If you have taken up homeschooling challenge and are also thinking ahead about the child’s possible college future you need to take a few steps now to make the going easier later. There are a number of ways that you can home school the child. The more prepared and organized you are the better his chances of getting into college.

Establish your Home School process as per the law

Different states have different laws governing home schooling. From a local support group find out what you need to do to legally teach your child at home. Then structure the home schooling activities as per the current interpretation of the laws in your school district.

Prepare your Child and Yourself

You will need to explain to your child why you want to home school them. At the same time you will have to deal with queries of why the neighbor’s kids can go to a school outside and they can’t. Then shift the focus onto a possible college education. Point out how being home schooled will help them prepare for college if they choose to get into one when the time comes.

Gather information and supplies

Plan each day in advance so that you have time to gather all that you will need to teach the day’s lesson plan. Try and get hands on activities for the children to participate in.  Make sure that you all the materials you need at hand before you begin teaching. If it is something that the family can do together it would be even more fun.

Evaluate regularly and frequently

Periodical evaluation in form of class tests is what homeschoolers lack as compared to regular students. Universities like to see a progress chart of some kind for any student that they wish to admit. This is why you must maintain a portfolio of the child’s work. This helps the university see how the child has progressed. You can use some standardized tests and include them in the portfolio as well.

It is not unknown for universities to take in home schooled children. However you as a parent must prepare for the eventuality long before the child is anywhere near ready to attend college.

You know that you do not want your child to go to a regular school, but you are not too sure about your ability to homeschool. You are thinking, is it possible for me to handle this responsibility? The simple truth is that if you are willing to put a bit of effort towards homeschooling you will be able to do a fine job of teaching your child. After all you taught him to eat solids, walk, talk and wash his hands. How difficult can it be to teach him his ABCs. Before you take the leap into homeschooling check a few things out.

Prepare yourself

Check your lifestyle to see if you have the time to homeschool? Most mothers tend to home school their children if they are either working from home or not working at all. Do you think you can devote a fixed number of hours every day to your child and his learning needs? Are you a very organized person who can fit in the extra responsibility without getting stressed out?

Join a support group

Ask other people you know who are homeschooling their children about their experiences. If there is a local support group for home school families you should join them. Let your child experience their company and gain insights in to how these parents are going about home schooling their children. Learn about the resources that they use. See how their children react to you and other strangers. You will get a firsthand account of what to expect when you start home schooling.

Start up the classes

Get books and educational material from your school district if they provide them. Some schools also allow part time participation of home schooling kids in their programs. Ask around to see if your child can join in such a music or sports program. Start the home school classes and see how your child reacts to them. More importantly check if you feel okay teaching him. If all goes well you can take the decision to home school your child with confidence.

Besides what a child must read in study books there is a world of information that you can introduce the child to. Supplementing the formal education can be done in a number of ways. Here are the most common ones.

Libraries

A library is the most common source of additional information which can be easily availed. The local library can become a place to head to when your child is looking for specific information. Teaching a child how to research a topic in a library can hold him in good stead all his life.

Excursions and Field trips

It is of great interest as a child to see how the world works. To take them to the post office to show how a letter goes miles away to Nana, or to go to the zoo to see animals in real life can be thrilling and learning experiences. If you are talking about plants, head out to a garden or a green house or an orchard, to explore different types of flowers, vegetables and fruits. It is an educational picnic.

The Internet

The biggest tool and the greatest distraction is sitting in that corner of the study. The computer and internet can be a great help to add extra knowledge to your kids supply of general knowledge but they are also addictive. Using the internet to research stuff should be done under parental supervision so that the urge to head over to that gaming site is controlled.

Arts and Music

It is never too soon to introduce the child to the finer things in life. Classical music and art are both such disciplines. If you enjoy them you will be able to pass on valuable information and a cool hobby to your child. Just don’t try to force the enthusiasm for things that you personally do not like or understand. Children can tell the difference between passion and pretend right away.

