Learning How To Teach Your Children with These 3 Tips!

As the new homeschool year begins and we take to our tables and couches with well-intentioned plans, let’s pause and consider how to teach our children before we even open a book. While it may seem straightforward, I have 3 tips that will help simplify your homeschool and help you answer the question How do I teach my children? once and for all.

This post is a product or curriculum review & I was compensated for my time. All opinions are my own and are based on our experience with the product; I was not required to create a positive review for this company.

Today I am sharing with you 3 amazing tips to help you succeed in teaching your children at home, plus giving you an inside peek into TEACH: Creating Independently Responsible Learners from Dennis DiNoia of Mr. D. Math.

With more than 30 years of experience as an educator, Mr. D. knows just what it takes to teach children, and teach them well. And inside TEACH he’s showing you how to create independently responsible learners, the kinds of students who are ready to open the door of opportunity when curiosity knocks.

A New Homeschool Year

With a new homeschool year upon us, we are all looking to start the new year and teach our children well. Yet, sometimes we struggle with knowing just how to teach our children.

Sometimes what worked last year won’t work this year.

Sometimes there are changes to account for like a move or a new family member or even a different curriculum.

And sometimes, a new season in life just brings about change that needs to be accommodated in your homeschool.

Regardless, as a homeschool family, you know how to homeschool your child and that includes knowing how to teach them. In my experience, that looks very different than how I was taught.

The Problem

I don’t really like to put down the public school system, but the reality is they didn’t teach me how to learn, rather, only what I needed to learn, at that moment, for that purpose.

Then, we moved on to the next thing.

Truth be told, I was a great public school student and I “learned” quite well. I could listen, fill in the blanks, review, and test with amazing accuracy.

And then, it all pretty much fell right out of my head as I made room for the next unit, lesson, or topic.

As A Homeschool Parent, I Want To Do Better

And I’m willing to bet you do! I want my children to know how to be curious, how to ask questions, where to find answers, and how to learn the information they need for life.

Whether that is how to fix a car, how to improve solve time for a Rubix Cube, how to write a paper, or how to make a reel… it doesn’t matter to me! I may not want to know those things (ok… perhaps I’d love to know how to solve that silly Rubix cube and make better reels… but that’s for another day!) but I do want my children to know how to find the answers to the questions they have, how to develop the skills they want to do the things they want to do, and how to function in the adult work without feeling inept.

You see, there’s a lot of confidence in knowing how to learn and that opens the door to “adulting” way more than a course where I tell them how to iron a dress, balance a checkbook, or put air in a tire.

The Solution to The Problem

The solution to the problem is simply learning how to learn, which I had to do. I felt completely out of place doing it because, like my peers, I thought that my high school diploma meant I knew it all.

As you can guess, I was sadly mistaken, and those first few years of “adulting” were rough.

I didn’t want that for my two high school graduates. I don’t want that for my younger two students. And I know, you don’t want that for your kids either.

You want them to know how to learn, how to be independent learners, and how to be responsible for their own learning. It’s the Holy Grail of the homeschool community… the question I see asked most often in groups, on forums, and around the soccer field. Moms who desperately want to know how to teach their children how to learn rather than what to learn.

It’s a small distinction, but a huge shift in both goals and mindset.

What Is The Best Way To Teach Children?

As much as we want to be in the driver’s seat, directing, controlling, and teaching out children, the best way to teach them is to be the passenger.

Odd I know, but stick with me. After graduating two students and nearly a decade in the homeschool work, I may not know it all, but this I know for sure.

And this is something that Dennis DiNoia, a veteran teacher with more than 30 years experiences, agrees with. In fact, it’s one of the cornerstone principles in his book TEACH: Creating Independently Responsible Learners. Designed to help you learn how to teach your children and create independently responsible learners, Dennis does not shy away from telling well meaning parents that the first step to teaching and getting our kids to truly learn, is to take a step back.

Tip #1 – The Student Is The Teacher

Earlier this spring my son wanted a Rubix Cube. He was intrigued by this 3×3 cube and we were OK grabbing him at the store.

In didn’t take him long to learn how to solve the cube, a skill my husband and I do not posses. Yet curiosity drove him to seek the solutions.

Shortly there after, we learned about the world of Cubing. It’s filled with SpeedCubes, various formations, and even competitions. And before we knew it, our son was jumping in, feet first, purchasing his own SpeedCubes and learning how to trim precious seconds of his time.

