Homeschooling Only A Child

If I homeschool families you know in your Co-op support group or church you can see that the majority consists of more than one child. In fact 2006 was the National Center for Education reported that families with three or more children up to 62% of the homeschool population. If you are one of the few with a child at home, you may ask yourself: “Can I teach my only child?”

The emphatic answer is yes you can. Only families with many children enjoying the same benefits of homeschooling for larger families. A friend who was her only son to the age of 10 homeschooled if their family was like a miracle in size reminded me that homeschooling, like everything else, what you do. If you sow good seed in your homeschool, you will reap a rich harvest, regardless of the number of children in your home.

My husband and I homeschool our children, our hearts before we even had any. We were born shortly before homeschooling our 12-year-old had been introduced. Our reasons for homeschooling reflects that most families to educate the whole child, keeps her heart in the house to make them a strong Christian worldview. We kept a little for her only child until I became a member of a homeschool support group and realized that we are in the minority. Only two of the more than thirty families in my support team, including ourselves, only families with many children.

I did not panic. Our faith had not changed. We had a God-given vision for our family. I was excited about the benefits of homeschooling the only child, I could immediately see: an abundance of one-on-a-time, allowing more freedom in the choice of curriculum and activities, and more flexibility in our schedule than those already homeschooling.
But first, let’s see what the tests you face as they strive to homeschool your only child could. Homeschooling an only child has some unique challenges, but none of them are insurmountable.

Interaction with others
I do not believe a mother’s life outside schools out there, no question of socialization to work in the field. As the only child family, then you would think adjusted. Well-meaning friends and family that our daughter was in a traditional school environment because they have no siblings to share, learn and help her work the differences. Secret I did not know that they have a classroom of same-sex colleagues, who helps shape their self-esteem issue.

So I thought, to fill the gaps in the absence of brothers and sisters. One of the first lessons that we taught her respect: for yourself, others and things. Simple, I know it is also useful as a general life. Applied to homeschooling our daughter has learned these rules, the elements in the real socialization, and not what society demands of socialization. She learned to respect life in their thinking and in her image of herself as a bright, compassionate and strong child of God. Respect for others is very important when we visited the library, and when you hear the instructions on the math task. Respect for the things that are naturally from discussion of God’s creation design. Caring for her own toys, breakable things came out of our rented house, and items from friends, dass

We have tried to explore the possibilities of our daughter, to build relationships. We are involved in church and community events. We visited the trip organized by our support group. We have taken steps to create friendships, plan time together. We went to our support group for residents in a nursing home to visit once a month, our daughter, both the benefits of practicing social skills and the value of being a blessing to other offers. These activities had as its main task is to learn to communicate with people of all ages and stages of life.

Avoid a child-centered home
In case of a child-centered home is a real problem for all parents, especially parents of a homeschooled child. With our child who has so much focus in our lives, we know how to keep the right place in our house? We must ensure that its responsibility to strengthen the home as they grow to maturity and ability. We need to imitate others, as neighbors of the widow and sick friends. We model a healthy marriage, we have time together as husband and wife, and we remember God first above everything.

One-on-one time with parents
Homeschooling has offered precious quality time between parents and children. If you are homeschooling a child, this time maybe even cheaper. With mom and dad how important our daughter playmates, we are able to focus on specific skills such as sharing and playing pretty focused.

When my husband came home from work and found our daughter and me competing fiercely in a game of Candy Land. Although it is sometimes tempting to let her win, we know that if we win every time we do not know how to lose gracefully. We can spend much of our time to care for their talents and interests and our values ​​embedded in their hearts. Whatever the size of the family, which is one of the greatest blessings of homeschooling.

Freedom and flexibility
Every child has a one-of-a-kind creation of God, and homeschooling allows us to focus on the uniqueness of each child. This is one of the blessings we enjoy, regardless of family size, which means that families like ours can take advantage of homeschooling as much as anyone.

We value our freedom of choice. We choose the curriculum that our children learning style compliments about how much time is devoted to a topic, if our child is in italics, or latin, workbooks, manipulative, or learning, and so it goes.

Different sizes, same blessings
As I have repeatedly emphasized, the blessings of homeschooling basically the same regardless of family size. Some of the blessing can be viewed in different ways, and to some degree, they can vary in quantity. For example, built into a family with several children more opportunities to enjoy features like collaboration and sharing of learning, while a family with one child, enjoying a greater flexibility in choice of curriculum and activities. In both cases, built versatility homeschooling families to adapt their approach, strong and weak points and exploit the potential to fill. That’s the great advantage of homeschooling, it is adaptable, flexible and adaptable to the specific circumstances of your family.