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Getting Started with Home Schooling: Practical Considerations

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Specific Areas To Consider In The Evaluation Process

© Beverley Paine

Evaluating your learning program and the various activities you provide for children means considering, in some detail, the following aspects:

• relationships,
• attitudes,
• the actual learning process,
• resources,
• the frequency of specific evaluation techniques such as assessments and tests,
• and how feedback from the evaluation process will be acted upon.

Evaluation that doesn't form part of a continuous process of planning, action and reflection, can become meaningless and a waste of time.

If you are recording and evaluating to satisfy educational authorities only, then you and your children will soon become cynical about the entire learning process, and cease to enjoy it. You may quickly learn to resent recording your children's progress and may even stop recording altogether. Although this may seem satisfying in the short term I have seen many instances where families lose track of what they children have learned. Sometimes this leads to repeating 'lessons', which is boring for the children and quickly turns them off learning atogether. It also has the effect of eroding confidence that home education is successful.

Relationships include communication, respect, trust, values, attitudes, discipline and responsibility. These areas come up frequently in daily home life, although if ignored can become overwhelming issues of conflict affecting the smooth operation of home schooling. This can cause much unnecessary stress, frustration and possible 'burn out'. Relationships take conscious effort to work well, and relationships within families should never be taken for granted, especially in home schools.

Work out before commencing any learning activities who will be taking responsibility for what aspects of each activity, and what role each person is to play. There is no need for the parent to always be the person directing the learning, or organising the materials or timing of activities. Children enjoy taking responsibility if encouraged.

Evaluate each of the above aspects of relationships and seek ways to continuously improve how individual members of the family relate to each other, and also to the wider community in general.

The learning process includes all aspects of learning happening for your children; their sensorial learning, active and experiential learning, learning through discovery and exploration of new things and concepts, and learning with mentors, tutors, including working as 'apprentices'. These reflect the intellectual, social, emotional, spiritual and physical growth of your children.

When evaluating learning processes you need to reflect on whether you have set realistic goals based on the individual needs of each child, if you are flexible enough, if you are allowing the children to work at a reasonable pace based on their overall development or allowing them to set their own pace, and if the activities are meaningful to each individual child. It is useful to consider if the learning processes are creative ones, leading onto other learning opportunities.

When looking at resources you need to consider their appropriateness, effectiveness, safety, if there are enough for everyone's needs, if they are of good quality, and if there is sufficient variety to meet individual needs. Don't forget to assess the general environment, and people accessed in the learning process. These are resources too. There is more information on evaluating resources in Evaluating Materials for Home Education.

One of the most useful things you can do is to regularly evaluate your own performance as a learning guide for your children. This is often overlooked by home schooling parents, but demonstrates and builds professional educational skills. The following is an excerpt from a parent's week-by-week evaluation note book:

Specific Areas To Consider In The Evaluation Process

© Beverley Paine

Evaluating your learning program and the various activities you provide for children means considering, in some detail, the following aspects:

• relationships,
• attitudes,
• the actual learning process,
• resources,
• the frequency of specific evaluation techniques such as assessments and tests,
• and how feedback from the evaluation process will be acted upon.

Evaluation that doesn't form part of a continuous process of planning, action and reflection, can become meaningless and a waste of time.

If you are recording and evaluating to satisfy educational authorities only, then you and your children will soon become cynical about the entire learning process, and cease to enjoy it. You may quickly learn to resent recording your children's progress and may even stop recording altogether. Although this may seem satisfying in the short term I have seen many instances where families lose track of what they children have learned. Sometimes this leads to repeating 'lessons', which is boring for the children and quickly turns them off learning atogether. It also has the effect of eroding confidence that home education is successful.

Relationships include communication, respect, trust, values, attitudes, discipline and responsibility. These areas come up frequently in daily home life, although if ignored can become overwhelming issues of conflict affecting the smooth operation of home schooling. This can cause much unnecessary stress, frustration and possible 'burn out'. Relationships take conscious effort to work well, and relationships within families should never be taken for granted, especially in home schools.

Work out before commencing any learning activities who will be taking responsibility for what aspects of each activity, and what role each person is to play. There is no need for the parent to always be the person directing the learning, or organising the materials or timing of activities. Children enjoy taking responsibility if encouraged.

Evaluate each of the above aspects of relationships and seek ways to continuously improve how individual members of the family relate to each other, and also to the wider community in general.

The learning process includes all aspects of learning happening for your children; their sensorial learning, active and experiential learning, learning through discovery and exploration of new things and concepts, and learning with mentors, tutors, including working as 'apprentices'. These reflect the intellectual, social, emotional, spiritual and physical growth of your children.

When evaluating learning processes you need to reflect on whether you have set realistic goals based on the individual needs of each child, if you are flexible enough, if you are allowing the children to work at a reasonable pace based on their overall development or allowing them to set their own pace, and if the activities are meaningful to each individual child. It is useful to consider if the learning processes are creative ones, leading onto other learning opportunities.

When looking at resources you need to consider their appropriateness, effectiveness, safety, if there are enough for everyone's needs, if they are of good quality, and if there is sufficient variety to meet individual needs. Don't forget to assess the general environment, and people accessed in the learning process. These are resources too. There is more information on evaluating resources in Evaluating Materials for Home Education.

One of the most useful things you can do is to regularly evaluate your own performance as a learning guide for your children. This is often overlooked by home schooling parents, but demonstrates and builds professional educational skills. The following is an excerpt from a parent's week-by-week evaluation note book:

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