toys or books, etc. work well. The Book-It program teamed up with Pizza Hut in the 80′s to help kids enjoy reading. Kids set a goal for themselves and when they hit it or exceed it, they win free pizza. It works wonderfully and is one of the reasons I learned to love reading.
-Check online for games, worksheets, e-books and workbooks, and resources. There are lot of free sources out there, and a lot of good stuff. Even when you’re buying curriculum or individual books, you don’t have to spend a lot. I got some excellent used school books from the free store and various thrift stores. I use them as the main curriculum and throw in some homemade teaching tools of my own. If you have a paid curriculum you can still use these as supplements or review materials.
-Anything can be a teaching tool. Don’t limit yourself to books and certified resources. Nontraditional resources would include movies, video games, nature walks, internet, “field trips” to the grocery store, etc. If your child asks a question and you don’t know the answer, teach them to use an encyclopedia or do a Google search. When they want to know what a word means, pull out the dictionary or visit dictionary.com Discuss movies (even non-educational ones) to teach them about theme, characters, setting, and plot (guess what – the same elements in a book are also in film!). Make a trip to the grocery store or bank an educational field trip involving money, community, transportation, marketing, or career day. Let older relatives, visitors from other places, and even yourself, teach your kid about history and his or her roots. When it’s time for creative writing, allow them to write about their interests. My child is writing an essay in first grade. It’s about a video game, but he’s learning to write an essay. That is what’s important, after all.
-Include the “electives”–music, art, computers, P.E., library . These are parts of the day looked forward to in traditional classrooms, but often get left out of the home school environment. You don’t have to be an athlete, a musician, an artist, or a computer whiz to get your kids some experience and involvement in these areas. Once again, the Internet is a great resource for ideas and free tools like sound files, photos, educational games, typing teachers, instructional videos, and more.

Above all, don’t be afraid to experiment and to have fun yourself! Education is not about being chained to a desk with a heavy book and a pen. It’s about opening your mind and becoming an individual who can think for yourself. This is the greatest gift and legacy we can give our children.

A quality education is the best legacy we can leave our children.