Online Homeschooling - Learn How to Excel in
Homeschooling with 15 Tips

What is Homeschooling?

According to the report of the National Education Statistics Center, the number of homeschooling students in the USA doubled between 1999 and 2012, exceeding 1.7 million. Groups advocating for some homeschool programs argue that this number is approaching 2 or 3 million. The chart below highlights the basic homeschool education demographics of NCES for 2011-12.

How Does Homeschooling Work?

In practical terms, homeschooling programs work like this: the house becomes the center of a child's education rather than a school.

Thus, parents become primary educators for their children. Parents who support homeschooling, guide their children through their mental, emotional and physical development. In the best homeschool curriculum, parents choose a way of education for their children based on their child’s personality, talents, and affinities.

Homeschool vs. Online Homeschool

The homeschooling concept which has been applied especially during the Coronavirus epidemic is slightly different from the usual homeschooling curriculum we mentioned above.

At this unprecedented times, children receive the curriculum required by formal education as the K12 homeschool system. Public schools offer a free homeschool curriculum. This is what we call online homeschooling.

There are key features that distinguish homeschooling online from classical homeschooling:

• Education provided by state-certified teachers
• Compulsory assessment test application to students
• The curriculum is determined by the school to comply with the state participation policies and academic progress requirements
• Online lectures and lecture notes, transcripts, report cards
• Regular parent conferences with trainers
• Having school administrators

What do Parents Need to Homeschool Their Children?

In addition to the transition of public schools to free online homeschool systems, there is an important parent group that wants to master the basic homeschooling curriculum.

These parents have understood that they should spend much more productive and educational time with their children. And the homeschooling curriculum seems to combine well with online homeschooling at this point to provide much higher efficiency.

At this point, we can briefly list how parents should act to support their kids’ education with emphasis on online homeschooling and homeschooling during the Covid-19:

How Should Parents Support Their Children's Online Homeschooling?

• Actively participate in the daily learning of their children
• Work closely with their children to be able to give them the right guidance
• Record and follow up on children's participation in class
• Regularly communicate with teachers to assess their children's situation and achievement
• Take education beyond just a boring lecture format. Supporting children's cognitive development with fun activities and games makes them even more successful in school life. Try the MentalUP Scientific and Educational Game app!

15 Tips to Excel in Homeschooling

In addition to the supportive attitudes we mentioned above, there are many efficient resources, technologies, tools, and methods for parents to guide their children's homeschool education. Here, we’ve gathered 15 best tips, resources technologies and methods for parents who want to excel in homeschooling:

Best Homeschooling Resources

1. NASA - STEM
   The STEM section of the NASA website offers a great catalog of free articles, events, videos, and games for students in classes of K–12 homeschool on aviation and space research-related topics.
2. MentalUP Scientific Educational Brain Games
   MentalUP is a scientific brain exercise app specifically developed by academicians and pedagogues to improve cognitive skills through gamified exercises. The app first determines a person’s underdeveloped skills and then assigns 15-minute daily exercises to improve them. It’s a great resource for homeschooling kids and their parents to track the improvement of their skills.
   Try MentalUP Now
3. TED-Ed
   TED-Ed is a great website that lets you create a lesson about any TED conversation, TED-Ed source, or YouTube video. It provides the ability to find and use existing lessons in many subjects. Whether you're a teacher, parent, or student, it's a great resource for homeschooling.
4. Khan Academy
   At Khan Academy, it is possible to find free online homeschooling lessons and interactive exercises on almost any subject. From working on a general subject in the homeschooling curriculum to solving difficult math words problems or getting help in any subject, it provides support for all-in-one homeschooling in many ways. This can be a great resource for homeschooling students and parents in terms of the diversity it offers.
5. The Learning Network
   This blog of the New York Times, which also supports the homeschooling curriculum, offers daily lessons in accordance with K-12 homeschooling standards on citizenship, social studies, history and other news related to current news and events. Quizzes, activities and the NYT crossword student's version provide more reliable opportunities for homeschool learning.

