It is now over half way through the first semester of school and your schedule is in full swing. Maybe everything is going really smoothly and your family is on a great schedule. Maybe you began your year with high hopes but now it is slowly spiraling out of control. Organization may have gone by the wayside. Staying on task can be challenging, especially when you have multiple ages and multiple activities going in all different directions. How do you stay organized and still fit everything in? Let’s focus specifically on chores and extracurricular activities. Streamlining these will help your homeschool and families thrive. Here are just a few reminders to keep your homeschool going strong for the rest of the year.
CHORES:
Teach responsibilities early. Spending time teaching your child how to do a chore will benefit you and your child for years to come. Let them be involved in the process. Here are steps to successfully teaching chores (and any skill, for that matter): direct teaching (instruct and let them watch how you do a chore), mentoring (watch and instruct them while they attempt the chore independently), occasional supervision (make sure they are staying on task and succeeding), and independence (children work alone on the task).
Following these steps will ensure your children have mastered the skill. Then they can feel equipped and, once they’re at the independence stage with a chore, can also teach younger children how to do specific chores. For example, if I was shown how to change a tire but never really changed one on my own, I might not feel adequate to do the task if I was on the side of the road by myself. However, if I practiced this under supervision, I would feel more confident when left to do this task alone.
How do you keep track of everyone’s chores and responsibilities? Find a system that works best for your family and stick with it. Gina’s family kept a big white board in a central location with everyone’s chores for the day labeled in a different color. Weekly, they switched up the chores so everyone had their turn at dishes, laundry, cleaning bathrooms, and cooking. Ruth’s family assigned each person a different chore daily to be accomplished during the family’s chore time in the late afternoons. Mondays, for example, would always be one child’s laundry day, and another child’s cooking day, etc.
Simplify meals. Each older child might choose a night to cook. Get your children involved in preparing freezer meals. Crock pot meals are also very handy. Have a meeting with your family and come up with some favorite dinner meals everyone enjoys. Teach these recipes to your children. Then schedule these meals regularly. Involve them in the cooking and then, ultimately, have them cook the meal entirely on their own. Perhaps, schedule meals a month at a time and keep it on your fridge or someone else very visible. If a month seems too overwhelming, begin with a week at a time. Putting a little bit of time in on the front end makes things so much easier in the long run. With meals scheduled, you will not have to come up with evening dinner plans at 2:00 in the afternoon. Scheduling also helps the kids know when it is their night to cook. It is already on the calendar.
Get everyone involved. It is vitally important that family members realize they are a crucial part of your family unit. Everyone should be a team player. When Gina’s family began doing homeschool conventions for Rainbow Resource many years ago, her oldest was 10 and youngest was 5. There was a 22-foot trailer full of books and a large booth to set up. When her children realized they were NEEDED to get the booth set up, they stepped it up and worked hard and felt a great sense of accomplishment. It is the same scenario with your family. When your children know you need their help for the family unit to run smoothly, they are more apt to be on board and have that desire to help. Being part of a family requires input and contributions from every member: children and parents. Whether mowing the lawn, baking, laundry, or cleaning, when you get your children involved, your entire family functions as more of a family unit.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITES:
Prioritize. When deciding on extracurricular activities, it is a good idea to gather as a family or with your spouse and discuss your priorities. Your choices might change year by year. Final decisions on extra curriculars might depend on driving distances, finances, and time. Keep in mind that extracurriculars can become all-consuming and these might be hard to balance with multiple children. Be aware that too much time spent on extracurricular activities can easily become a detriment to your education. Just remember: if children do not get to do everything they want to do, things they are learning at home are important as well.
Gina’s and Ruth’s family usually had our kids involved in one thing at a time. Gina’s oldest son really enjoyed music, so it was important to provide music lessons. Her daughter enjoyed movement and exercise, so she took a tumbling and dance class. Her youngest son was interested in karate and they found a local teacher. These were all doable because they were within 5 minutes of our house and fairly inexpensive. However, when Gina’s oldest son became involved in speech and debate, they had to count the cost. Debate was 45 minutes away and a huge time commitment. This decision required additional sacrifices of time and finances—and even affected the other children’s choices—but they decided that it was well worth what he gained from that experience. Ruth’s family valued country living, but the distance made the selection of extracurricular activities minimal. Again, as a family, you need to set your priorities and decide what is important to you.
As parents, it is tempting to say “yes” to more activities than we should. We tend to fill our own schedules up with altruistic deeds and noble events. However, sometimes we need to scale back and take a hiatus from additional outside commitments if we find it is taking away from our school and family. Home educating is a season of busyness. Hopefully there will be a time in the future when your kids are grown that you can devote more of your time to outside activities.
Remember why you started homeschooling. Revisit this several times a year if need be. Enjoy it and don’t be too hard on yourself. Your children are learning much more than you realize. If you take one day at a time while keeping the big picture in mind, success will surely abound in your homeschool journey.
