Maintaining Discipline in Homeschooling
Maintaining discipline when the child stays at home all day, and the mom is the teacher,
specific discipline issues are at stake. It is easy for the
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 immediately.
Homeschooling gives you and your child an immense amount of
flexibility. You and your child decide where to learn, how much to
learn, and when. But these should be decisions made at
the beginning stages. If your child is too little to participate, 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. This means 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 ensure 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, seniors, juniors, and teachers automatically molds these values. At homeschooling, the child should be taught the
importance of speaking and behaving correctly, and appropriate corrections must be administered if the behavior is unsatisfactory.