There are two issues with recording a child’s progress when he is being home schooled. The first is that there is no formal evaluation of the skills that he or she has mastered as compared to other children the same age. A month end examination in school makes it easy to see how much a child has learnt in the month and where he stands amongst his peers. This is denied to the home schooled child. There is no formal feedback available to boost his confidence.

The second issue is observation and recording of the child’s progress by the Homeschool parent. If there is no formal feedback system for the child, the parent can create a step wise skill tester at home. For a home school parent direct observation of the child’s behavior is the best way to record the child’s progress. Making this observation on paper can give a formal effect to the proceedings. It is also good for the parent to share this chart with the child so that the child can see how well he is learning skills and how fast he is mastering them.

Any person who has taught twenty kids in a classroom and then taught one child at home can tell the difference in the quality of education you can provide in a limited time. In a classroom there are a number of necessity tasks which distract the child’s attention from learning. At home there is an enhanced learning spree with a one on one session. Which is why children poor in a particular subject are encouraged to undergo one on one tutoring. It helps to concentrate on one matter to understand how it works.

Parents of home schooling children know that their children are learning. What they need is a viable method to prove this fact. Specific evaluation is not as necessary as general evaluation. If the day has been spent gainfully learning some skill, it is enough. The child does not have to give class style tests to know that he can score eight on ten in that particular skill. The only idea is to build up the child’s self esteem and show the child that he is learning a number of skills every day, week or month.

The home schooling parent is usually convinced that the child will get better treatment and education at home rather than in school. It may even be true for many parents, however what does one do when the child wishes to go for higher education to a University?

Check your child’s potential honestly

If you as a parent are confident that your homeschooled 14-year-old has the potential and more importantly the interest to go to college you need to do your homework well. Start gathering and organizing information about admission requirements for representative schools that you feel will fit the bill. You must consider the child’s nature and interests when you pick a school.

Be proactive in the admission process

Get in touch with the colleges to see if they have special admission requirements for admission into their courses. Some such as Stanford even help home schooler parents with the guidelines set out. Remember to maintain the child’s portfolio so that their lack of formal report cards is not felt. Do not feel perturbed if there is some requirement you can not fulfill. Ask around to check for an alternative that may be provided.

Coach the child with the end in mind

Help your child get high SAT and ACT scores. Get good letters of recommendation and pay attention to the application essay. Many colleges will pay greater attention to these details when they pick home schooler children. And many good colleges do pick home schoolers on a regular basis. All they want is that the child should fit in well in their way of functioning.

A home schooler can get into college and do well. It has been done before and you can repeat that success. Just be sure about what your child’s real interests are and try not to push him or her in a direction  that they are unwilling to go. Be the great guide that you have always been.

We’ve been interviewed by Homeschool-How-To.com!  It was a lot of fun to to, and you can read up on all the details here.

Ding! There’s something immensely satisfying in connecting a basic circuit to make a light bulb . . . well, light up. It’s definitely much more fun than reading about the flow of electricity in a dry, boring textbook! That’s the basic idea behind the Electricity Discovery Pack from Supercharged Science, a small but fun kit that teaches kids the basics of wiring their own electrical circuits. The kit includes most of the materials you need to complete the experiments as well as a DVD with instructions on how to make simple circuits ranging from light switches to “jitterbots”! The real “meat” of the kit, scientifically speaking, comes from the workbook (downloadable online in PDF format), which provides explanations for all the experiments and additional ideas for further exploration. The Electricity Discovery Pack ($50) is one component of a much larger Science Mastery program, but it works very well as a stand-alone product. To complete some of the more advanced exercises in the workbook, you will need to purchase some additional items, such as a telephone cord, switches, buzzers, etc. However, all of the basic projects can be constructed with what is included in the kit and some common household items (such as index cards or Styrofoam).

The Electricity Discovery Pack (along with everything else produced by Supercharged Science) is designed specifically for the homeschool, created to help parents who might not be scientifically inclined teach their kids the basics of science–while having fun at the same time! This particular kit would probably be best used for the elementary school level, though parents will have just as much fun playing with their kids’ creations. Younger kids will definitely need help completing their projects, though the low voltages used mean that nobody’s going to be electrocuted. This kit is designed for scientific exploration more than as a curriculum per se. However, the experiments make the most sense if they’re completed in order, and the workbook could easily be adapted for use in a “classical” school setting.

