Ever feel like a cat with a shiny object in your own home and within your own homeschooling rhythms? Look, a shiny toy!  Oh, look over here, another shiny toy!  I do!  It can be especially hard to get back into the swing of things after the holidays.  I know some families in the U.S. are starting back to homeschooling this week and some are starting back next week.  We ourselves started on Monday, so I wanted to offer a word of encouragement and a plea for Operation Shiny Toy.

Turn off your computer.

Turn off the phone.

Do not schedule things during the time when you are homeschooling.

Do not say yes to events during the time when you are homeschooling.

Plan what you are doing; work at night to make sure you know what you are presenting the next day.

Commit yourself that the housework, emails and phone calls to make, the housekeeping and cooking (unless you are doing practical work in school!) can wait and you must finish your homeschooling time first.

Write down an outline to the flow of your day and homeschooling time.

Jump in and do it!

On Monday we woke up and started school with Continue reading →