5 Tips for Enriching Your Child's Education

By Amber L Bishop
You have to feed your kids good stuff. Not just good food, but good life experiences too. I love homeschooling but realize it is not possible for every family. Lately I have been getting emails of admiration from non homeschooling Moms who want a little help on how to supplement their child's education. I love it! I thought I would write down some of the things we have done over the years as a jumping off point.

* First I would recommend taking stock of were your child is, physically, mentally, relationally, emotionally, spiritually and academically. Make a list if you have to. Maybe we get things turned around when we hyper focus on academics and leave other very important formational stuff out? Let the Lord lead you, on things that you see that your child needs.
* Do they need a good dose of habit training, how to do chores or how to take care of their hygiene? These skills are as important as academics.
* Do they need to read some deep literature, other then fast food type stuff that is typically marketed to early elementary readers? If you have never read a classic to your child or if they have never read one to themselves, then I would say that is something you need to work on.

You get the idea. Only you will now that for each of your children and if you don't know, maybe you are just too busy or too over committed and you need to slow down a bit so you can take stock or where you and your littles are at. I would recommend you intentionally add a few things into your family rhythm to help give you some well balanced nutrition for you growing brood, weather home educated or not.

* Reading with your child is a major buzzword right not, but what your read is rarely talked about. Pick a family read aloud. Stretch and pick a classic or even some Shakespeare. Charles and Mary Lamb make a great version just for kids. Living literature will take you and your child into deeper things like geography and history and science. These books are simply outstanding and every family would do well to read through them together. We have gone through seasons of this on and off in our family and are right now back in this season. Read a chapter after dinner, or pick one night a week to read out loud to each other, everyone taking turns at reading out loud.
* Make your children earn video game or TV time by reading 3 for 1. For every 3 minutes they read, they can earn one minute of TV or video game time. It works for us, umm when I stick with it. Instead of filling your house with the sound of a TV on, play some music quietly in the background.

Think through some practical things you can do with your kids.

* Take them to the post office and have them do the whole deal, buy the stamp, address, and mail the letter, use the automated kiosk etc.
* Go to the hardware story and but the supplies for a family project and involved them in actually checking out and paying for the items.
* Involve them in your whole life. Even the simple things can be a learning moment. You don't have to be teacher or a school to schedule a field trip. You can make a few phone calls in your local area and set up some family things for you all to do together.

Okay, I know that is technically eight but I was on a roll. Life is short, and there are so many things you can do and accomplish when your kids are big and have flown the coop. So fight the urge to have it all and do it all right now. Take a little time, in whatever way you can, to add a little richness to your child's education today.