List of essential tools and techniques for effective homeschooling. 

We started homeschooling last year as our elder daughter turned into 3. When I started brainstorming to write, I realized that my children were already in school when they were born.

The goal of this post is  to share with you some of the tools and techniques for homeschooling we have developed so far. However, you can know in detail about homeschooling by visiting “Home Schooling – An Emerging Trend (a brief on Pros and Cons)” and “Methods of Home Schooling”.  

Homeschooling starts at birth, but we do not give it a name or discipline. Playing with kids while lying on my lap and reading stories aloud or using flashcards is something I remember doing. They may not understand what we are doing, but reading for your kids is an important activity for their development. As explained by Kandia N. Lewis at kidshealth.org, reading aloud has several advantages for newborn kids as follows:

• Builds listening skills, memory development and teaches communication.
• Helps in social and emotional development while encouraging to look, point, touch and questioning.
• Improves thinking and language through recognizing pictures, copying sounds and attempting to pick words.

From here onwards, the journey of educating children begins, which requires a method, a curriculum, and a set of tools & techniques. There are several resources available online to explore the curriculum depending on what you are interested in. In our case, we do not use a specific curriculum since we mix and match based on our comfort and the needs of our children. However, homeschooling requires specific tools and techniques to begin which mainly includes:

1. Books
2. Flash Cards
3. Boards
4. Posters
5. Worksheets
6. Prints
7. Activity learning
8. Use of Technology

There may be lots of other ideas or techniques available but the above is the list we have successfully experienced. As we go through each in detail, we found No. 07 to be the most interesting for our children.

1. Books:

The benefits of books for children extend well beyond their education. They help them develop their social skills, learn new languages, develop cognitive skills, and maintain their mental health. Involving children at an early age will boost their imaginations and inspire them to dream without any boundaries. There are several other advantages of developing a reading habit in children, which you can go through at “Raise Smart Kid”. Reading interest can be developed by introducing books from the beginning while singing aloud and reading stories. There is a famous proverb “A book is like a garden, carried in the pocket”.  My kids Collection:

We introduced our kids to books within the first year of their birth. While reading books aloud, we have personally found them more effective in building their vocabulary. Like we care for a child’s physical health, books are also required to nourish a child’s brain. William A. Feather said, “books open your mind, broaden your mind, and strengthen you as nothing else can.”

2. Flash cards:

Flashcards is a fast learning tool as it makes easier for children to retain the information. Flashcard is simply defined as “One Word, One Picture, One Story” which helps children to sharpen their focus due to the visuals on the card. They are an important source of learning and an exciting game for kids, as they are for mine. My daughter always plays with her cards by simply placing them on the floor and calling them out loud. The use of flashcards is found very effective for toddlers as this improves their ability to understand and improves visual memory. Flashcards are available in several options including colors, alphabets, shapes, animals, fruits, vegetables, short stories, and others which you can introduce gradually to your child.

3. Boards:

The board at the front of the classroom is one of the most important components of the classroom. As you are planning to use a part of  your house as a study room, it is necessary to set up some kind of board that can appeal to kids. Toddlers or children of early age get very excited as they are accustomed to new things therefore it is necessary to keep them engaged using different tools and techniques. You can have a fixed board, portable board, or use your creative mind to transform something into the board (as in my case), all have the same purpose to have fun with your kids.

4. Posters:

Charts and posters are the mode of learning and development whereas their colorful representation is a source of entertainment for kids. Images, pictures, and figures are helpful for kids in improving their memory. You do not need dedicated time to sit and engage your kids, poster is a great source to teach your kids during any part of the day. Many posters can be self-developed or several other options are available including decorating walls of your home to use as posters. As for my daughters, they use posters to play with each other as a teacher and student while pointing and calling out the images on the charts, sometimes I used to be their student as well.

5. Worksheets:

One of the most important tools and technique for homeschooling is use of worksheet. Worksheets are activity sheets for kids to exercise their learning. They primarily help children learn to write and practice. Worksheets help kids to work in different directions while practicing multiple things at the same time. They provide a more focused approach and support in developing skills. Worksheets are readily available for each age category in form of workbooks. They can also be developed at home considering what you think should be good for your child. The effective approach is to print individual sheets, laminate them all together for reuse, and handover to your kid to practice.

6. Prints: 

Not everything is available to buy or can be drawn. If anything special is required or you have some idea that needs to be materialized, then prints are handy for your kids. A printer with a lamination machine is a small set of tool to take prints of your choice or as desired by your kids and laminate them to be used for a longer period. Apart from printing small stories for your kids, different worksheets can be developed to soothe the requirements. Sometimes books are expensive to purchase then prints are the cheapest way worthy for your kids.

