by Todd Pheifer

Created on: January 23, 2010

Homeschooling is a unique way to educate children in today’s society and many people believe strongly in it’s overall success.  While most students still attend “traditional” school settings, there are always a percentage of families who choose to homeschool their children.  This decision is made for a variety of different reasons.  When families decide to homeschool their children, they must decide what role the parent or parents will play in the delivery of the education.  In addition, they need to select curricular materials that will best prepare their child for future educational and vocational endeavors.  In order to broaden the experience, some parents will try a variety of teaching methodologies in order to cover the material more effectively.  Therefore, here are a few thoughts on how interactive teaching and role-playing bring depth to homeschooling. 

Active participants

Interactive teaching and role-playing is another way for education to be a “participation sport,” rather than a parent simply becoming a talking head to their child.  Granted, in a homeschooling situation it may be difficult for the child or children to escape being involved since there aren’t any other kids to call on.  In addition, the teacher always knows if the children have done their homework.  However, being in a homeschooling situation does not guarantee that everything will be interactive.  Therefore, the parent should be intentional about their interactivity, and use role-playing as a way to draw out their child so that they can explore various contexts of education. 

Different roles and relationships

Another benefit of something like role-playing is that it gives the child an additional outlet for expression and it allows them to experience a different perspective.  It isn’t difficult to imagine that a parent and a homeschooled child might get tired of one another after a period of time.  Therefore, role-playing gives both parties an opportunity to take on different personas and scenarios, so that the child can simulate various educational situations while still maintaining the homeschool environment. 

Practicing for later in life

Finally, being interactive and role-playing can be valuable training for students as they prepare for situations later in life.  At some point, homeschooling ends and students will either move on to traditional education settings or they will begin vocational pursuits.  When this occurs, the student must be ready to deal with a variety of situations, which means that interactive teaching and role-playing will potentially help them in their endeavors. 

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