The first week or so may be chaotic and chances are that the style of teaching you use in your first few weeks will evolve into something completely different over time. The chaotic nature of the first few weeks is simply because everything is new for both you and them. Over time, you will settle into a routine.
This chapter will help you with the basics of formulating such a routine.
Learn Time Management
1. Set a specific time daily for schooling
Personally, Our target to teaching our kids have always been almost three hours a day. Timings generally are between 9am and 1pm every morning or evening according to our availability. Morning is the time when their minds are fresh and we have enough time to balance work and teaching. Some parents prefer to homeschool in the afternoons or evenings, due to their work routines. Find out what works for you and set the time accordingly. Stick to that time daily and it will become part of your routine. Over time, you won’t even have to tell them, they’ll just know that it is homeschooling time.
2. Work in Chunks
Chunking takes away the stress and pressure and helps you focus on what is in your control i.e. your daily choices and allocation. Doing this will make your task easier and make you more productive.
3. Setting goals
If they find a section easy, we fly through it in as few days as possible. If they find a concept difficult, we take our time utilizing other resources to help them learn and understand it. As we said before, homeschooling isn’t a race, it’s a chance to let your child learn at his/her natural pace.
These are a few time management tips that will assist you in formulating a routine for homeschooling. There may be many more based on your experience and knowledge.
Importance of Patience
There is no doubt that to effectively homeschool your children, you need to grow into someone who is patient with children and understands them. This is also required in getting them into a routine. In the beginning, they would like to play video games all day, or watch TV, or they may fight with each other, or say they don’t want to do it. Slowly and patiently you will need to sit with them each day at the same time and teach them until it becomes a habit and a routine.
Formulating any new habit or routine takes patience, it requires even more patience if children are involved. Those first few weeks may be difficult but don’t give up so soon. Be persistent and punctual and eventually they will fall into routine.
Scheduling down time
Along with the daily and weekly time off, try to plan at least one or two family vacations a year. You and your kids need that time out to recharge and tackle the next round of homeschooling with recharged energy. In fact, you will find that they learn a lot more through vacations and play time than you realized.
Enjoy your time together
Do not treat this as a chore, treat it as quality family time that you will never get back. What happens if one day in the future you get a job that doesn’t allow you to homeschool? Or even if that doesn’t happen, your children will grow up sooner than you expect and the homeschooling days will be over. Do not end up with regrets when that time comes, regrets about how you treated your children and their education. Make homeschooling fun for both your children and yourself. Create memories and enjoy every milestone. You have the unique opportunity to be the one who teaches your child how to read, count, do Math, understand the world, and you get to play a major role in his/her growth. Enjoy every moment of that and do not make it stressful or boring for yourself or them.
Plan some family outings
Try to take them to as many different places as possible. Over the past few years, we have taken our children to an aquarium, a zoo, multiple parks, a litchi farm, an animal farm, mountain climbing, zip-lining, horse riding, and bungee jumping on a trampoline, the list of unique experiences keeps growing. We love to try new things, visit new places, and have unique experiences, all of which have helped them grow in confidence, courage, and knowledge.
