Beginning Steps: Time and Effort

As a new homeschooler you will need to consider how many hours a day and how much personal effort you are willing to put into the various aspects of homeschooling. Of course you will not be able to plan for every contingency now. That's not the goal. Instead of laying a schedule in stone, the goal is to get you thinking about what is important to you and your homeschool and of those import things which can be delegated, relegated or eliminated. You want to avoid frustration or even burnout.

Consider first all the things that you may have to do on a daily basis:

• Household chores like laundry, cleaning and cooking, grocery shopping.
• School related activities like teaching, grading and book keeping
• Extras like field trips and playtime.

Then decide what should be important in the day to day line up. Will you do laundry while the kids are doing there work, or will you keep your "schedule open" so that you can sit with them as they study and learn? Will you do record keeping everyday or make one day a week? Get an idea of what should be a priority.

Once you've prioritize your activates, you should whittle out those that require more resources or personal effort that you can realistically commit. Perhaps you will have to delegate chores to your husband or children. Perhaps you will need to shorten the list of subjects taught in a day. Maybe you will have to limit the number of field trips you would like to do.

This will give you an idea of what a good schedule for you and your family is. It will also help you decide what type of homeschooling method will be most beneficial to you.

HHSR