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When you decide to homeschool your child, you are committing to taking charge of your child’s education. There are many amazing benefits to homeschooling, but the responsibility and time commitment is significant as well. You probably need to spend a good amount of time planning lessons and units. A great way to end a unit is with a project. Projects help children sum up, review and implement everything they have learned.

Here’s an example of a great project idea that will demonstrate how to incorporate projects into your lesson plans effectively. Let’s say your child just completed a unit on biology, a great way to end the unit is to ask your child to create an ecosystem in an aquarium. The goal would be to create a self sufficient environment in a sealed aquarium. While learning about the different cycles of nature, encourage your child to contemplate different ways to create such an ecosystem. After your child has devised an action plan for the project, go to the store to pick up the list of required materials.

Do your best to allow your child to do most of the setting up on their own. Many parents are tempted to help their kids so that the project can look more tidy and organized, but it’s more effective to allow kids to learn from their mistakes. Once your child is done setting up, have them come up with a way to track progress on a daily basis. This will be an opportunity for your child to learn all about graphs and charts.

After your child is done detailing the plan, it’s time to gather the supplies. You child should have a list of supplies needed to put together the ecosystem. You can offer your child some assistance in setting up the aquarium but allow your child to do as much of the work on their own as possible. It much more useful for a child’s self-esteem to end up with a mediocre project they created all on their own, than to end up with a tidy and well done project that they know required someone else’s skills to pull off.

Projects can also be a great way to involve the entire family in a child’s education. The ecosystem your child creates, for example, could be placed in the kitchen or family room where all family members can observe and enjoy it. You can have your child present the project to the other family members and even hold a question and answer session. This will surely create a sense of pride in your child and help create positive feelings about his/her education. If your child attends public school, then chances are you only get to see their project when it all done. Homeschooling parents have the advantage of admiring and encouraging their child during every step of the way.

Another super advantage to homeschooling is that you are not limited by the practicalities necessary in a public school. Project ideas are only limited by you and your child’s imagination. For every unit, encourage your child to list ideas for long term project that will help solidify the knowledge they have acquired in a particular unit. Allowing your children to choose their own project ideas will not only enhance their creativity, it will also make them feel like they have a say in their education. This will do wonders for their motivation and enthusiasm.