Best Homeschooling Tools

Apart from numerous resources that may be needed for homeschooling, some of the online homeschooling tools help parents through their K-12 homeschooling journey. Here are some of these tools:

1. Homeschool Tracker
   Homeschool Tracker is a comprehensive lesson planning, editing and record-keeping software designed to simply be adapted to your own homeschooling curriculum and style.
2. Homeschool Planet
   Homeschool Planet is an all-in-one homeschool planner, with home, school, and work schedules in one place. It's so easy to create your homeschooling calendar in minutes utilizing semesters, terms, or quarters with automatic and instant calculation of the number of school days per term.
3. Homeschool Legal Defense Association
   HLDA has both samples and blank forms for transcripts that can be used for homeschooled students. They give Simple Transcript, Detailed Transcript, Transcript by Subject, Completed Transcript Examples, Transcripts with GPA Calculations.
4. Homeschooling Records
   The platform offers an online attendance tracker, calendar and grading application for homeschool parents. It is a great tool to simplify homeschool record keeping. They also provide a student portal, a grocery shopping list, categorized by an aisle to help make those trips a little easier.
5. Homeschool Day Book
   It offers easy, flexible, and accurate records of the homeschool day. It is easy to record planned lessons from the favorite homeschool curriculum, to see how much time you've spent working on each subject for the week, the month, or the year and print out the results when needed.
6. MentalUP Scientific Educational Brain Games
   Thanks to MentalUP's Performance Reports, families using MentalUP for homeschooling can discover their children's activities, to what extent they have developed their talents and their strengths that are open to development.
   Try MentalUP Now

Best Practices of Homeschooling

1. Make Reading A Priority
   Reading is the basis of learning. Understanding what is being read, and interpreting a text verbally supports the development of children both in terms of education and their mental abilities during their learning process.
2. Create a Routine
   One of the most challenging issues for parents and children in the homeschooling curriculum is to create a routine and stick to it. Try different routines for your children and choose that best worked.
3. Understand The Importance of Being Quiet
   It is not an easy task to be with children constantly and take full responsibility for their education. Remember that being able to remain silent is the golden key to make homeschooling sustainable and to raise awareness of children by helping them learn to listen.
4. Focusing on Self
   Remember that homeschooling is about learning your kids' needs and creating a homeschooling curriculum accordingly. Focus on your children's abilities and needs, not what the people around you say and do.
5. Don't Underestimate Math
   Regardless of your child's gifts, mathematics is one of the most important sciences to understand life and support intelligence development. Always remember that your child needs math intelligence to establish their concept of numbers, distances, shapes and much more.
   You can take advantage of MentalUP and its scientific and educational games to improve your kids' intelligence.

Key Benefits of Homeschooling

The benefits of homeschooling education manifest itself as the children taught with the homeschooling curriculum grow and their numbers increase. Let's take a look at the benefits of homeschooling for both families and children.

Benefits	Reasons
Increases Time Spent With the Family	Parents have a more direct role in the child's daily learning in homeschooling Children learn, develop skills, and mature according to the goals and values set by the family This supports building stronger relationships between children and family.
More Budget for Alternative Education Methods	Activities or trips can be used as an alternative homeschooling curriculum Purchasing different, new-age learning packages or homeschooling tools can help balance the family budget and ultimately reduce costs.
Better Socialization Methods	Less exposure to uncomfortable situations that reduce self-esteem Getting rid of social pressures that discourage learning Getting rid of the threat of a bully Exposure to more adults through activities in the homeschool curriculum
More flexibility and freedom	Homeschooling curriculum tailored to the needs of the child Freedom to spend less time than the others on the required topics according to their needs Life itself turns into learning, which triggers enjoyment without learning No homework

Covid-19, which shook the whole world, will end one day and our children who receive conventional education will return to their schools. But homeschooling knowledge and online homeschooling skills gained in this process will provide valuable benefits to children throughout their lives.

We know that children are willing and persistent to play on their phones, tablet, and computer, especially during their time at home. You can try primary and kindergarten home activities instead of banning.