Tips Getting Started with Homeschooling for both newbies veterans! Here’s a couple of things to keep in mind when you start back up (or to give your year-round homeschool experience a boost of inspiration):

TIP #1: Kids love stories! “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” ~Albert Einstein Look for opportunities that you can share the world and your life lessons in the form of stores to help children connect and link up new ideas. It’s better if you can tell the stories (or read them aloud) rather than handing kids a book.

TIP #2: Get in nature! Most kids have huge smiles and rosy cheeks within a few minutes of active, outdoor play. And oddly enough, they’re also more calm and centered when they have regular outdoor exploration and creative time. Even if you have a tiny backyard or a park on the corner, get outside and enjoy nature in your own special way.

TIP#3: Art! Art! Art! I know this sounds strange coming from a science teacher, but art is just as important! Make sure your kids have enough unstructured moments when they can creatively use their imagination and develop their skills in expression.

TIP #4: Childhood is NOT a race! This is a hard one for parents to understand, especially in our technology-driven society where everyone has access to everything all the time. Remember that kids are MORE different on the inside as they appear to be on the outside. What that also means is that you have to be able to identify the specific needs of your children individually and meet them where they are at.

TIP #5: Be a Role Model! You can teach your kids how to play by sharing in their world. Show them how you do things so they can model you. They’re paying more attention to your actions than your words, so don’t bother talking nearly as much as DOING. (Babies learn to walk and talk without an instruction manual or formal curriculum lessons, right?)

The biggest problem we’re seeing today with kids is that they are hanging around other kids more than ever, with little to no adults around to model how they are to be. In fact, their role models are now coming from social media, the internet, and entertainment like movies and video games. Are the things you are exposing your child to – the things that your child is actively observing – the type of behavior and character you want to them to imitate?

TIP #6: Get Your Routine Down! Kids thrive on boundaries and routines. Meal times, bed times, snuggle and reading times, individual one-on-one times – these are so important to your child’s sense of security and well-being. They need to know what they can count on in order to feel safe exploring and discovering their world.

TIP #7: Get Help and Take Care of Yourself! I cringed today when someone called me “super mom”. That’s no how I see myself. Sure, I do a lot, but at the end of the day, I’m just a gal that loves her family. I see myself as most of the time giving, serving and helping others, both inside my family and in the community, and I also have regular down-time for taking care of myself so I have more to give and grow. I outsource what I can, ask for help, and streamline the rest (thank goodness for washing machines and dishwashers! How did our pioneering ancestors do it?!)

I hope this is helpful! Please add your own helpful tips in the comments below and share this post to help out the “homeschool parent next door”!

If you want your kids to learn science from a real scientist, and you want them to be totally engaged and excited about what they are learning, but you don’t feel you have the time or the know-how to teach it, I can help.

Go to www.SuperchargedScience.com

When you get there, you’ll see a video that shows you the science curriculum that I developed and teach.

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