On the whole, I found this kit to be a fun, engaging, and educational way to learn more about electricity on an elementary level. I enjoyed the emphasis on actively “doing” as opposed to passively “receiving”–a common failing in all too many science curricula these days. The experiments themselves, while basic, are interesting and fun! The only fault I can find with this kit (beyond the cost, which is a tad high for the amount of materials) is the fact that multiple additional materials are required for some of the more interesting experiments in robotics. However, I think the benefits outweigh the costs in this regard, and I would wholeheartedly recommend the Electricity Discovery Pack for use in your family’s homeschool.

Source: Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Get the hands on approach

For me the best home school science curriculum is the one which allows hands on experimenting. There is no better way to learn science than to do experiments. The home school science curriculum which just explains the concepts and principles without showing the children how that concept will actually work in real life is doing just half the job. The home school science curriculum must ensure that the child gets enough practical projects to do.

Unfortunately there are not too many home school science curriculums out there which encourage this way of teaching and learning. That is why the Science Mastery program we offer is so popular. It is crammed full with easy to replicate science experiments which actually work well each time you conduct them. This is so important, because it can be very frustrating for a child to conduct an experiment and not get the desired result.

Don’t Shake the child’s Faith in Science

Then the child may begin to think that there is something wrong in the actual concept. The principles of science are such that they have been evolved after many repeated experiments. The point of gravity is reinforced each time you throw anything from a ball to a pencil up in the air. Be definition the object must come down to earth and it always does. However other principles and concepts are not quite as easily explained.

There are many factors which contribute to the success of a science experiment and the child needs to be explained all the facts that can go wrong. This will keep the child alert to the potential disasters which may ruin the science experiment he is conducting. It is even better when there are quick fixes given to solve the problem. The home school science curriculum which encourages the child to verify the facts he has learnt by experimenting with them will ensure that the child never forgets what he has learnt.

There is no shortage of homeschool science curriculum available today. There is Apologia at the head of the pack, then you have others such as Alpha Omega Lifepac, Real Science 4 Kids, REAL Science Odyssey, Switched on School house Science, Castle heights science and so many other homeschool science curriculum. How do you pick the right homeschool science curriculum for your child?

While the homeschool science curriculum offers a great way to get a sound background in science, you need to have a homeschool science curriculum which encourages the natural curiosity of the child as well. Also look for science programs which complement the child’s learning. Our own eScience program helps children to experiment with concepts that they have only learnt by rote so far.

Children always have a million different questions about the same old things that adults take for granted. It can be daunting for a parent to keep answering the many questions that they ask. That is why the scientists and engineers in our team spend so much time in the day answering questions from children. They have the right background and all the knowledge to answer these questions intelligently and at a level that the child will understand.

It does not matter if your child is in kindergarten or in the 12^th grade, as they will find all sorts of interesting science experiments in the eScience program. Plus there is no pressure of completing a specific curriculum. The child can pick and choose what he wants to experiment with based on his interest and curiosity. This freedom can actually lead to more learning than the strictly structured teaching in school can.

In fact the eScience Program makes a perfect foil for regular school science curriculum as well. One of the best times to get children interested in the real nature of science and doing science experiments is when they are not busy at school, but on summer vacation. The holidays give them a lot of time to spend productively, so ensure that they use the time well. A little correct guidance now is all that they need.

Over 120 hours of Science Experiments, Projects, and Activities!

Science Mastery includes: Aeronautics, Kite Dynamics, Rocketry, Electricity, Magnetism, Sonic Vibrations, Digital Multimeter, Levers & Pulleys, Lights and Lasers, Slime Science, Water Purification, Laser Light Show, Robotics and Electricity, and more! You get live audio CDs, instructional step-by-step video DVDs, parts and materials, the Science Experiment Manual, online access to new projects (there’s currently over 160 more projects online using stuff already in your box!), unlimited support, and money-back guarantee.

