What Makes A Great Online Homeschool Learning Experience
Embracing online learning can lead to an amazing homeschool learning experience. There are so many benefits to online learning for homeschoolers. It’s perfect for interest led learning and helpful for families homeschooling an only child too.
Want to learn more about the benefits of online learning and how we make it work in our homeschool? Check out all the things we love about learning online in our homeschool including interactive elements, interest led learning opportunities, and more.
Plus, discover some of our favorite resources for learning online too. You’ll love these fun online classes, educational apps, and interactive learning activities!
Online Learning In Our Homeschool
There are so many ways we utilize online learning in our homeschool! We have come to appreciate the many opportunities technology can supply, especially when you’re homeschooling an only child.
Online classes give Emily opportunities to socialize. She loves online art classes with You Are and Artist and the fun interactive courses available from platforms like Outschool. Learn more about The Best Online Classes for Your Homeschool in my list of favorites.
Educational Apps on our Kindle Fire are another way we embrace learning online. They offer extra practice for concepts your homeschooler is finding to be a challenge. Get extra math practice, reading help, and embrace gameschooling with this method of online learning.
YouTube videos are a regular part of our unit studies. We use these videos to get up-to-date information and explore topics Emily is curious about. Learn more about How We Use YouTube In Our Homeschool and discover our favorite channels to watch with your kids too.
The Benefits of Online Learning
Online learning has lots of benefits. It’s become a daily part of our learning here at The Waldock Way. There are so many online resources you can use to help make your lessons go further!
Plus, online learning keeps kids engaged and excited about learning. If you want to foster a lifelong love of learning, embracing online learning is definitely the way to do it.
I’m a firm believer that the up-to-date information available online and the ability to combine visual and auditory learning styles are great reasons to use technology to your advantage. Younger children especially benefit from videos and apps that combine visuals with catchy songs and rhymes. Learning online is fast and colorful!
Incorporating screens into your homeschool lessons is an easy way to engage reluctant learners as well. Even the most reluctant homeschoolers will want to participate when the lesson involves a movie or a video game.
Online learning also gives you the opportunity to include the latest technology and research too. If you’re studying a new topic, you’re more likely to find it online than in a book at the library.
What Makes A Great Online Learning Experience
What makes online learning such a great experience? I think all the possibilities are what draws us to this method of homeschooling again and again. Check out some of our favorite aspects of online learning below.
Giving Mom a Break
Online learning is a great resource for homeschooling an only child, because it gives Emily a chance to learn from someone that’s not me. Plus, it gives me a chance to step away for a minute or two.
We’ve adopted learning lunches as a daily time when Emily can learn online and I can step away to make phone calls, do chores, or grab a quiet minute for myself. It’s great for keeping kids busy in the car while running errands around town too.
Following Their Curiosity
Interest led learning gives kids the opportunity to explore the topics they’re curious about and learn more. If you’re raising lifelong learners, embracing their passions and curiosities will certainly help them fall in love with learning.
Online homeschooling gives kids the opportunity to explore and deep dive into subjects they want to know more about. Plus, it’s an easy way to answer all the great questions your homeschoolers have about anything and everything!
Step-by-Step Videos
Have you ever tried to do a science experiment that didn’t turn out properly? What about a crafting or art project that failed spectacularly?
Maybe you just want to avoid the mess or you’re out of baking soda for the volcano experiment. Whatever the reason, step-by-step videos can be the way to go. Some of the online learning videos we love include chalk pastel lessons from You Are An Artist and science activities from Mystery Science.
They’re great for giving kids step-by-step instructions to follow for art projects, science experiments, and even solving complex equations. Plus, your homeschooler can pause the video for more time or skip ahead as needed.
I love that these video lessons give us the opportunity to let Emily explore her own passions, even if it’s something we don’t know anything about. I might not be great at making elephant toothpaste, building a catapult, or drawing the Eiffel tower with chalk, but Emily can still learn how to do those things and whatever else she’s interested in via online learning.
Interactive Elements
Online learning programs have interactive elements homeschoolers can use for hands-on practice. Emily loves learning math with Teaching Textbooks through videos, games, and practice activities. Similarly, Night Zookeeper has become one of our favorite fun ways to practice writing skills and grammar in our homeschool.
Kindle apps are another fun way to make practice interactive with your homeschooler. There are lots of free options like Anton and Khan Academy that offer practice in all kinds of subjects with games and tutoring.
Dive Deep Into Interests
Learning with online videos, apps, and games gives kids the opportunity to deep dive into their interests. For example, Emily has really loved learning about veterinary medicine and what it takes to become a veterinarian with online classes through Outschool. Her curiosity also led to our very own Homeschool Veterinarian Unit Study!
We can also dive deeper into books we really love with Outschool book clubs. Their online book clubs are set up for kids to participate via zoom with other kids their own age. Some of Emily’s favorites include the Magic Treehouse Book Club and Books and Bricks Storytime.
More Resources For Learning Online In Your Homeschool
There are so many ways to incorporate online learning in your homeschool! We have come to appreciate all the amazing benefits of online learning from games, on-the-go curriculum options, learning apps, to online classes via zoom, there’s something for everyone. Check out some of my other resources for learning online to get ideas on how you can add online learning to your lesson plans this year.
- Teaching Textbooks: Great for On the Go Learning
- The Ultimate Guide to Children’s Podcasts
- 7 Awesome Apps to Help Your Child Learn to Read
- The Very Best Documentaries for Your Homeschool
- Don’t Be Afraid of Technology in Your Homeschool
Do you have an online learning resource your homeschoolers love? Share your favorite online classes and learning resources in the comments to help us all improve our homeschool learning experience this year.
