You may be wondering, “How can I homeschool in subjects that I don’t even know myself!?” One answer is to get a tutor. Tutors will work one on one with your child to teach concepts and skills for individual subjects. If you see your child struggling to understand and successfully complete the work you give them, you may need a tutor. Tutors will use both the curriculum you have chosen for your child and bring their own resources to help your child to master a subject. Pick a quiet and comfortable area for them to work together, and be ready to provide materials, such as paper, pencil, calculators, dictionaries, etc.
Tutors are not the only answer for providing help to teach difficult subjects to your homeschooler. You may instead sign up for Florida Virtual School online which is free and provides a teacher to teach individual subjects. You can also use a homeschooling curriculum designed with the understanding that a teacher (in the traditional sense) is not available. The School of Tomorrow Pace books (aceministires.com) for example was originally designed for children of missionaries who travel abroad and is written so that the concepts are spoon-fed in very small increments so that the student does not get easily lost. A lot of homeschooling curriculum is also now available on a cd rom that teaches lessons in small increments with self-correcting features, so if your student gets a wrong answer they can click to see the correct answer, or in the case of a math problem they can click to see how the problem is solved (Alpha and Omega). The act of self-scoring and exploring solutions by homeschooling students is in it-self a part of their education. This is one of the reasons why a lot of homeschoolers are usually very creative and industrious. The strength of using a tutor though is that a real person who understands how struggling students think can encourage them through the rough patches. To find a tutor, ask for referrals in your community, check your local paper or research websites, such as https://www.care.com/tutors.
You will have to determine if and when you will need a tutor and for how often. This is arranged individually by you. To find tutors who specialize in homeschooling, go to www.FPEA.com. FPEA (Florida Parent Educators Association) is a state organization supporting homeschool activities across the state and is a great place to find homeschooling tutors. You may find that if you help your child remain disciplined and organized through the use of a goal chart, slowing their pace down when work gets harder and reviewing work more thoroughly that you may not even need a tutor.
To submit your homeschooling question for possible publication or for more information to homeschool in a private school contact Nancy at 877-5school or email: nancy@myftps.com.
