Children need to be able to read, understand and retain information from books and other reading material to study effectively. Homeschool teachers should use a variety of textbooks, encyclopedias and fiction and nonfiction books to teach their children. At first, a teacher will need to help the child to glean meaning from these books and help him to understand that different books should be approached with different reading strategies. As the child's abilities develop, the parent must increasingly hold the child accountable for learning from these books on his own. Sometimes it is tempting to allow a homeschooled child skip or find a substitute for a book that seems boring or difficult at first, but the child should be encouraged to stretch his abilities and realize that sometimes he must study a book for the information it contains rather than the entertainment it provides.
Memorization is an important study skill that students will use throughout their academic career. Homeschooled children should be expected to memorize information such as lists of important dates, poems, math facts, grammar rules, vocabulary words and scientific principles. Teach the children to use mnemonic devices, or word association, to memorize information. Choose homeschool curricula that provide plenty of drill and review of concepts and skills. Although it may seem tedious to drill the same concepts every day until they are memorized, the parent must teach the child to have the discipline to review concepts until they are mastered.
It's tempting to skip tests when homeschooling a child; after all, as a teacher and personal tutor, you will have a pretty good idea of what your student knows and does not know. But the child must learn test-taking skills to succeed once he leaves homeschool to pursue other types of education. Most curricula offer tests, so take advantage of them and insist that the child take the test as if he were in school. Consider having the child take a standardized test yearly, administered by someone outside the family, to provide practice for when he takes college entrance exams such as the SAT or ACT.
Managing time and keeping materials organized are important study skills that can be taught in a homeschool setting. Require homeschool students to keep track of their materials and to keep their workspace neat and organized. Require your student to finish his schoolwork before doing any other activities. It can be difficult to keep children focused in a homeschool, because there are distractions in the form of toys, pets, siblings, phone calls and electronics, but learning to ignore these distractions until the schoolwork is completed is a valuable study skill. Make a list of required work for each day, explain the assignments and concepts and then let the child work independently to accomplish the work. This will teach the child to manage his time and develop self-discipline.