By now most of us have begun a new year of educating our children. Many of us have planned what books or educational materials we are using, and developed some sort of routine or schedule.
With young children, a routine is all that is needed. It doesn’t have to be time oriented, it can just be “First, we have breakfast, then we clean up. Then we have a Bible time, followed by a playtime. Then we have a story time. Next we have snack and put the baby down for his nap. After that we learn numbers and letter sounds. When the baby wakes up we go outside.”
As the children get older (and especially when there are more than one), it is helpful to have more of a schedule. Some educational pursuits you might want to do as a family, some subjects various children can work on independently, and other subjects various children might need your individual help with. In these circumstances, a schedule is helpful.
If you, like I have done for so many years, make a beautiful schedule that works gloriously for two days (or two weeks) and then slowly (or rapidly) falls by the wayside, what can you do?
First, analyse the problem. What has contributed to the schedule not working or not working any longer? Did you make it too tight, with no margins? No time to transition from one thing to the other? Did you simply underestimate how long one subject/activity or another took? No problem, take those factors into account, and re-work your schedule, modifying it to fit the reality of your homeschooling.
Perhaps it is the interruptions of phone calls or texts? Perhaps you are getting distracted by your cell phone at your side and the notifications that arrive. I have definitely had this problem. In fact, at times my adult children who don’t live at home call me while I am homeschooling their siblings, and I answer that call right in the middle of working with a child. And that “Mom, do you have a minute?” turns into too many minutes taken away from what I should be doing.
Because of this, I have determined not to have my cell phone near me, and not to answer my cell or my home phone during our school hours. I have also notified anyone who tends to call me during those hours that I will not be available at that time. So far, it has made a positive difference.
Every day is a new day, and when something isn’t working, we can simply stop and figure out why and what to do about it.
Let me know how your scheduling goes, and enjoy this fresh new school year!