Don’t have a tent, or even a backyard for that matter? That’s no reason not to camp out. Just spread out your sleeping bags, or even just some blanket in living room. Turn off TV, radio and video games. If you have a fireplace, build a fire. Otherwise, order some pizza and pop some popcorn and you can even make s’mores in microwave.

No matter where you decide to have your close to home camping trip, take some time to sit together and talk. Telling stories, whether a campfire is involved or not, is always fun. Your kids’ imagination in creating new stories may surprise you. Don’t forget to tell some handed down family tales.

Above all, think back about your favorite camping memories and recreate them with your kids. Do you remember any good scary stories? Are there any games you enjoyed playing? What’s your favorite card game?

Have some fun with this, enjoy your kids and create some memories.

So, according to authors, if home-schooled children study for only two hours a day, year round, they will get three times more educational hours on academic basics like reading, writing, and arithmetic than public-school students get.

Not only does teaching your child basics at home take far less time than you thought, but teaching these skills is even easier today because parents now have all educational resources available to them that we’ve already noted. Also, bookstores like Barnes and Noble and Borders have whole sections full of books about teaching your child to read, write, and do basic math, as well as books that will interest and challenge young readers.

Once your children learn to read well, whole world of learning opens to them. They can explore any subject that interests them, and read ever more difficult material by themselves in books or on computer. For a small subscription fee, your children can study entire Encyclopedia Britannica on Internet. They can access almost every major library in world through Internet, including Library of Congress. If your kids love to read and learn, Internet provides unlimited resources.

Once your children read fluently, you can point them towards your local library or bookstore, supervise their studies, and see where their interests lie. Your job is to introduce your kids to as many different subjects and resources as possible. Have them take art classes at local YMCA, library, or arts and crafts store. Introduce them to different kinds of music. See if they enjoy a music lesson on piano, guitar, or drums. Give them classic novels by great authors to read.

Most home-schooling parents spend about three to four hours a day homeschooling their kids. The key point to remember is that you have many options and a vast amount of educational resource material available to help you homeschool your children and quickly teach them basics. When you take advantage of this material, home-schooling can be fairly easy and take much less time than you think.

Article Copyrighted © 2005 by Joel Turtel.