Starting a Home School: Things to Prioritise

25.09.20 03:00 PM Comment(s) By Christian Education

How have your first few weeks of the new school term gone?

Have you started homeschooling, or are you still on the fence about it?

If your answer is the latter, we want to help direct you to information that will give you a clear picture of what we do.

Let us introduce you to TEACH (The European Academy for Christian Homeschooling).

TEACH looks after all the home educators who use the ACE curriculum and Christian Education resources. You can find out more about joining TEACH as a home educating family here.

If you would like to receive a TEACH Prospect pack, you can make a request for one right here.

If you have already decided to join TEACH, but want a bit more insight into what you have signed up for and some tips to help you out, the next bit of information is for you:

Introducing home education to the family life can be a mountain of a prospect, but TEACH is here to help you conquer that mountain! You don’t have to have all the information in your brain all at once, but we’ve highlighted some of the key things you should prioritise on as you take your journey through homeschooling.

1. THE REWARDS OF TRAINING:

ACE is a totally different curriculum to the national curriculum. It has a special structure and set procedures in order to optimise the learning experience for individual students. Because it is different, it is essential that parents understand how it works. The TEACH Parent Training is a set of booklets, comprised of the TEACH Handbook, Training PACE, and Score Key, which is posted to each household that signs up with TEACH (home educators outside the UK and Europe will receive digital versions of the Training Pack). When parents complete the training, they are more prepared to home educate with TEACH, more equipped to supervise their children, and to top it off, upon completion of the final quiz, the TEACH 20% discount is activated for any materials on the Christian Education shop!

2. DIAGNOSTIC ACCURACY IS KEY:

If the student is new to ACE, have them take the ACE Diagnostic Test. Make sure that the student takes their time on the tests and fills in the answers as accurately as they can. The diagnostic test helps us to see where the student is placed within the ACE curriculum. If the student answers the questions lazily, or rushes through the test without thinking, the end report will not be accurate, and they could potentially end up with a incorrect diagnosis. It is in the best interest of the student that you make sure they take the test properly. Please note, the diagnostic test is not a pass/fail test. The student can finish the test when they no longer understand the questions that are being asked. You will receive a link with information about accessing the diagnostic test in your TEACH welcome email when you first sign up.

3. ONE POWERFUL RECORD-KEEPING TOOL!:

The Supervisors Progress Card, fondly known as the SPC, is a form you should get to know and love for a number of reasons. The purpose of the SPC is to record all the results from the PACE Tests that your children take. When you take the time to record results on the SPC, you are actually creating data that will be very useful for you in the future. One, you will be able to keep an eye on how the students are progressing, and which subjects they are thriving in (and which one’s they aren’t). Two, the SPC is a great reference. If local authorities contact you about your home school, you will be able to show them each child’s SPC so they can see the progress your children have been making in each subject. Three, here at TEACH we also require our members to send us a copy of their SPCs annually; this way we can create references or certificates of achievement should you need them. Four, the SPC is a great way of keeping stock. By keeping your SPCs up to date you will be able to see when you are running out of curriculum materials and always make sure you have new PACEs ready for your children to move onto. You can purchase SPCs in paper form on the online shop, but if you prefer an Excel version to keep records digitally, we can send one over to you (the excel version is free too!). If you want the Excel SPC, just email a request over to teach@christian.education with your TEACH account number.

4. PREVENT DISCOURAGEMENT WITH ACHIEVABLE GOALS:

When it is time for a student to set their goals, make sure they are setting ACHIEVABLE goals. There is nothing more discouraging than being unable to reach your goals. ACE students set their PACE goals on Goal Cards. Goal cards are available on our online shop here. These cards are a fantastic motivational tool for the student because they are a visual representation of what they can and will accomplish. Each student is different. Some may sail through Maths, and others may need to take more time; because of this we recommend that you encourage them to set goals they can achieve as individuals. In a nutshell: Make sure their goals are challenging, yet achievable. We generally recommend that a healthy set of goals comprises of 2-5 pages per subject every day (depending on age), but of course this can be adjusted for the educational needs of the child.

5. SCORING IS NOT BORING:

A unique element within the use of the ACE curriculum is the self-scoring method. Under supervision of a responsible adult, students mark their own PACE questions, correct any wrong answers, and then check them again, until they have mastered each and every question. Not only does this methodology help a student truly understand what they are learning, it’s a great life lesson -- even though mistakes are sure to happen, we can learn from them and then move forward, growing in knowledge and wisdom. Take time to make sure that students are scoring correctly and honestly. Don’t leave space for cheating or copying. In the long run, cheating only weakens the academic experience and can have debilitating outcomes.

Remember: Only the PACEs are self-scored by the students; the PACE Tests must be scored by the responsible adult. Both Score Keys and Test Keys (the answer books) must be kept in a secure place away from the students, and Score Keys must only be used by the student with permission from the parent.

These are 5 really important groundwork practices to focus on if you are just starting out (or need a refresher). Christian Education and TEACH are looking forward to supporting you and your family in 20/21 and hope you will find homeschooling to be a rewarding and blessed venture.

In the upcoming weeks we will be giving all our TEACH members the option to receive a TEACH Tips email. If you would like to sign up for this email, click the link below!

Sign-up for the TEACH Tips email here!

We also are happy to announce an upcoming webinar for all our new TEACH members, which will expand on the information in this blog post and more, so that you feel equipped and ready to get into the nitty gritty of homeschooling.

We are Christian Education, an organisation that provides the ACE curriculum and education resources for Christian Schools and Homeschools.

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For information about the ACE Curriculum, click here.