Truth time: I don’t want to homeschool today. I just don’t want to do it. It takes nothing to knock me off schedule lately, and that could be waking up ten minutes later than I planned, or realizing that the cat knocked over my plant through the night, or more recently, waking up to snow falling from the ground. It takes time and effort to be a more consistent homeschooler.
How can you work on be coming a more consistent homeschooler?
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Get Organized
I have said this before, and I’m going to say it again, being organized about your homeschool day is going to be a game changer. When you have to stop to look for something you need in the middle of a lesson it breaks concentration and rhythm.
Get Dressed
Instead of following the homeschool “dress code” of wearing pajamas, get dressed. Everyone should be getting dressed. It changes your mind set from relaxing and lazy to productive. I make sure my kids get dressed each morning before we start school for the day. I get dressed as soon as I get up.
Fake it Till You Make It
Force yourself and push through the day and the lessons. Push yourself to create and follow a routine. After awhile you’ll see that it just flows because you have made it to the other side and are consistently homeschooling.
End of the Week Incentive
At the end of the week have something planned to reward yourself for homeschooling each day of your schedule. We only homeschool four days a week, so getting to a reward at the end of the week really just means that we have to get through four days (mornings) of lessons.
Your reward could be going to the playground, watching a movie or documentary, or getting some ice cream. What is going to motivate you to be consistent with your homeschool lesson plans.
Plan Fun
Plan to have fun through the week. We love science, science experiments are a great way to add fun to our week.
We get together with a local homeschool group once a week for fun and social interactions.
We are done our lessons by noon most days, unless we have something come up in the mornings that things get pushed back. That leaves the afternoons free for free-play – Lego is hugely popular with my kids, or for creating art or going for a hike. All the fun things that we have time for because we homeschool.
Plan Days Off
Are you able to shorten your homeschool week into four days instead of the traditional five? Maybe instead of starting your week on a Monday you start on Tuesday, or maybe you are going to take Fridays off.
We take Wednesdays off, but you really need to be consistent and strict with yourself to take a day off in the middle in the week and pick up again the next day. Scheduling that day off might be what gets you through the week.
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