From Laurie: I purchased the Science Mastery Kit in December. My girls and I love it. We have done Air Pressure Experiments and Kite Dynamics. Even my four year old got involved with the experiments. I love that everything I need is included. It is so nice to be able to put in the DVD and watch the experiment being done and then go and do it. I wasn’t sure about teaching science and had tried other prepackaged kits but this is by far the most complete and best program I have used. Thank you so much for putting this all together.

From Ling Becker: We purchased the Science Mastery Kit at the beginning of the school year. It has added excitment to our existing scienece curriculum. The experiments are interesting and hands on. I appreciate being able to watch the experiment before we do it and having everything we need in the kit without extra running around for me. Our kids enjoyed the pop bottle rockets so much! It has been our favorite experiment by far. We did it a few times outside and all the neighbors came out to check it out. Also, my husband demonstrated it for all the boys in my son’s cub scout pack. It was a huge hit! Thank you for making science easy, understandable and fun!

From Amber: Our family is hooked on the Science Mastery Program. We have learned more about science this year than in the past several years combined. I love how the program is well planned and laid out for me. As a mother of eight children, of whom six are school aged, it has been very helpful to have everything in a box. I can ask someone to get the electricity kit and we can “play” while learning. The new manual updates put together a well rounded program, with full color pictures and beautifully explained procedures. The DVDs and audio components make clear, concise, and complete explanation of the project. Thank you Supercharged Science staff for your work to allow me to have fun with my kids, rather than stressing over the materials list!

From Helen Dallman: Wow, you got that replacement DVD out to us faster than 186,000 miles per second. Thaaaaanks! As when testing the other DVD’s, we couldn’t just pop it in and pop it out; we had to watch it for a long time, because we couldn’t tear ourselves from it, even though we had lots of other pressing tasks at hand. Hey, there are times when the interruption is more important than the activity being interrupted. Just to be cruel, I stopped the DVD after a half hour and told them they’d have to wait. Just protecting our investment and building up their excitement even more. Our kids are 10, almost 9, almost 7, 4 and 1.

Your demonstrations, with a blend of your knowledge and teaching skills, the box of stuff, manual, dvd’s, cd’s and web site access are well worth the money, Aurora, but hear this and remember it: The customer service doubles the value of it all. We truly feel taken care of. We hope one day to meet you and say to your face how much we appreciate what you are doing with your life.

We have always been encouraging fellow parents to free-style it with their children’s education, especially the ones who feel lost as to how to proceed. You are giving parents a humongous means toward doing it successfully. By “free-style” I do not mean anything goes, but rather that the children get time and space to discover, as well as materials to form constructs, and that they get to be in the cockpit a lot, flying the thing.

I have something to add (that I haven’t seen claimed on your site) to what can be said for Supercharged Science: Your many-faceted product speaks to the learning needs of the child not only in the many areas of science addressed and in the different learning styles spoken to, but also (and in many cases as much) in other content areas of academic learning, and in the child’s development in non-academic areas. I am sure you already realize this fact, but if you want me to elaborate and submit a small piece explaining how enjoying SuperCharged Science can profit the child beyond science and academics, and I dare say how it can profit the family, beyond the individual child, I would be happy to do this, Aurora. Although I have typically no time to write (did you see the ages of our children?), I would make a little time because every minute we have engaged in any SuperCharged Science enterprise, the adventure has without fail left us a better family. Sound a little over the top? I don’t throw out baseless compliments.

May God continue to bless you, your family and other loved ones, and SuperCharged Science. ~Helen Dallman and family

Anonymous Post at CBD: “Supercharged Science’s Whole Shebang is THE science to do with any kid of any age. Fantastic customer support, literally unending offerings online on top of the loads of materials for the experiments, plus Aurora Lipper’s pristinely clear and engaging teaching presentations make it a deal too good to pass up, even for me, a homeschool mom who is a very do-it-yourself teacher. I was sold on the previews at the website, and our whole family is getting even more than what we thought we were paying for. Inasmuch as the formats are varied, the material is self-paced and even able to be done in different orders, and the resources continue to be added online for members, this is just FANTASTIC!” –This review was posted in CBD

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