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Bring Some Traditional School Experiences To Your Home School

Choosing to homeschool your children is a choice that comes with a lot of weighing of pros and cons. It’s also fueled with very strong opinions for and against it. Even if you feel strong in your choice, there is always that thought in the back of your mind “are my kids missing out on certain experiences they can only get in school?”

If you have thought this, you are not alone. Many homeschooling parents struggle with the thought that their kids might be missing out, but fear not. There are different and fun ways that you can add some “traditional” school experiences to your homeschool.

Recess

Everyone runs their homeschool differently. Some try to hold lessons in a classroom type manner and adhere to a schedule, and some are a fan of going with the flow. Within this, though, sometimes real breaks are forgotten. One way to solve this and give a traditional school experience is have scheduled recesses.

An article from Time Magazine states that recess is just as important as math or reading. The co-author of the study focused on in the article, Dr. Robert Murray, is quoted saying “Children need to have downtime between complex cognitive challenges. They tend to be less able to process information the longer they are held to a task. It’s not enough to just switch from math to English. You actually have to take a break.” Having a recess is also essential to helping kids beat school related stress, as the exercise and mental break are a great way to rest the mind and boost their moods. Plus, while they are burning some energy and resting their mind, you can also take a brain break. Teaching can be just as difficult as learning, and taking those recess breaks is just as important for you.

Lockers

Some kids in traditional school view lockers as a right of passage they get to experience when going from elementary to jr. high. There is a special excitement in getting your own locked space that you can decorate with your own style flair. Getting a school locker is one experience that homeschooled kids don’t really get to partake in.

Your kids don’t have to miss out on this experience though, because you can actually buy metal lockers for use in your home. Each of your kids can have their own locker to decorate how they want and to store their school stuff in, which has the added bonus of making sure they don’t misplace school items. Also, having this dedicated space for school stuff will help keep all school related materials organized and out of the way until they need to be used. This is a definite help to those homeschool spaces that get a little over run and disorganized in the chaos of everyday life.

Technology

Our everyday lives are already pretty full of technology, it can seem like overkill to make an effort to integrate technology into school lessons as well. But it’s because technology is so prevalent that it is important it it brought into the classroom. Integrating technology into school is already transforming traditional school classrooms, and you can do the same in your own homeschool classroom.

Traditional schools typically have whole computer labs for students to get the most from the learning experience, so to help give this experience to your homeschooled kids you can buy each kid their own laptop. While that may sound expensive, you can find cheap laptops multiple places online with a little looking around. Your kids will have access to different resources online that will allow for more interactive lessons, connect with other school communities, take online classes to learn important computer programs like excel, and even find tutoring with subjects they might be struggling with. The benefits are endless.

While the point of homeschooling may be to take charge of your child’s education and make it unique, there are still ways to incorporate some traditional experiences that will help you child have some shared experiences with their peers. Not only will these be fun experiences for them to have, they will also be great assets to their overall education. 

Mila Sanchez's picture
Mila is a freelance writer with a B.A. in Linguistics. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and studying foreign languages.