One of the most important aspects of homeschooling your child properly is reading, both for the child and the parent. As the parent and teacher, it is imperative that you read extensively on a wide variety of topics. Remember that you are attempting to provide your children with a better education than you believe the public school system can provide and thus, you want your knowledge on a broad range of subjects to be high.



Although you will definitely want to read some books on the subject of homeschooling itself, do not rely entirely on these books alone. It's important that you are knowledgeable not only on how to teach, but on the subject matter itself. You will find yourself in a more helpful position with a broad knowledge base from which to teach as opposed to a very specified knowledge of a particular pedagogical style.

To begin, read general works on subjects like history, science, literature, and philosophy. Think of the range of subjects your children would encounter in the public school system, and gain a general knowledge of each. While all this reading may seem daunting, remember that you needn't become an expert in these subjects. What will usually suffice is a general "history of" or "beginner's guide to" the various topics.

You want to avoid, of course, having your knowledge of a given subject depend entirely on one person's opinion or work, but at the same time be realistic: a few, short general works on the subjects should be sufficient to start. As you and your children start exploring the subjects in more depth, you may find new and different areas that you become interested in, and at that time you may seek out other books that cover the subjects in more depth. A good rule of thumb (assuming your children are young) is to read at least what a typical high school student would have to read on the subjects you plan to teach.

If you are just starting out and this task seems overwhelming, you may want to consider the idea of speed-reading. Learning to speed read will not only help you as you prepare the lessons, etc but will also benefit your child as they work to study each subject. If you decide that you want to learn to speed read, it's important to consider that it's a learned skill. Just as swimming or riding a bike is a learned skill, speed-reading is the same. They all take practice. As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect.

Even though you have the basic skill of reading mastered, it takes more than just moving your eyes faster along the page to become good at speed-reading. It takes concentration, determination and a set time each day devoted to practice.

Pick a time during the day when you are alert and not too tired. Trying to speed read near the end of a stressful day isn't wise. Many people find it easiest to practice their speed-reading either in the morning or at mid-day. At these times you are alert and are still not as fully immersed in the pressures of your day, as you are later.

Choose a part of your day when you will have fifteen minutes of uninterrupted time. Find a quiet spot and spend that fifteen minutes concentrating on your reading and on increasing your reading speed. If you do this each day, your reading speed will naturally increase. It's much the same principle as learning to play a musical instrument. Time regularly devoted to practicing ends up producing high-quality music that is enjoyable to listen to.

Taking your speed reading seriously and practicing it will guarantee success. Before long you'll be able to work your way through a book in a fraction of the time it took you in the past. In addition, you will quickly find that the amount of time spent reading in order to prepare your homeschooling lesson plans will drop and more time will be available to work on other things. As your children learn and implement the speed-reading techniques, they too will have more time to engage in other activities and spend less time reading their schoolwork.