Home Schooling has been a choice of parents for generations and some of the world’s most brilliant minds were home schooled. It allows flexibility and its tailored according to the child’s likeness and preferences. There are so many curriculums to choose from and so many free and paid resources available online.
Home schooling has a whole new meaning when you are a teaching a special needs child. As they will not necessarily learn the way we want them to. And the discipline approach where you expect them to sit and listen, that hardly works as they need movement and have sensory needs which create hurdles in their learning. For homeschooling a child on the spectrum, you need hands on activities and functional teaching methods. A multi disciplinary approach will yield the best results. Where most of their senses should be involved. You need to find out their interests and then take it forward from there.
Home schooling can be one to one , a group or blended when some days they can go to a study facility and meet other students. It can be digital learning as well pretty much like the online learning which we all grew accustomed to during Covid-19. Here are a few steps to follow for effective homeschooling.
1.Do a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat) analysis before selecting a curriculum.
2.Choose the most appropriate curriculum according to your child’s development not according to his/her chronological age. There are plenty of online curriculums and resources are available to chose from
3.Plan ahead for a month, arrange the books, online resources or create your own resources, white boards, notebooks and plenty of stationery and munchies.
4 Activities planned should be easy and should require minimal supervision from you. Make it fun.
5. Plan the next day with your child as predictability in their routines help them flourish. Visual aids like visual schedules should be used.