Homeschooling is now becoming a trend in many countries worldwide.
Many parents are recognising homeschooling as a good education choice since it allows education to be fluid and cater to abilities rather than age-focus.
Instead of rote learning in Singapore’s education system, parents can now choose which curriculum best fit their child’s learning abilities and interest. They do not have to strictly stick with one either, the best part of homeschooling is that you can mix the curriculum up, tailor-made to suit your family needs.
If you are considering putting your child to homeschooling, here are some of the best homeschooling resources online to help you understand the system.
Educational Philosophies
Parents will be surprised to hear that homeschooling also uses the same educational methods used in regular schools. You can also tweak it and add other styles to ensure your children can get the most out of their lessons at home.
Charlotte Mason
Mason advocates the use of literature, narration and nature studies for students. With this method, they will be able to process information and be able to say them again in their own words. The key to Charlotte Mason’s curriculum is to educate the whole child, not just his or her mind, with a wide variety of resources and materials.
Waldorf
Waldorf advocates the focus on a child’s overall development. Lessons and activities should target a child’s heart, mind and hands. Waldorf curriculum encourages children to use their imagination and be creative with their choices. It integrates academic, arts and practical life skills into their lessons.
Glenn Doman
Glenn Doman or popularly known as right brain development focus on accelerating the development of normal children by using flashcards, fun games and stimulation. An Asian method comparable to Glenn Doman is the Shichida Method, which is popular among parents in Singapore and Malaysia.
Leadership Education
This educational philosophy is also known as the Thomas Jefferson Education method because it follows the US president’s leadership style. Under this philosophy, students are taught how to think rather than focus on what they need to think about. It also uses classics and encourages students to speak about them with their mentors.
Montessori
For this philosophy, students are given the opportunity to experiment, choose and move around to learn more about the world. Children are encouraged to explore their creative side and make innovative choices based on real-life situations while the facilitator guides along within the age-appropriate activities.
Reggio Emilia
This approach allows the lessons to be self-directive, experimental and fun. Using the fundamental method of learning, the parent or facilitator will allow the child freedom to explore and experiment with ample encouragement.
Interest-Led Learning
This educational philosophy is seen by many as “unschooling” because a child’s interest is used as the focus to organize their lessons. Under this method, children are allowed to be curious because it is in their nature to be curious. Many of the lessons are student-led and the adult acts as a facilitator and learn together with the child.
Best Online Curriculums
If you are certain homeschooling is for your child, you need to decide which curriculum to follow. Down below is a list of all the available curriculums you can use for your child’s studies.
Oak Meadow
Oak Meadow’s curriculum helps students work on their studies from preschool to secondary school with the help of creative arts.
Homeschool Reviews
If you want to make sure that the curriculum is worth the price, Homeschool Reviews has the reviews to help you out. In this website, parents who are homeschooling share their thoughts about the curriculums their children are using. You will also get ideas here on what other curriculums are used for homeschooling.
Moving Beyond the Page
This curriculum helps students develop critical thinking skills and improve comprehension for kids 5 to 12 years old. It will also look into the child’s strengths and preferred learning style to adjust the lessons to match it. The instructions used for this curriculum are project-based that follows the national curriculum and beyond.
Best Websites for Online Learning
The internet now has several educational platforms that will help homeschooling students keep up with their studies. Here are some of the best websites they can use.
SmileTutor
SmileTutor allows you to choose from 50,000 online tutors, to pick your ideal tutors to conduct 1-to-1 online tuition classes with your child. These online private tuition lessons are highly personalized and highly effective.
Khan Academy
In this website, students can check out resources for various subjects like math, physics, chemistry, history and finance. They have short clips about certain concepts, as well as interactive games that will help students practice what they learnt.
Starfall
Young students will definitely love this website because it uses interactive games to help teach phonics. They also offer short videos to inspire kids to learn sounds and letters, as well as read short storybooks.
Time4Learning
If your kids love to play computer games, you can sign them up for this website. For just USD$19.99 per month, your children will be able to play games that will help them with math, science, reading and social studies.
Academic Earth
In 2009, this website was recognized by Time magazine as one of the 50 best websites for the year. The site offers high-level lectures for a variety of topics without any signup fee.
Best Facebook Communities
Social media has also jumped into the education wagon and many groups use it to share information. Homeschoolers would be pleased to know that there are now social media communities for homeschoolers where you can meet other students and parents also doing the same thing.
Down below are some of Facebook’s top communities for homeschoolers.
facebook.com/hiphomeschoolmoms
For moms who would like to share or learn information from their fellow moms about homeschooling, this group is the one to check out. The community often holds regular online events for moms to e-meet up and share tips on how to maximize their child’s lessons. They even hold free giveaways for followers.
facebook.com/simplehomeschool
This Facebook community is the discussion page for the Simple Homeschool blog. The blog teaches parents how they can homeschool their children using simple steps to assist in their efforts. The Facebook community allows followers to discuss these steps and ask the blogger about their homeschooling situation.
facebook.com/TheHomeschoolLounge
For moms who need support as they homeschool their kids, this community will help you out. They offer online chat rooms so moms can get encouragement from other moms who are homeschooling their kids. The community also discusses the common issues parents face during homeschooling and find solutions for them.
facebook.com/homeschoolpost
This Facebook community hosts discussions regarding the best Homeschool blogs available online. Followers can discuss the content of these blogs and even nominate them for the yearly Homeschool Blog Awards.
Conclusion
With the development of the internet and the changing learning styles of children, homeschooling can be customized to fit any student. These resources above will definitely assist you in understanding this new way of learning and even show you why you should consider it.
Remember, children do vary on how well they learn and maybe this is the education method that will help them be the best that they can be.
Looking to start your homeschooling journey? Here are some articles for you:
The Pros and Cons of Homeschooling in Singapore
Homeschooling As An Option
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