Key to a Successful Homeschool
Good time management is the key to a successful homeschool. This means that parents and students need to be managing their time well.
I have found task lists to be invaluable for our homeschool. Each of our students has a three ring binder that holds their weekly lists. (I've attached our fourth grade student’s task list.) These lists also serve as our records since my children enter page numbers for their curriculum. It is our goal to have them finish their task list each day before they can do anything else.
A quiet uninterrupted time helps us get a lot more done each day. I try to keep the house very quiet while we are working on school work so everyone can concentrate. We try our best to refrain from interrupting each other – which is difficult since we all love to visit. Allowing our phone to take voice mail messages is very helpful during this quiet time as well. During the time our children are working on computer related studies, head phones are a must to limit distractions.
Speaking of computers, they can certainly be magnets – drawing us to them and keeping us tightly attached! In teaching our children good time management, we stress how important it is to be careful not to spend too much time on computers. We keep the students’ computers in our combined living room/kitchen area so I can monitor computer use. Our children enjoy spending their thirty minutes of “fun” computer time each day as a reward for finishing their task list. Technology is great when used for the right purpose and the time is limited.
We as parents need to be careful not to allow our computers to sap our time either. I refrain from using my office computer during the time our children are working on their task lists. I don’t know how many times I’ve gone to my computer to type a quick email and suddenly realized I had allowed half an hour to slip by because I got sidetracked.
Teach your children that we have more time to be a blessing to others when we use our time wisely.
~Julie Walter
MÂCHÉ Board Member
Comments
I find that the computer
I find that the computer takes too much of my time, too.
Thank you for posting the
Thank you for posting the schedule. It is nice to see an example.
Things That Work for Me
The tricks that worked best for me were to (1) make a flexible schedule so everyone would know what to do next, (2) keep chore lists, grocery lists, to do lists, menu lists to help keep everyone on focus - and to encourage us when we could mark through something as 'completed', (3) allow the phone answering machine to take the messages until I had a break in my schedule, (4) limit computer time - including my own, (5) get rid of the TV, (6) wake up early - get dressed, make bed, and spend time in God's Word - the day seems to go better, (7) find some good crock pot recipes, and (8) teach my children to use good manners - you'd be surprised how much this affects your time usage. There were always unexpected interruptions, but at least we were able to get back on track relatively easily because these tricks had become habits.
Thank you!
Thank you for the excellent information on time management.
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