Reference Education Center | Knileexclusive.com

As a homeschooler one of the most important tasks for you to accomplish in your child at an early age is getting them interested in and developing good reading habits. At an early age learning to recognize letters, the sounds they make and words they eventually form should be an activity and not a structured assignment. A great reading activity for kindergarten aged children, for example is to read to them.

A natural progression in your reading activities with your children is that after you read them to a passage from the story; have them paraphrase the story back to you. This will help you to understand what level of listening ability and understanding they are at, as well has help them to begin building their vocabulary as they work to find new words they can use with their description of the story they are giving back to you.

Good reading activities don’t always have to occur at the house, or just before bedtime. While you’re running errands around town or on vacation, perhaps have the kids begin to collect words from signs, or spell objects they see. Encourage them to learn different ways to describe objects see. Instead something big, it may by huge, or enormous… or even of gargantuan proportion! Have you child arrange the words they have collected into silly sentences or phrases. Even something as simple as collecting letters from signs, license plates, and such to work their way through the alphabet is a good kindergarten age reading activity.
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If have decided that home schooling really is right for you and your kids, you will likely want to know what to do next. Here are some quick points for getting started with home schooling:

· Locate your state’s home school group. You can do this online easily by typing in your state and the keyword “home schooling” at your favorite search engine. Then go to your state listing.

· Locate your local support group for parents of home schooled kids. These groups will help you to get good tips from other parents and is a great place to find like-minded people to share your troubles etc.

· Know the laws in your state about home schooling. If you have questions, arrange for an evaluation with your local school board so that you can verify that your child is approved for home schooling. They will also check for a proposal from you about home schooling your child

· Get any magazines, books and/or other supplies that you will need in order for you to have steady resources on hand to offer tips etc.

What Happens next?

When it comes to the home schooling of your children, quite a few factors play into not just what you will do about it, but also how you will make sure that you are approved to do it. Like everything else, this is a process. Many people have questions that they need to answer about home schooling. As the parent/teacher of your child, you must do the following to get started with home schooling:

· Develop your home schooling curriculum that is both approved by the school board or state, as well as meeting your ability to teach.

· Schedule a meeting with the school board or state education officials so that they can offer you any help with tutors etc. that are approved. You will also be presenting your proposal at this meeting.
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It’s well documented that when children develop good reading skills early on, they are much more likely to be better learners and better educated. Reading is the foundation for success for all other subject matter and the level of success throughout life for the child.

Learning to read isn’t an easy task for a child. This is why it is so very important that you as the parent is a model for reading and work with and encourage your child to read each and every day.

As a parent or homeschooling parent, you should help insure that your child develops essential skills associated with reading such as:

> Use of language and vocabulary.

> Having your child respond after listening to stories – read short paragraphs and have your child tell you about what they just heard.

> Lean and recognize the alphabet and letters – use everyday items around your house to use as examples. For example, cut out big letters and have your child find items around the house that begin with that letter and stick the letter to them.
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Maybe you understand now that you have made the leap to Homeschool and are getting ready to jump into the great world of teaching your children in your home. You are now a one-payroll family choosing to teach your son or daughter at home sweet home. Or possibly you are still in the choosing stage. Besides fully thinking about your child’s happiness and if homeschooling is the correct direction for your child and which core curriculum to check out, the other thing on your conscience should be FINANCES! Yep, it takes capital to homeschool your children, in particular if you were used to two incomes and are now cutting it back to one.
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