Planning out how you will spend your day is an important tool for any homeschooling parent. If you must balance household chores and running errands along with teaching your children their lessons it stands to reason that your time must be well segregated into slots. Here are some things to keep in mind before you set up a home school schedule for your children.
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Morning Hours Don’t Always Work Best
While traditionally the early morning school route has been followed in regular schools all over the world, with homeschooling it may not be the best idea. You need time to clean up the mess that invariably occurs in a home with small children, cook meals for the day and even take on outside errands. All these undone tasks will play at the back of your mind if you begin school early morning for your home school students.
Rather than being distracted by these chores and getting short tempered with the children for not finishing school work fast so that you can get to them, finish the basic household work before you begin class. If this means beginning your homeschool classes closer to noon than in the morning, so be it.
Schedule Set Times for Lunch and Play
It is easy to get swept up in lessons and want to finish a certain activity before taking a break for lunch. However in the long run it will be easier for your children to stick to the homeschool schedule if you do so right from the word go. That way they can anticipate their lunch and play breaks and will adapt to the routine better.
Of course they may take their own sweet time finishing simple tasks in the hope that the same activity can be continued after lunch or whichever break is coming up. So you will need to be on the look out for deliberate tardiness. Do consider the fact that the 3Rs are best handled when the children are fresh. Sometimes they may just be tired and that’s what causes the delay. Try and keep tasks that need more hands on time in the afternoon’s schedule.
Article Inspiration: About Homeschooling
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I like the idea of the set times and set routines to keep structure. My kid certainly needs it and my day is easier because of it. However I disagree with the blanket advice to get other things such as errands done before school so that the parent is able to focus better. I believe that your kid’s physical and mental energy levels, and THEIR best times of day, should be the primary factors driving the daily schedule. I would only put errands first if they were truly time-bound. It’s less work for me to motivate my kid when he’s at his peak, and he is happier and enjoys school more when he’s mentally ready for it. I have had to be very creative about getting the rest of my tasks woven into the day. Below are examples of how I get things done, if anyone actually cares to read.
I schedule the more difficult subjects for the time of day my kid is the most mentally alert. My son (8yrs old) gets up at 6:30am and says he’s ready for school. You would think the kid just had a shot of adrenaline or something! Although I am tired, and more of an afternoon person, I skip my shower and put on yesterday’s clothes and start school immediately because his energy level and attention are at their peak FIRST THING. I hop in the shower after school and enjoy a longer shower without the rush. It’s a trade-off I make so that school is easier for him, and therefore less constant “encouragement” is required from me. My “morning child” is mentally tired in the afternoons, so we only do the more right-brained or physical activities then. I also tell him, “If you get all the classes done in the morning, we can do … whatever fun thing… afterward”. This often motivates him to get school done faster so we can for example hit the playground or library after school.
As far as getting errands done, I have cars-chooling options I use for when I need to drive somewhere. I use “The Story of the World” on CD for world history, which he listens to as we drive. There is a test booklet he can take after each chapter right there in the back seat. For some reason he thinks it’s totally exciting to do school while we drive, because we are not stuck at home! We have done school while driving, in the doctor’s office waiting room, in airport terminals, riding in the grocery cart, waiting in line at the recycling center, etc. Buy or make flash cards or study sheets that you can quiz them on for times like this. You will be surprised what you come up with when you HAVE TO get errands and school done simultaneously.