Maintaining Discipline in Homeschooling

When the child stays at home all day, and mommy is the teacher,

there are certain issues of discipline at stake. It is easy for he

child to misconstrue the freedom he has at home and feel that

homeschooling is just a long summer holiday. This is a potential

landmine and children need to be disciplined right at the start.

Homeschooling gives you and your child a truly immense amount of

flexibility. You and your child decide where to learn, how much to

learn and when to learn. But,these should be decisions made at

the beginning stages. If your child is too little to take an

active part in the decision, chart out a few hours of the day for

the various activities, and stick to it. When there is no outside

agency to supervise and no exams to answer, it is easy to get

sidetracked. If your child is old enough, consult him and find out

when he wants to learn. Apply your parental discretion and come up

with a timetable.

Homework is also a part of homeschooling. What this means is that

once lessons have been taught, the child should be asked to do

some part of the course work by himself without your guidance. You

will need to make sure that your child sits willingly and finishes

his work.

Courtesy, manners and punctuality are some of the various facets

of discipline that a child has to imbibe in the early years of his

life. The school where he interacts with his peers, his seniors

and juniors and his teachers mould these values quite

automatically. At homeschool, the child should be taught the

importance of speaking and behaving in a proper manner and

appropriate corrections need to be meted out if behavior is

unsatisfactory.

It is advisable to keep aside a particular room or a part of the

room for your homeschool. The child should be expected to reach

his desk at the appointed time, in proper attire with all the

necessary material. It is easy to allow the school to become an

extension of play if these ground rules are not laid out and

followed. As the teacher, supervisor, principal and janitor rolled

into one, you should also approach the study area with a cool

professionalism.

Homeschooling is doomed to fail without patience. In spite of all

the precautions and steps one takes, it is easy for a child to get

familiar' at homeschool. At such times, it may be difficult to

discipline the child and get him to listen to you attentively.

When this happens, switch to something new. Allow the child to

take a breather and enjoy a break yourself.

Homeschooling is not easy. It requires a lot of hard work and

patience. The very informality of the whole procedure sometimes

works against it by making it too easy. If you take steps to

establish rules at the very beginning and adhere to these rules,

your homeschooling experience will be a huge success.