Building a Home School Electives Program

When home schooling your child or multiple children, it's essential that you try to give them the most balanced and varied education possible. In fact, many parents choose homeschooling for the very freedom it gives them in planning their child's curriculum.

One part of a balanced homeschool curriculum is electives. These are classes/courses that are outside of the core subjects such as math, language arts and science. They are typically fun for the child and often include life skills that he will take with him as he grows older.

Similar to the system a public school would use, we rotate our electives every so many weeks. We allow each student to keep one that is their favorite if they choose, and rotate out the others so that they can experience many different electives, even the ones they might not choose on their own at first.

By the end of a grading period, they have each tried all of the electives at least once and they are able to continue to build on the ones that are their favorites. Since we go to school year-round at our homeschool, we switch electives every three weeks, allowing them to keep one (if they choose) and rotate the other two.

Our electives include:

Home economics

Finances

Music

Drama/theater

Creative writing/poetry

Automotive care

Lawn care/gardening

Computers

Babysitting

Art and drawing

Crafts and building

We also have classes that are similar to electives but that are mandatory such as Bible study, PE and journalism. For journalism, we run a family newspaper and each member of the family has to do a weekly story that I compile and we deliver on Friday mornings.

While all of the students can choose from the same pool of electives, we tailor the activities and the education based on their age and grade level. For example, music for my 5 year old will be very different than music for my 12 year old; however, all four children can participate in a music class together. I will then go into more detail with the older children and keep it simpler for the younger ones.

Electives give the students a chance to explore new things and to delve deeper into the things they already know they enjoy. It also gives them a chance to get "hands on" with many things. It's also a way to learn life skills, household chores and other valuable skills and lessons that are needed throughout life.

When building a home school electives program, you need to consider your child's interests, what tools you have available to you and what is suitable to your child's age and education level. This will be a very important part of the home school curriculum and will complete balanced studies for your homeschooled child.