Lesson 4: Lesson Planning
Oh no! I'm supposed to teach math, too? How do you teach the subjects you don't really understand? How do you build a lesson plan--or even an entire unit study? Where can you find free lessons, and can those be adapted for your special child? Find out how to build your own curriculum for your family.
How to Teach What You Don't Know
Parents often worry about how they will teach subjects they don’t know. When I said the title of this section aloud, my sixteen-year-old daughter, homeschooled since third grade, rolled her eyes and said, “Learn it!” As an experienced homeschooler, she knows that you don’t need a teacher to learn something.
There are numerous ways to tackle unfamiliar material. The first is to learn it before you teach it, which is the method my daughter was suggesting. We can learn in the same way we eventually want our children to learn: by reading, talking to others, and trying it out. If your children have disabilities that will affect their ability to master the material, this is beneficial.
Begin by learning the material in whatever way is comfortable for you. You may read books about the subject, take a class, watch a video, or talk to someone who knows it. One way to test yourself is to either explain the material to someone or to pretend to do so. When I ride alone in the car, I often speak aloud, explaining something to an imaginary friend. This cements the material in my mind and helps me to identify weak spots. I always practice the religion classes I teach and the speeches I have to give this way. Showers are a pretty good place to practice, and, if you do it silently, walks are good. Of course you can practice aloud on your walks, but you risk confirming what people already think about homeschoolers—that we’re odd!
Once you feel comfortable with the material, try to visualize the material from your child’s point of view. How does he learn? Can you put action into the material? Are there children’s books on the subject? What about videos? Can you create a craft? You will find that you can teach very complicated material to children if you teach it correctly. Remember to take into consideration the disability as you plan. You can’t teach a child who can’t see about the shape of a pyramid without a plan. A picture is useless. A child who can’t sit still can’t listen to a lecture. A child who can’t hear might find a television program difficult to follow if he can’t read the captions or if there aren’t captions and good visuals.
A second way to teach what you don’t know is to let someone else teach. My children have taken gymnastics classes, which I couldn’t possibly teach. They have occasionally taken classes at the public school. We’ve invited into our lives a picture book author, an architect, a scientist and others who teach my children about their specialties informally. The parents in our homeschool group take turns teaching mini-classes in subjects they know.
A third method is to learn right along with your children. Run to the library and bring home some children’s books on a subject you want to study. Read them together and then ask the children how you could go about learning more on the subject. This helps them learn to seek out resources. Together, visit museums, watch videos, find crafts, cook foods and do whatever else you come across that will teach the subject. This method is my favorite for younger children. It becomes a family activity and a shared experience you can discuss together forever. It also teaches children that learning is fun and that it is a lifelong activity. Furthermore, there really aren’t many disability issues involved. Because you aren’t working from a plan, but are simply exploring, you won’t face failures. There aren’t tests or assignments the child can’t do. It’s just playing.
A fourth method is to let the child teach himself. Children, provided with a house full of resources, will explore learning on their own once they know it’s fun. By the time your children are teenagers, they will very likely be teaching themselves if their disability allows it. My children teach themselves all their math, happily for me, by buying three or four math books at the bookstore designed for self-teaching, and using them. They also choose their own curriculum and decide how they ought to learn it. This is called being an independent learner and will be covered in the final lesson of this course.
As you can see, there is no need for you to be a ready-made expert on every subject. Even public school teachers often have to learn material before they can teach it. As long as you are enthusiastic about learning, you can teach your children anything. One of the aspects of homeschooling I miss the most now that my children teach themselves is the motivation to explore new fields of learning.
Let’s go find something to teach!
