Homeschooling your children means taking responsibility for their education, but with this responsibility comes many benefits. One of the greatest benefits that you get to set your child’s curriculum according to your family’s values and your child’s interests. Projects are important part of any homeschooling curriculum. Once you’ve set your curriculum outlined goals for each unit, include projects at the end of each unit to provide your child with an effective way to review and implement all 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.

You can also engage other family members on such projects. The ecosystem, for example, could be placed in a prominent location in your home where other family members will have a chance to observe it and provide your child with feedback on his/her hard work. Parents of children in public schools know how exciting it is when a child comes home with a project they just completed at school. Homeschooling parents enjoy the benefit of having ’school’ at ‘home’ and therefore watching their child’s excitement throughout all stages of a project.

Homeschooling families are not limited by the practicalities necessary in public schools. Project ideas can be as diverse and far reaching as your imagination. For each unit, encourage your child to brainstorm a list of long term project ideas based on what they have learned. Allowing your children to come up with their own project ideas will not only trigger their creativity, it will also make them feel like they have a say in their education. This will make them more enthusiastic and excited about their learning and make for a more successful homeschooling experience.