College Planning: Time Management For Beginners
For people new to home-schooling, the demands of time management and self discipline can be mind boggling at first. Indeed, home-schooling can test the time management skills of even the most coordinated and scheduled of people. However, there are steps you and your child can take to get through this adjustment period and make home-schooling work for you.
Home-schooling requires that you use your time judiciously. It is very important that you don't let time get away from you, but that you use every hour in the day to its full advantage. A great way to start doing this when you are in home-school is to keep careful track of how time is being used throughout the day. Don't rely on what you planned to do; record everything that happens when it happens. You may find that lots of time is being wasted in areas that you may not have thought of. For example, you may find that telephone calls from marketers are stealing time from your home-school agenda. Or you may find that it takes longer than anticipated for your child to settle into her home-school day. By keeping track of how home-school time is actually being used over the course of a week or two, you can make adjustments to plug those leaks and maximize the home-school time available to you.
After you have found out where the major leaks are in your home-school schedule, it is time to start focusing on creating a schedule that maximizes the benefits of home-schooling. You may find that every hour in the week needs to be scheduled and planned. Although some home-school families might bemoan the lack of spontaneity, it is very important that the home-schooled children get all their learning. You must maximize the benefits of being a home-school family. You can schedule trips to museums. The schedule won't just benefit your children; you will also feel more comfortable knowing when and how everything is going to get done. Furthermore, you can use the schedules as part of the documentation of work done required by many school districts and states of home-schooled children.
Being in charge of your time is one of the greatest aspects of home-schooling, but it also requires a great deal of responsibility. Home-schooling can be a great experience for your family; in order for it to be successful, you and your children need to learn how to manage your time well. This lesson of time management and self discipline is just one of the many benefits conferred by home-schooling and will last your children their entire lives.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children's rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because "our current system of education has broken its promise..." Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.
Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Daily Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education.