Lesson Learned – Set a schedule

I would love to say that all of my kids loved the idea of homeschooling from day one but I would be lying.  I have received a lot of wining from my children about what they are missing out on.  When I try to explain to them the benefits of homeschooling such as a better education, more opportunities, etc. they roll their eyes and continue to complain.  So I had to pull out all the stops and try to win them over with other benefits such as being able to sleep in.  When I say sleep in I was thinking we normally was up at 6:45 to be on the bus by 7:30, and now we can sleep in till about 7:30 or 8:00.  But my children took it to a new level. 

They think sleeping in means they don’t see the light of day till about lunch time.  Until recently I had allowed them to do so as long as when they got up they had to complete all of their assignments.  The problem was our days became longer and longer.  Kids were sleeping later and going to bed later and it was a vicious cycle.  I was starting to sleep on this “2^nd shift” type schedule and I was getting NOTHING done! 

I recently attended our local homeschool convention and one of the speakers really hit home.  She had struggled with the same problem and had overcome the issue.  She said we need to schedule a set time for class to start.  The children needed to be responsible for getting up on their own and be ready to get started by my set time.  I know this is not rocket science however I felt like I was “given permission” to enforce this in my home.  The children instantly protested!  I was taking away the only good thing about homeschool.  But since the change our days have ran so much smoother. 

Our new schedule is that all children have to be up and downstairs by 8:30am.  They must be ready to start “class” by 9:00.  If they want to eat breakfast they must make sure they are up early enough to do so.  We work about 2 hours and break for lunch.  Then we continue after lunch until all work is done.  This works out great because they are finishing up about the time the neighborhood kids are coming out to play.  Even the children have seen how much better this schedule is working out and have commented about it.  It is not their ideal sleeping in but they can see the benefits out way the costs.  Not to say they will never complain about getting up, but at the end of the day I know that they know I am doing what is in their best interest. 

So for all of you out there I highly encourage you to set a time to get started each day.  Empower your children by making them responsible for getting up and going on their own, this is a valuable life skill.  When you have a set start time you will find that you will have more time to get things done.  And you won’t feel like all you get done is schoolwork.

Next I will share the layout of our day.