How Study.com Makes Homeschooling Accessible For All

Thank you to Study.com for sponsoring this post and providing these helpful resources.

“Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.”  Mark Twain

I think it’s safe to say that homeschooling has been on the minds of most parents lately.  In the blink of an eye, having school at home became an unexpected, and if some of us were being completely honest, and also unwelcome family requirement.

Over 15 years ago, long before precautionary school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our family became one of “those” families – a homeschool family.  What started out as a homeschool “experiment” for our son’s Pre-K and Kindergarten years has turned into an indispensable part of our family life. 

Uncharted territory: Learning from Home

Learning from home was uncharted territory for me so many years ago.  It’s the same for so many families that have been forced to due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers, parents, and students have faced many challenges, and have also learned many lessons as a result of COVID-19 school closures. Parents and teachers are scrambling to provide quality educational support for students. Regardless of where you find yourself on your homeschool journey, doing it alone is not a requirement.  Helpful resources are a must, and I am so thankful that homeschool help is not uncharted territory.

Study.com: A Helpful Homeschool Resource

Study.com is dedicated to making education accessible to students of all ages. Every month, Study.com helps over 30 million students, teachers, and homeschool families achieve their educational goals.  They provide access to quality video lessons, online courses, informational resources, and more.  Some good news for homeschoolers – Study.com offers a personalized online homeschool platform that includes curriculum for all subjects grades 3 through 12, including electives and courses for college credit. Their courses can help you stay up to date with learning during COVID-19 school closures.

Beyond their comprehensive course catalog, Study.com also provides homeschool families with answers to common questions, including homeschool laws by state. Depending on your needs, there are many ways to use Study.com to make your learning more fun and effective. 

Strategies for Success

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about homeschooling is encouraging my kids towards independent learning.  It’s also been one of our biggest struggles.  Learning how to develop a reasonable schedule and sticking to it is probably one of the biggest hurdles we face on the road towards responsible adulthood.  The key word there is reasonable.  It’s important to come alongside our kids to help them as they are learning how to do this.  Do they work best in the morning?  Or are they more productive in the afternoon?  Helping our kids identify and practice effective learning strategies will set the stage for their success, and your sanity. 

Another important aspect of successful learning at home is setting up your home learning environment effectively.  Here are a few tips and tricks I found on Study.com for creating a good home learning space:

• Well-lit, with natural light being best if you can do it.
• Comfortable chair and table top height.  Try not to spend most of your learning time on the couch or the living room coffee table.
• Make sure you’re set up near a power outlet if computer access is required.

Each learning space will be slightly different, and that’s the beauty, freedom, and flexibility of home learning.

Moving Forward

These have been the days weeks months where we’ve had so many opportunities to stop, breathe, and just do the best that we can do.  For most of us, this whole home learning thing has been a huge adjustment.  Struggles are part of the process.  Isn’t that true of the most important lessons we learn, though?  Wrestling through challenges makes us stronger.

Look for ways to be supportive and encouraging, and celebrate your accomplishments – we are doing tough work, mamas!  But you know the saying about all work and no play, right?  Let’s make sure that as we continue to move forward with our new normal, we make plenty of time for fun too. 

With each small step forward, what used to be uncharted territory becomes known, and maybe even just a little less scary.  May our greatest lesson learned moving forward is that we are in this together, and that we are so much stronger because of it.           

Check out the Study.com website for more resources to support at home learning.