Bored with Curriculum?

Posted by Shawnee | 0 comments

Homeschooling has so many options that boredom with curriculum should only be a temporary setback at best. The parents and the children have limitless choices.

Parents may need to follow a basic set of rules because of requirements for their state (example: math, science, English, social studies, and a study of good citizenship). The beauty of homeschooling is that the parent can choose which books to use to teach these requirements and whether they even want to use books for them. They can teach the subjects in a variety of ways, such as videos, craft kits, puppet shows, field trips, games, shopping trips, nature walks, and so on.

If your child is a reader and learns best by reading, a trip to the local library can provide a wide array of choices. Money doesn’t have to be a problem; just browse garage sales or take trips to thrift shops to help your child find low-cost books. Find book clubs online and allow your child to help choose what books are ordered to develop their interest in the process of setting up your curriculum. Get your child to help set-up the area where your homeschool books are stored. Let he or she decorate their own study areas and notebooks, choose their own pencils and book lights, and even start a book swap with other children.

If science is hard for your child to develop an interest in, allow your child choices in which books are used to study science. Your child may learn best by a hands-on approach. Find ways to allow experiments in science. Board games such as Scrabble can enhance spelling. Buy or borrow a microscope to allow them to see things that are not readily seen with the eyes. Search the internet for a list of household items and how-to instructions that may be used to learn chemical reactions. Take a nature walk to learn about the animals and plants. Visit a zoo to learn about animals outside their normal contacts. Create paper dolls or have the child make a book of the subject being studied. For history, you can even draw pictures in the dirt to re-create civil war scenes. Play-doh or dioramas are great ways to show scenes.

The daily schedule can be as flexible as necessary to allow for each child’s attention span, illness, emergencies, and need for breaks. Flexibility helps reduce resistance to required subjects in which the student may be bored regardless of the way the subject is taught. Sometimes boredom may seem to be the problem, when in reality the reason could be illness, inadequate rest, hunger, or too much demand for concentration.

If your problem is not necessarily the subject you are required to study, shake up the routine. Homeschooling allows you the choice to make your child’s education as interesting as your imagination can reach. Be creative and get your child involved in the process of how he or she would prefer to learn the subject. You may be surprised at the results and at your child’s ability to absorb the information once given flexibility in how it is approached. The key is in how to present the material so that your child will be able to develop more interest.

Stomp the word boredom out of your educational vocabulary.

By Guest Writer Shawnee Bowlin