I feel like we should create a post to compile tips for Pedes that have had to deal with their kids be freed from indoctrination camps/schools.
So I'll start. Please fellow homeschool parents, jump in.
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Do NOT try and recreate public school. PS is designed to teach en mass, typically a one size fits all approach. Why do that when you can customize each child's learning to their personal strengths, deficits, and desires. A kid who excels at reading should be pushed to read more challenging stuff. A kid struggling at math should have more time and resources dedicated to that.
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Get a guide. Seriously, unless you are a teacher, we often dont know what to teach and when. Guides are helpful in setting benchmarks and giving ideas on how to approach it. You are not beholden to them, so you can and should alter it to fit your kid. We started with a book called "The Well Trained Mind" by Susan Bauer.
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Teach more than just academics. Everything is educational. Teach them about your faith, running a household, maintenance of vehicles, rhetoric, home repair, anything that we hear others complain that schools don't do.
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Seize the little moments. Use everyday things to teach an academic lesson. Cooking uses math and also teaches task management. Dinner time discussions become etiquette and rhetoric lessons.
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The internet has loads of resources for homeschool. Sift through them to find worthwhile ones. Some are trash or leftist influenced so be mindful of it.
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Get them involved in a sport outside of the home. Its easy to focus on the mental and neglect the physical, dont.
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Keep them connected to peers outside the home somehow. Kill the excuse that homeschool kids arent socialized (read: corrupted or groomed) unless they are in PS. By keeping them in positive peer settings, you get all of the benefits and none of the downsides. Ex: Church youth groups, Trail Life or American Heritage Girls, sports leagues, hobby groups, homeschool groups.
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Do not feel like you need to spend 8 hours a day on lessons. A couple of quality hours of lessons at home beatsa full day of PS. The rest of the day can be filled with little natural learning moments.
That's what I have to start with. What else does everyone else got?
As an elementary teacher trying to do some good for my students while they learn from home, I gotta say, a lot of this is good stuff.
Let me add a few more:
Set a time aside each day for them to work. Keep a basic schedule that isn't 8 hours. Plan a solid block of time dedicated to learning.
If your child's teacher puts forth the effort to make video lessons, or asks your student to send pictures of their work - make sure your kids watch the video and do the work. That teacher put a lot of thought into that work in an effort to help your kid.
On the flip side, if your kids teacher gives them a laundry list of websites and says something like "work on skill #5 for 30 minutes" or "read these pages and email me a report on what you learned", then feel free to fudge it for your kids and do something different. Those are teachers who just didn't know what to do and threw some random crap together.
Let the kids pick what they want to learn about sometimes. One of the greatest learning experiences a kid had last year in my room was when he went to research LEGOs for fun. He wrote a report on his own about their invention, design, where they are made, how to get a job at LEGO, etc. This wasn't some genius straight-A kid either, just a simple 10 year old with a passion.
When your kids aren't in their scheduled learning block time, let them just be kids. Don't try to force them to do some trendy Facebook science experiment if they aren't interested.
Teach SKILLS. Show them how to cook something they like. Build something with them. Create something with them, like a video they can edit.
That's all I got for now.