Comments on: Could a slight schedule-switch work wonders for you?

By: Nicole

Nicole

Last year we went round for round over reading. It was the hardest thing for my 7 year old so I felt like we should do it first. It was AWFUL. This Summer, I randomly asked if she wanted to stay up an extra 30 minutes to read to me and she shocked me by saying YES! Since then, we start our bedtime routine a little bit earlier and she reads chapters (PLURAL!!) to me before bed. I thought she couldn’t read well. Turns out, she just couldn’t read well first thing in the morning. I’m planning to do a lot of schedule changing in the Fall to hopefully make our day run more smoothly.

By: tereza crump aka mytreasuredcreations

tereza crump aka mytreasuredcreations

My oldest is 11 and my youngest 4. I got 4 kids. WE have switched things around a lot. It really depends on the season of the year, what we are studying, their age and their current interests. Like right now, they are in the MInecraft rave. In order for them to be able to play and watch Minecraft videos, we are doing our school after our chores and morning routine in the morning. The play first and then work second was just not working. They were never ready to move away from the computer. So we had to institute a few rules: good attitudes, school and chores done will get you Minecraft time. Bad attitude, grumbling and whining about school and chores, no computer time later. It’s working so far. WE do school year around but we keep it to an hour or so every day. We do a lot of our learning with hands-on activities, reading and listening/ watching to documentaries and audiobooks. I get bored pretty quickly with the same curriculum/ routine, so we change things on a monthly base. It keeps things interesting around here. 😉

By: momstheword

momstheword

Don’tcha just love the flexibility of homeschooling?

My son struggled with math early in the morning, too. We started school at 7:30 because I wanted to be done earlier in the day and the kids did too. But that was just too early for him for math.

So instead he did History and Science and English and by the time Math rolled around he was ready!

By: Annette

Annette

My children are grown now, and we homeschooled through high school with both of them. All you mamas are smart to pray and listen for answers when you begin thinking about your school year. Continue to pray and listen as the year progresses. Don’t be afraid to move things around, take breaks, change curriculum, whatever it takes to make your home and school work. You have your children home because you want what’s best for them right?

By: Nicole

Nicole

We spent the last year doing preschool at home to get our feet wet. Now I’m trying to figure out how much structure we need and where we need it for kindergarten. One of our reasons to homeschool is that daddy works a rotating schedule and we like spending time with daddy, so that means the school day will probably be rotating with his work schedule. Which means we’ll be trying morning, afternoon and evening school. We’ll see what works.

By: Miranda

Miranda

My 9 year old daughter would struggle with math most mornings AND afternoons. Grrrr. But… Then I sat with her at night after the littles were in bed and wouldn’t you know…she busted through it! We tried that a few other times and it worked like a charm. Yes it was a long day for the mama but isn’t that why we homeschool? For the sake of spending more quality time with our children and teaching them HOW to learn and that everyone does it a little differently.

By: Danielle

Danielle

This is so good to hear! My kids are both SO very active in the morning that as I was beginning to consider our homeschool schedule, I just know that it won’t work in the mornings. But it also seems that everyone does homeschool in the morning. Not us! We’ll be jumping in straight away with afternoons!

By: Heidi

Heidi

I had a very similar experience. My oldest son (I have three) IS a morning person, but trying to do school in the morning was a constant struggle because he wanted to be playing with his younger brothers and not sitting with me doing math. I ended up switching our days around so he plays in the morning and we start school when his younger brothers go down for nap/quiet time after lunch, and the fights disappeared. It’s sometimes hard for me to motivate after lunch because I usually have a dip in energy around then, but we’re always guaranteed to be home and it’s not a struggle for my son to focus, so it’s worth the effort to me.

By: Martha Artyomenko

Martha Artyomenko

I had to learn this with my oldest son, thankfully the younger ones learn better in the morning or we would struggle to get school done. But my oldest learns best after 12 noon.

By: Stacie

Stacie

Oh, how I love this! I have a picture on my desk that says “Be Free” to remind me that I don’t always have to do things like everyone else. It’s easy to forget sometimes though…