Today we continue with our last teaching tip on how to homeschool high school.
Independent Learning Strategies
in Your High School Homeschooled Child
When your children are young, you have the perfect opportunity to provide a firm character foundation. Not only should you ground your children in strong character, you should begin to develop a lifelong love of learning in your homeschooled child. Both of these are essential for your children to become leaders of the future.
As your homeschooled kids grow into high school, they should be less dependent on you for their education as they develop their own style of independent learning strategies.
How To Homeschool Teaching Tip #4
Independent Studies & Mentoring
The goal of leadership education is wisdom and independent learning. During this period of your children’s education, you will solidify their own learning strategies, as well as the desire for enduring education.
What’s the best teaching technique to use in this time of high school homeschool?
As Oliver DeMille says, “Structure the time, not the content!”
In other words, your job is to schedule time for your kids to learn. In doing so, you should allow your kids the chance to choose his course of study, the content. If your son is interested in motorcycles or sports, let him research those topics. If your daughter likes horses or soccer, give her time to study these areas.
Once a topic is chosen, determine the amount of time they will study each day. In our home, we begin with two to three hours daily for independent study. Our goal is to eventually study four to six hours each day.
When you allow your student to choose topics to study, you take one small step in raising a leader instead of a follower. Students who choose their course of study take ownership, or leadership, in their own high school homeschool education.
As your children study independently, they should be reading, writing and discussing their research. Encourage the use of a daily reading journal to record their findings and thoughts about their investigation. Regularly discuss the readings and the journal entries.
Good discussions provide another aspect of leadership training . . . learning how to think Biblically and critically. These are learning strategies your students can use their entire life. Our family used dinnertime for family discussions. Having both dad & mom at the table during your discussions provides different perspectives on issues.
To this day, we continue to have discussions around the dinner table.
Do you eat together? Do you discuss issues with your older kids?
One of the major problems with education today is an emphasis on “what to think”. Schools that move students from grade to grade, teaching the same way to everyone, simply train students “what to think”.
Leadership education is a learning strategy that goes beyond the conveyor belt, grade-level schools and teaches students “how to think”. When you give your children opportunities to think on their own, you take another step in preparing them to lead and preparing them for life-long learning and thinking.
You must decide what learning strategies are best for your children.
Schooling (what to think) is definitely not the same thing as an education (how to think).
What do you want for your children . . . a schooling or an education?
If you want more helps with mentoring, classics, journaling, Socratic discussion, check out 6-Week Teach “How to Think” E-Class.
Question: What do you want for your children…a schooling or an education? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Did you miss a teaching tip? Click below to read the other tips!
5 Days of How to Homeschool:
- Teaching Tip 1: Character is Necessary
- Character Development for Kids
- Teaching Tip 2: Love of Learning
- Teaching Tip 3: Shifting to Independent Learning
- Teaching Tip 4: High School Homeschool
