Homeschooling Online - Choosing The Right Teaching Materials - Part 2
In part two of this series, we continue to look at some rules and/or guidelines for choosing the right homeschooling teaching materials…
Rule #2:
Choose the teaching materials that complement both you as the teacher and your child as the learner. Textbooks that are developed for traditional classrooms tend to be teacher directed and chalkboard oriented. Seldom do they take into account different teaching approaches and styles. Nor do they account for different ways that children perceive and process information.
Each student has a style in which he/she learns the best. Different children have different learning strengths and weaknesses that influence how they learn. The perceptive parent will notice this and take it into account when choosing the right teaching materials. Think of what your child is interested in and learn from that.
Rule #3:
If you don’t like the material that you have initially chosen, you will ultimately end up resisting using it no matter how good it may be. All teaching materials have a certain bias built into them, not just in the subject matter, but also in the way the subject matter is presented. Every teaching parent, whether he/she recognizes it or not, has an educational philosophy of their own or some set of values and beliefs about what and how children should be taught. You should be true to those beliefs.
Sometimes we will have an unexplained inner resistance to certain teaching materials such as formal textbooks. It could be that this inner resistance arises from a conflict between our educational philosophy and that of the teaching material itself, or it can be the result of your own experiences in the classroom. You need to choose your teaching materials from your spirit as well as from your head.
Rule #4:
Avoid programs that require a great deal of teacher preparation. Unless you are a high-energy person or really enjoy researching, you will be extremely irritated by these types of programs. They are often filled with detailed teacher’s manuals that you need to wade through, supplemental books or seminars that are necessary to fully utilize the program, or lots of activities to prepare beforehand. This ultimately can slow you down and result in both a frustrated parent and child.
Homeschooling Online