7. Activity Learning: 

Activity based learning is engaging your kids into mode of learning while involving them into different activities. Following are some examples:

1. Playdough
2. Blocks and puzzles.
3. Paints and colors
4. Science based fun activities

a. Play dough:

One of the ways to improve the motor skills of growing kids is the use of play dough. Motor skills are associated with the movement and action of the muscles. If you are not familiar with play dough, it is a soft substance produced in a variety of colors easily mouldable into different shapes.

Playdough comes with several advantages, for example, its availability in multiple colors helps your child recognize colors. Further, it enhances the creativity of your kids as it encourages them to transform their imagination into the real world by developing different shapes. You can provide different objects along with playdough so that they can sort, match, identify, locate, count, order, and coordinate things that will all aid in their cognitive development. You can learn various other benefits and attractions of playdough on google but my recommendations are to visit 7 Benefits of Playdough in Early Childhood and The benefits of playing with play dough. 

Apart from play dough, we share a piece of bread dough with kids as well which they use to play and imitate bread making. On weekends my daughter makes bread for me which no doubt is the most delicious I have ever tasted.

b. Blocks and Puzzles:

When it comes to kids and especially for their development, whatever we do is always less. Blocks are one of the most appealing toys for kids due to their availability in different colors, sizes, and shapes. Gwen Dewar has conducted a detailed study and highlighted the benefits of using blocks as an essential mode of learning for kids. Different kinds of blocks and puzzles are available which supports developing different skills. They assist in building memory, improving eye and hand coordination, problem-solving, and other cognitive skills. It’s fun to watch my daughters build towers with blocks or other objects and solve their alphanumeric puzzles on their own (sometimes I help them off-record).

c. Paints and colors:

Life is full of colors and painting is the way to express emotions as well as feelings. For everyone either toddler, growing children, or adults; colors are always fascinating as they represent life and fun. Coloring and painting are healthy activities adopted by educators for child development. Apart from color recognition, the use of pencils improves motor skills, hand-to-eye coordination, and concentration.

According to PennState Extension, painting along with children is very valuable as it establishes rich conversations between children and adults, and also promotes important connections. You can use pencils, crayons, color chalks, paintbrushes, or any other medium and enjoy observing your kids painting their imaginations. 

d. Science based Fun activities:

Another medium of education which is fun for my growing daughters is exploring new things and building their understanding. Science is the exploration of nature and provides reasoning for everything which we see around us. It can be either playing with toddlers teaching them how toys float and sink in water or letting your children know the shape and colors of the rainbow. So far, my kids have explored the relationships between rainbows and colors, clouds and rain, honey and bees, trees and seeds, the sun and planets, caterpillars and butterflies, etc. These stories can be made and used in a repetitive manner which is not only fun for kids but a great way to improve their reasoning capabilities while exploring nature from different perspectives.

Additionally, experiments are a good way to educate kids while having fun such as making bubbles, which is everyone’s favorite. Fun learning for kids is a great source of learning different experiments that can be used at home to play with your kids.

8. Use of Technology:

Use of technology is one of the effective tools and techniques for homeschooling. Nothing can be completed without the involvement of technology after all we are living in an era of science. Mobiles and tablets are used to engage the attention of children from the time of their birth. These devices are a source of entertainment for kids in the form of playing games but also a great source of education if used with proper parenting protocol (thanks to organizations involved in developing learning-based applications).

There are many online resources and applications that provide a complete curriculum for teaching kids of different ages. At present, we have just started using the application “Khan Academy Kids” for our kids and found it very effective. For my kids, it is like playing games but for me it is learning through the use of technology. 

Conclusion:

Above is a brief of some tools and techniques to start your home school but you may not use everything every day. Start building your library gradually and keep using them in a mix and match fashion. Frequent use of one method for a longer period may result in losing the interest of your child. It is always best to use these tools and techniques in an alternative way that your child feels comfortable with. Learning is not restricted to specific time or discipline, it is a continuous process as Mark Twain has beautifully said “Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection”. 

As parents we have opted homeschooling for our kids, our method is Eclectic / Relaxed homeschooling (methods of Home Schooling) and we are using the above tools/techniques for our kids. The above tools and techniques are for toddlers, pre-schoolers, and growing children of different ages. With time, we will keep expanding the above list in more detail as our children grow and will share it with you accordingly.

I hope the above information will help you to set your own tools and techniques. Do let me know what tools and techniques you found effective for your kids. Your feedback is valuable after all learning is continuous improvement for everyone.