As I type this, he is working on advanced skills, new algorithms, and moving on from beginner methods to more advanced techniques.

Me? I still cannot solve a Cube without watching a tutorial. My son? His record is 22 seconds and he wants to be faster.

The point? I’m not in the driver’s seat for this lesson, he is. I’m supporting him, letting ghim go, and allowing him to teach himself. Sure he’s using YouTube and working with friends to hone his craft, but all in all, this lesson is independent and I have loved watching a curiosity blossom into a passion and that passion bloom into dedication to be the best he can.

All lessons that will help him in the future.

Oh, and exactly what is covered Chapters 3 & 4 of TEACH by Dennis DiNoia where he shows you just how to let your child be the teacher, including checking their own work.

Why? Because if you simply tell your child what to learn, they aren’t motivated. And if you tell them what they got wrong, they move on so quickly without trying to do better.

But, when it’s all on them. When they are the teacher & the student, when the learning depends on them and the grade is based on their progress no just how many problems they got right or questions they answered correctly, there’s ownership and responsibility – two key aspects to creating independently responsible learners.

Tip # 2 – The Parent Is The Coach

Several years ago, my son became curious about engines. Always a Tonka truck kind of kid, the transition made sense.

Still learning how to let go as a homeschooler and let my children be their own teacher, this was a pivotal moment for our homeschool as we embarked on this journey of curiosity-based learning that was fuel by interest rather than the next level the curriculum company recommended.

However, that experiment paid dividends as he worked on small engines, electronics, stereos, and eventually entire vehicles. Every day he tinkered, researched, experimented, tried, failed, and succeeded. Every day he honed his craft, learned what didn’t work, found what did.

And with each success confidence grew, something no textbook could teach.

Me? I sat back, asked questioned, verified some information, and watched realizing my job was to encourage, coach, and guide.

Let me say, this isn’t always easy, but with teens, it’s especially necessary.

Over the years, he repaired more small engines that I could count, earning credits and gaining understanding. Always a child who was willing to take things apart, he showed me how learning fueled by personal curiosity helped drive the independent learner further than any parent or textbook ever could.

And now, as a homeschool graduate, my son has taken that independence into the workforce working hard every day, still driven by curiosity and fueld by a desire to teach himself.

All I had to do was coach him along the way, offering guidance & encouragement where needed, but spending more time listening, just like Dennis says in Chapter 10 of TEACH: Creating Independently Responsible Learners. Listening and figuring out if learning has occurred.

Tip # 3 – Teach Your Children How To Think

Knowing how to think, reason, and use logic, skills that all fall under the umbrella of critical thinking skills, used to be common place.

Now… I sometimes wonder.

However, if you can tach your child how to think rather than what to think, you will give them a gift that helps them launch into adulthood and provide them with a vital skill.

Oftentimes, well meaning parents squash this right out of a child by simply wanting to prevent them from failing. Wanting to protect a child, they tell them, every step of the way, or fail to allow their children to take risks.

Yet it’s in the failing and risk-taking that our children learn how to think, how to use their bodies, how to process what they know, and how to form a hypothesis about what might happen and then see the experiment through.

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Critical thinking, logic, reasoning, and risk-taking. These are all vital to helping our children learn how to think and creating those independently responsible learners that Mr. D. talks about all throughout his book TEACH: Creating Independently Responsible Learners.

In the book, he has a fantastic exercise on learning how to think. As he says on page 81, “the ones who can think are the ones who can create…” and I couldn’t agree more! In this chapter, Mr. D. has a fantastic exercise to help you learn how to think all surrounded around describing your perfect day.

Now on it’s surface, that seem like a simple exercise, but I challenge you to put pen to paper and see just how far you go.

It’s not as easy as it seems.

Thankfully, Dennis offers additional guidance and support to help you see how this exercise will help you learn how to teach your children. It’s the same support and guidance Mr. D. Math is known for. If you’ve ever taken a math course with Mr. D., you know just what I am talking about!

Learning How To Teach

Learning how to teach your children can be a process, but with these 3 tips for success and your own copy of TEACH: Creating Independently Responsible Learners from Dennis DiNoia, you can save yourself some trial and error and perhaps skip to the good part where learning happens in a real and authentic way.

Looking For More Homeschool Help?

Be sure to check out these helpful posts!

• The 3 Things You Need To Start Homeschooling Today
• How To Start Homeschooling – The Free Beginner’s Guide
• How To Start A New Homeschool Year On The Right Foot