Even though we have just BARELY started our school
year, the distractions are already present...loudly present.
I'm not sure there is a simple solution to this problem...
because some distractions are necessary
(Dr. appts., trip to the post office, etc.),
then some are just so tempting to welcome with open arms,
aka, a call from a friend.
In the past, I've tried to keep our focus but never
really made a big deal of getting off track
with our school work,
but this year is very different because both of my
students (well, the two I have at the moment) are
high schoolers and they really must work hard to get
all their subjects completed by the end of the year
in order to have a full and impressive transcript.
And I DO NOT want to work into the summer.
So, does anyone have a great solution to this?
Do any of you do 4-day weeks in order to
put those errands and Dr.'s appointments on the
5th day?
Do some of you simply require your students
to do "homework" in the evenings?
I really try to avoid that but I think it's going to happen for us this year.
Your thoughts?
year, the distractions are already present...loudly present.
I'm not sure there is a simple solution to this problem...
because some distractions are necessary
(Dr. appts., trip to the post office, etc.),
then some are just so tempting to welcome with open arms,
aka, a call from a friend.
In the past, I've tried to keep our focus but never
really made a big deal of getting off track
with our school work,
but this year is very different because both of my
students (well, the two I have at the moment) are
high schoolers and they really must work hard to get
all their subjects completed by the end of the year
in order to have a full and impressive transcript.
And I DO NOT want to work into the summer.
So, does anyone have a great solution to this?
Do any of you do 4-day weeks in order to
put those errands and Dr.'s appointments on the
5th day?
Do some of you simply require your students
to do "homework" in the evenings?
I really try to avoid that but I think it's going to happen for us this year.
Your thoughts?
7 comments:
Our biggest one is the phone. We have the answering machine answer ALL calls (we have caller ID too-- I know I sound bad). We do answer if D calls from work because if he calls there is a reason. The other biggie has been having to tell people we are schooling from 9-2. (sometimes it takes us longer sometimes it goes faster but that is our average.) I have people who try to come visit, since we are home and all. Esp people who have kids in public school. This is frustrating when I feel they are interrupting our day because they have a little free time. I know I sound all mean, but I have 5 kids and am required by state law to be schooling 4 of them! I don't have time to chit chat. I try to return the most important calls in the evening or email a few people in the evening or morning. The KID distractions. . . THAT is another story completely. lol One taps. One prefers to chew gum while he concentrates. Another needs time to jump on the mini trampoline do get started. Any ideas there??
We did 4 days a week for a long time--until my high schoolers were independant for the most part. You've heard the saying "I'm old and set in my ways"--I like to get out and do errands, appts, in the morning, can't stand doing it in the afternoon, more traffic, etc.
So doing 4 days allowed me to be out in the morning.
Now for the little ones we are doing M_W_F, errands on Tues., Bible study on Thurs.
We also turn the phone ringer off. That way I am not hearing it in another room and wondering about the message etc.
Our biggest distractions are kid-generated (oh, look, there's a squirrel on the deck for the umpteenth time...maybe he'll do something different from all the other squirrels I've ever seen...)--including a 2-year-old brother! My oldest daughter (8) is all geared up to focus better this year, which I'm applauding. Last year, if I left the room more than 5 minutes, nothing got done. We don't get many phone calls (other than telemarketers) during the day, and practically no visitors, so we're okay there. Of course, most of our friends homeschool, so they're busy, too, and my mom tries to call either first thing in the morning or after lunch because she knows we're working. In the same vein, if she's bringing something by, she tries to do it in the afternoon.
Our only consistent errand is the grocery store every other Friday, and we just do that as early in the morning as we can and then start school afterward. Otherwise, I just try to schedule things whatever way seems to be best for that particular day or week. I like the idea of a 4-day week, but I'm not sure about scheduling our schoolwork to do it consistently. That said, I do sometimes give us a four-day week by spreading one day's work over the other 4 days (we do an extra math page here, extra reading there, etc.).
We have a lot of distractions. Mostly appointments. Tyler has speech and PT every other week. I usually just leave the older kids home to work or have them bring things to work on in the car. Our state requires a percent of the hours to be at home, but before we did a lot of school in the car because of sports and appointments. Most of our friends are also hs so not a lot of daily distractions, but we do get offers for friday picnics or skating. We just try to get our work done through the week so we can play!
I don't have high school kiddos yet. Two more years to go. Yikes! We switched to 4 day school last year (Fridays off/light work). There was always something that came up (dr appt,etc) that interrupted school and we just kept getting farther behind. With the 4 day week we are able to stay on target. I do have to say that we do continue bible, spelling and math for all 5 days. We are starting school Monday and I'm a bit anxious/excited as I'll have all 6 schooling this year. My 3 youngest are pre-K and dying to get started at "school"! I do have to say that my biggest distractions are the siblings. We're still working on redirecting those:-)
I know I'm getting long, but something else we have done that helps is create a schedule (down to 30 min increments) where everyone's activities are scheduled. That way I know that from 8:30-9 I am working on math with my 1st grader (my 7th grader is playing number games with our pre-K kiddos & 5th grader is reading her science); 2:30-3 I have time on my computer or to answer phone calls; 5:30-6 dinner prep, etc. We found that having the schedule kept us on task and helped us not get sidetracked. It also gives the older ones responsibility to keep up with their schedule and work and keeps me from nagging as much:-) We deviate from the schedule some days, but at least we are aware of where we are.
Once again, I don't have any great answers for this one. Boy, I'm kind of useless. But I am looking forward to reading everyone else's! Also, something to pass along. I am reading an excellent book right now. It's called Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading, by Tanny McGregor. It's geared toward elemenary ages, and could probably be used for middle school too. I am getting SO excited to use some of the great stuff in this book this year. You should check it out!
Good morning - I forgot about this extra blog of yours! We just started school yesterday. For the beginning of this year I just have one 10th grader and 1 preschooler - later we will have 2 preschoolers. We do a 4 day week - the 5th is for catch up, co op, appointments and such. Distractions? Well, to some degree we all need to be able to work WITH distractions - that is real life. IBoy, being a 10th grader is mostly independent, but when he needs me to work with him, either someone else takes over with Chicka or a movie goes on. I didn't used to turn off the ringer on the phone, but plan on doing it this year. Chicka loved doing her school - I had to make her stop at 5 pages in her workbook before the frustration set in. She now loves finding all the capa A's everywhere! I look forward to learning and sharing with you all as the year unfolds!
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