Teaching Your Child in Your Homeschool

Homeschooling offers an incredible opportunity to tailor your child’s education to their unique needs, interests, and learning pace. But stepping into the role of “teacher” can feel daunting if you’re used to traditional education models. Teaching in your homeschool doesn’t require perfection—it involves intention, flexibility, and a deep understanding of your child’s individual needs.

Here’s how to approach it with confidence and clarity.

Teaching and Learning

As the homeschooling parent or guardian, you’ll take on the role of teacher, teaching subjects and topics according to your curriculum. Be patient, flexible, and adaptable to your child’s learning pace and style.

Shift Your Mindset: From Parent to Parent-Teacher

The first step in effective homeschool teaching is embracing your dual role. As a parent-teacher, you’re not just delivering facts—you’re nurturing a lifelong learner. This means you’ll wear many hats: mentor, coach, guide, and sometimes cheerleader.

Your strength lies in knowing your child better than anyone else. You can observe their patterns, tailor instruction to their pace, and build an environment where they feel safe to succeed and fail.

Understand Your Child’s Learning Style and Needs

One size doesn’t fit all in homeschooling. Take time to observe and understand how your child learns best. Are they:

Visual learners who grasp ideas better through diagrams and images?
Auditory learners who thrive on discussion and lectures?
Kinesthetic learners who need hands-on activities to stay engaged?

Also consider their personality, attention span, interests, and developmental stage. Teaching isn’t just about content—it’s about connection.

Choose Teaching Methods That Match Your Philosophy

Homeschooling allows you to explore and implement different educational methods, such as:

Classical Education, which emphasizes logic, language, and critical thinking.
Charlotte Mason, which values rich literature, nature study, and narration.
Unit Studies, where multiple subjects are integrated into one thematic topic.
Montessori, which encourages independence and hands-on learning.
Eclectic, where you combine elements from different methods based on your child’s needs.

The best method is the one that works for your family and makes learning feel alive.

Set Clear Learning Goals

Teaching with purpose means knowing where you’re going. Start with broad goals like:

Building strong reading comprehension
Mastering foundational math concepts
Developing independent learning habits
Cultivating curiosity and critical thinking

Break these goals into weekly or monthly objectives. Keep them visible, and revisit them often to measure progress and make adjustments.

Plan, but Don’t Overplan

Some structure is essential, but rigid schedules can backfire. Instead of mapping every minute, create a daily rhythm:

Morning: Core subjects like math and language arts
Midday: Science, history, and projects
Afternoon: Free time, reading, field trips, or electives

Leave room for spontaneity—some of the best learning happens unexpectedly.

Foster Independence and a Love of Learning

The ultimate goal of teaching at home is to guide your child toward becoming a self-directed learner. This means:

Encouraging them to ask questions and seek answers.
Teaching them how to find, organize, and evaluate information.
Gradually giving them more control over their learning.

Celebrate effort and progress, not just achievement. Curiosity, creativity, and resilience are as important as academics.

Use Mistakes as Teaching Tools

In a homeschool, mistakes are not failures—they’re stepping stones. When something isn’t working:

Re-evaluate your method or material.
Slow down or explore the topic differently.
Ask your child for input—they often know what they need.

Adaptability is your superpower as a homeschool teacher.

Keep the Joy Alive

Don’t forget to infuse your homeschool with joy:

Read aloud together often.
Take nature walks and turn them into science lessons.
Cook and bake to practice math and life skills.
Build in art, music, and movement.

Learning is not confined to a textbook; it occurs in conversations, exploration, play, and everyday life.

Approaching teaching in your homeschool is less about replicating a classroom and more about building a relationship with learning. By tuning into your child’s needs, choosing the right methods, setting intentional goals, and maintaining flexibility, you’ll not only teach effectively, you’ll raise confident, capable learners prepared for the world ahead.

Seventh STep

Learning Challenges

Aphasia

Aphasia is a language disorder caused by brain damage, such as a stroke, head injury, or neurodegenerative disease, that affects speaking, understanding, reading, or writing. Dysphasia is an outdated term that was once used to describe partial language loss due to brain damage. Today, aphasia is the preferred and more accurate medical term.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that affects children and adults. It involves ongoing inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity patterns that can disrupt daily life and vary in severity.

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) affects how the brain interprets sounds, not hearing itself. People with APD hear normally but struggle to understand speech, especially in noisy settings. Early diagnosis and support can significantly improve learning and communication.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how individuals communicate, interact, learn, and behave. It involves a range of challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, and communication. The term “spectrum” reflects the broad diversity in how autism presents in each person.

Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)

Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD) is a childhood mental health condition marked by chronic irritability and frequent, intense outbursts that are out of proportion to the situation. While similar behaviors may appear in children with autism, they often stem from sensory or processing challenges, and the root causes differ even when the two conditions co-occur.

Down Syndrome

Down syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of an extra copy of chromosome 21. This additional genetic material affects development and results in the physical and intellectual characteristics associated with the condition. It’s one of the most common chromosomal disorders.

Dyscalculia

Dyscalculia is a learning disorder that affects a person’s ability to understand and work with numbers. It is sometimes referred to as “number dyslexia” because, like dyslexia for reading, dyscalculia makes it difficult to process mathematical information.

Dysgraphia

Dysgraphia is a neurological condition that affects writing skills, making it hard to write clearly, spell correctly, and organize thoughts on paper.

Dyspraxia / DCD

Dysgraphia is a neurological condition that affects writing skills, making it hard to write clearly, spell correctly, and organize thoughts on paper.

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a neurological learning disability that affects reading, spelling, and writing. It often runs in families and involves difficulty with phonological processing—the ability to recognize and work with the sounds in spoken language.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Anxiety is a normal response to stress, such as relationship changes, public speaking, or major decisions. However, when it becomes persistent and disrupts daily life, it may indicate a mental health disorder. Anxiety and depression often occur together—nearly half of those with depression also have an anxiety disorder.

Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder (MRELD)

Mixed receptive-expressive language disorder (MRELD) is a communication disorder that affects both understanding and expressing language. Individuals with MRELD struggle to comprehend spoken language and have difficulty forming words or sentences to communicate clearly.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic condition marked by uncontrollable, recurring thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors (compulsions).

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is a childhood behavior disorder marked by ongoing uncooperative, defiant, and hostile behavior toward authority figures. Children with ODD often cause more difficulty for others than for themselves.

Sensory Process Disorder (SPD)

Sensory processing disorder (SPD) is a condition where the brain struggles to process multisensory input effectively, leading to inappropriate responses to environmental demands. It commonly occurs in individuals with dyspraxia, autism spectrum disorder, and ADHD.

Visual Process Disorder (VPD)

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic condition marked by uncontrollable, recurring thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors (compulsions).