If you’re a home schooler at heart but your children attend public school, you can still get the best of both worlds – check out these tips for afterschooling success!
How? By afterschooling.
If you’re a home schooler at heart but your children attend public school, you can still get the best of both worlds – check out these tips for afterschooling success!
How? By afterschooling.
Think back to when your parents would help you with your homework after class.
That’s pretty much what afterschooling is, except you can be as extensive as you want, perhaps bordering on Homeschooling without the curriculum.
The afterschooling concept was created by parents who didn’t just trust and hope that the local Public School system would ensure their kids would achieve good grades.
Afterschooling helps parents understand if and or when their children need help and also if they are gifted in a particular subject or skill.
Think about it; what a waste it might be to miss a Child that is gifted!!
You can supplement what the school teaches with your own curriculum, your own assignments, and even your own “class” projects!
If you think you want to try afterschooling, here are 5 tips for afterschooling success!
Table of Contents
5 Tips for Afterschooling Success
Are there Benefits of Afterschool Programs?
Experts have been studying the benefits of Afterschooling Programs for a decade now.
A report by the University of California, Irvine and University of Wisconsin, Madison summarized that Positive results were achieved through regular attendance to Aftershooling programs,
Neil Naftzger and others published a report that summarizes that the higher the student attendance rate the better the results.
These findings seem obvious but these reports methodically exhibit findings that support the benefits of high quality Afterschooling Programs.
Give the kids a snack before you begin
Most kids come home from school famished. (I know mine did.)
Kids can often become distracted or lethargic when they are hungry.
Be sure to give them a good, healthy snack before you start afterschooling.
They’ll be more pleasant during the “class” and they’ll be able to concentrate better.
Check out these Best Afterschool Snacks:
- Roasted Chickpeas! – Nutricious and Fun!
- No Bake Chocolate Banana Energy Balls – Great for breakfast too!
- Roasted Chickpeas – Satifies that need for “Crunch”.
- Energy Bites – Like eating your favorite cookie!
- Mint Chocolate Sunflower Bites – Are your kids obsessed with chocolate? These are great!
- No Bake Fruit and Nut Trail Mix Energy Balls – Healthy and super tasty!
- Oven Dried Strawberries – A great way to make your produce last longer!
- No Bake Chocolate Sunflower Oat Balls – My kids love at fun colors!
- Fruit Salsa – My kids don’t like spicy food, but they love this salsa!
- Roasted Chickpeas – Every kid I know loves fruit salad. Great for lunches too!
- Homemade Fruit on the Bottom Yogurt Cups – I make these for myself too!
- 3 Ingredient Fruit Roll-Ups – So easy to make and all-natural!
- Roasted Red Pepper Hum1mus – Great for dipping carrots, celery, and peppers in!
- Creamy Peanut Butter Dip – A little treat to go with apples or celery!
- Healthy Lunchbox Snack Mix – Love everything in this recipe!
- Pumpkin Apple Fruit Leather – So tasty and so easy!
- Cinnamon Sugar Roasted Chick Peas – A hint of sweetness and good for them too!
- Raw Veggie Tarts – Like their own mini pizza!
- Paleo Nut Energy Bars – Get them ready to go outside and play with a boost from these bars!
- Healthy Hummus Stuffed Peppers – We love the crunch from these peppers!
- Asparagus Fries – Better than french fries and just as delicious!
- Frozen Yogurt Grapes Recipe – This is a natural “coll down” snack.
- Oven “Fried” Carrots – Baked, not fried! I could eat a plate of these carrots!
- Cookies and Cream Frozen Yogurt Dots – Like homemade dippin’ dots!!
- No-Bake Monster Cookie Dough Bites – A special treat that’s been healthified!
- Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars – Better than store-bought and crazy good!
- Rice Krispy Treats with Fresh Fruit – A burst of fruity flavor in a classic treat!
- Freezer Banana Bites – Banana plus Chocolate makes this a winner!
- Cucumber Sandwiches – Veggies plus Cheese makes this a Favorite.
Familiarize yourself with the information first
If you’ve looked at a math book recently, you will have discovered that it’s taught very differently now than it may have been when you were in school.
In fact, lots of teaching methods have changed since the previous generation attended school.
So it’s a good idea to look over the topic yourself before you try to teach it to your kids, especially if you want to teach in harmony with your child’s instructor.
Find out what they already learned
It’s also important to find out what your child already knows before you begin.
If he already understands the concept of multiplication, you won’t have to explain it all over again.
You can just quiz him, have him practice some problems, and reinforce what he’s been taught.
Look for any steps in the process they seem uncertain about and help them become confident in all the steps in an equation.
There’s no sense in making extra work for yourself, right?
Discover what the curriculum is and create a simple plan that you will follow during the semester.
Learn here why Kids need a Student Planner.
Go easy and Start Early
Remember: Afterschooling does not mean that you are solely responsible for your child’s education.
The bulk of that is already done during the school day.
So don’t feel like you have to teach the entire textbook in one afternoon.
Go slowly and focus on making sure your child understands each concept.
So it makes sense to start early and believe how early Childhood Reading helps prepare Kids for School.
Check in with their teachers
Finally, keep up with your child’s progress by talking to her teachers on a regular basis.
See if you can find out what areas your child needs improvement in and then work to strengthen those during your afterschooling sessions.
The Blog HomeSchoolBase.com reports that:
Homeschooling should not be used as an interchangeable word with afterschooling. No homeschooler will ever swap out afterschooling for homeschooling. But it isn’t unheard of for a parent to say that “Our son goes to public school, but I’m homeschooling her afterwards.”
The two are similar, but far from the same thing. Afterschooling families do not face any legal challenges or responsibilities for documenting their child’s education.
Do you “afterschool” your kids?
What do you think of these Tips for Afterschooling Success?
What techniques do you use to make it a success?
Share your tips in the comments!
Read these articles; Year Round Homeschooling, How Homeschooling Improved our Family Life and 7 Tips to Help your Child Socialize at School.
Great tips here! Feeling overwhelmed with all the skills that need to be learned is my problem. I keep folders with activity plans and worksheets to do after homework is finished. We have IEP goals to work on that are not always the same skill as what he is learning in regular classroom. Every Saturday it takes 4 hours to plan 1 week of Afterschool. We Afterschool about 3 hours weekdays and 6 on Saturdays less on Sunday because of bible studies:). Been doing this for 4 years. It’s so worth it!