College Planning: Building Skill Sets in Home School
By Mimi Rothschild
In the home school setting, you are bombarded with countless choices and methodologies with which to pass along to your children to develop the skills that they will use the rest of their lives. This has nothing to do with whether or not you teach creationism in homeschool or 'intelligent design.' This is about the skills that your homeschool student can apply to every subject and situation for the rest of her life. These skills include:
- Study skills
- Time management
- Physical health
- Mental wellness
- Discipline
- Perseverance
- Responsibility
Study skills don't just apply to home school education. Study skills translate into concentration and active participation in learning that will help them develop observation skills and preparedness. These will apply to a variety of areas in their lives beyond home school.
In home school and in the adult world, the ability to manage your time, in such a way that you achieve the things that you need to accomplish as well as have time to enjoy the things that you'd like to do, is essential. This can be interpreted as the ability to get your home school work done before watching television as well as planning to attend a party on a day when you won't have other pressures hanging over your head.
If you don't feel well, you can't get anything done, period. Encouraging and insisting on a regular, physical and active life is something that can not only extend your child's life in duration but also increase the quality of her life in home school and for the rest of her adult life.
Managing time and therefore stress as well as staying physically fit contribute to mental wellness within the realm of home school and your child's personal life. The ability to separate the two is essential. Home school, just like conventional schools, has its place in your child's day. Happiness depends on being able to leave it behind everyday.
Discipline, perseverance, and responsibility are all related to success in home school and in your child's adult life. Without discipline, time management is impossible. Without perseverance in tasks that are difficult, the fulfillment and self esteem that come from a job well done won't be there for your home schooler to draw upon when she needs it. Taking responsibility, whether the outcome of an action is positive or negative, is a trait that will give your child strength of character and integrity both in homeschool and in her future dealings. The ability to be trusted cannot be emphasized enough as a trait that is an essential building block to every other skill set that you may wish to instill during home school.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, children's rights activist, author, and Founder and C.E.O. of online education company Learning by Grace, Inc. Rothschild and her husband of twenty-eight years reside in suburban Philadelphia with their eight children.
Feeling that “our current system of education has broken its promise,” Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. to provide families with Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children all over the world.
In addition to her twenty years of experience as a homeschool mother, Rothschild has written a number of books dealing with education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education Websites Blog consists of helpful online content and activities for Christian homeschooling families.
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