When many of us think of a home schooling family, we often picture a stay-at-home mum, a working dad, and one or two kids. Of course, this is far from typical and, as many families are finding out, home educating your kids while trying to juggle work commitments too is pretty hard! Read on for 3 tips to help you juggle working and home schooling.
If you are trying to juggle home schooling and work, here are some tips that may help:
1. Get rid of your idea of how long a school day needs to be
Those of us who grew up in the school system, or have kids who attend school, tend to think of school as taking all day, from early morning to mid- or late afternoon. However, homeschooling tends to take much less time than public school.
Home schooling is more focused, has fewer students, and does not have to allow for transition time and other activities that, when they involve 25 or 30 kids, can take a lot of time. Depending on the number and age of your students and the activities you want to cover, you can actually spend as little as 30 minutes each day home schooling, and still be doing a thorough job.
For more on this see: How to Help Kids Learn During School Closure
2. Choose activities that are not too complicated or involved
Look for ideas that are more practical, hands on and fun. Kids do not have to have lessons on every subject every day. Some written work or worksheets may be useful, but there are lots of other ways to learn.
Try baking (maths, reading, science) and fun crafts and activities that develop kids' neural pathways more than any worksheet ever could. Some people even game school which is playing board games to develop key skills - give it a go!
If you're the kind of person who needs a schedule, then plan ahead. Make a schedule up each week so that you don't waste time trying to plan lessons off the cuff, but make those lessons as creative as possible and don't leave out the fun!
Let children have plenty of free time to be creative and have fun. You'll be amazed at the ideas they come up with. Building giant marble runs, constructing models out of junk, and creating with LEGO are all helping develop kids brains and helping them learn important skills.
For more ideas see: 150 Fun Activities for Young Children
3. Understand that learning happens all the time
Forget the idea that kids learn from 9am to 3pm and anything outside that is non-learning time. It's okay to home school in the evenings. You can read over dinner, for example, or at bedtime. You can do a short science project or experiment after dinner. Go for a daily nature walk and talk or find out about what you see.
Learning is all around us, all the time. Let kids direct their own learning according to what they're interested in. Answer their questions. Have conversations. If you don't know something, learn together.
Pin it:
If you are trying to juggle home schooling and work, here are some tips that may help:
1. Get rid of your idea of how long a school day needs to be
Those of us who grew up in the school system, or have kids who attend school, tend to think of school as taking all day, from early morning to mid- or late afternoon. However, homeschooling tends to take much less time than public school.
Home schooling is more focused, has fewer students, and does not have to allow for transition time and other activities that, when they involve 25 or 30 kids, can take a lot of time. Depending on the number and age of your students and the activities you want to cover, you can actually spend as little as 30 minutes each day home schooling, and still be doing a thorough job.
For more on this see: How to Help Kids Learn During School Closure
2. Choose activities that are not too complicated or involved
Look for ideas that are more practical, hands on and fun. Kids do not have to have lessons on every subject every day. Some written work or worksheets may be useful, but there are lots of other ways to learn.
Try baking (maths, reading, science) and fun crafts and activities that develop kids' neural pathways more than any worksheet ever could. Some people even game school which is playing board games to develop key skills - give it a go!
If you're the kind of person who needs a schedule, then plan ahead. Make a schedule up each week so that you don't waste time trying to plan lessons off the cuff, but make those lessons as creative as possible and don't leave out the fun!
Let children have plenty of free time to be creative and have fun. You'll be amazed at the ideas they come up with. Building giant marble runs, constructing models out of junk, and creating with LEGO are all helping develop kids brains and helping them learn important skills.
For more ideas see: 150 Fun Activities for Young Children
3. Understand that learning happens all the time
Forget the idea that kids learn from 9am to 3pm and anything outside that is non-learning time. It's okay to home school in the evenings. You can read over dinner, for example, or at bedtime. You can do a short science project or experiment after dinner. Go for a daily nature walk and talk or find out about what you see.
Learning is all around us, all the time. Let kids direct their own learning according to what they're interested in. Answer their questions. Have conversations. If you don't know something, learn together.
Pin it:
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