If you’re considering homeschooling your children this fall, there are a lot of considerations to evaluate for your household. Every family and situation is different, and in order to set yourself and your children up for success, you’ll need to keep an organized work flow all around. Just like with work and other responsibilities, a schedule will help you and your children stay on task.
Be Prepared
At first glance, homeschooling may seem like an easy alternative to the hustle and bustle of public school. Or you may be concerned about your children’s safety and health going back to public school after Covid-19. Either way, there are still structures and rules that can make the transition easier for all parties involved. If you’re also working, chances are you won’t be able to keep an eye on your children’s work flow every day, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t enforce schedules and timeframes to get their work done. Your children may think it’s going to be easy to do whatever they may choose throughout the day, but sticking to your guns and setting boundaries will go a long way.
Setting Timeframes
Just as with public school, have them start their schoolwork early in the morning like a typical day. Your kids may try to sleep in a little bit, but if you can get them up and started before you leave for work, this will set you all up for success. Having them begin their schoolwork earlier will help when they have questions or hit a roadblock, which you may be able to help with during the day. Depending on your lunch break times, you can even check in and see if they need any guidance to help them further along before you leave work for the day. Your kids will continue to have a little free time in the day regardless of when they start, but this allows them to get the hard work out of the way first. When you get home from work, you can review their assignments and help them with anything they couldn’t finish during the day.
Days Get Busy
Of course, there are always going to be sport activities, friends coming over, and other regular activities and get-togethers that may throw your best laid plans out the window. Try to keep your children’s school schedules the same as much as you can throughout these busy times. Remember that if you do have to break the schedule here and there it won’t set up anyone for failure, and get back to your timeframes when you can. Your kids will most likely get back into the routine quickly and effortlessly all on their own.
Katie Kyzivat