One benefit of home schooling is the flexibility of a schedule. Unlike public and private schools, home schools can easily schedule classes around activities and interests and create a make-up day when they choose. However, if care is not taken, the entire family can become overloaded to the point that organizing your calendar becomes as though you’re playing one big game of chess and you’re constantly looking for the next move.
Stay-at-home parents know all too well the importance of managing their time. With a constant bombardment of daily chores and activities to manage, it is sometimes easy to fall behind and become overwhelmed by it all. It happens to the best of us from time to time.
According to salary.com, a stay-at-home parents income would place somewhere between $76,000-$198,000 for moms, and $69,000-$180,000 for dads.
Some typical roles of a stay-at-home parent are baby sitter, cook, chauffer, accountant, organizer, planner, nurse maid, just to name a few. And that’s not including throwing the sole responsibility of educational oversight into the mix.
Now, as an independent educator, you can add principal, guidance counselor, records administrator, curriculum specialist, financial advisor, and instructor to the list. With all of these responsibilities in place, managing time effectively is going to play a key role in the success of the home school program.
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
As with anything else, time management begins by recognizing the parent’s role of leading by example. Implementing time management strategies into your own routine and maintaining a positive attitude of continuous improvement toward your personal goals will reflect your commitment to excellence.
Your child/student will see this and as a result your hard work will pay off by helping them develop important skills and habits that will benefit them for years to come and bring harmony to your program now.
At some point, as a child grows and matures, parents will begin to see a shift from dependency to independency taking place; they no longer want to follow mom and dad’s lead. They are now demonstrating with a new found confidence they’re capable of making their own decisions.
Independence is a good thing! However, independence is only good if the child is capable of making wise decisions. Therefore, parents need to help their child develop good decision making skills that will help them recognize the consequences so they can take responsibility for their actions. Teaching organizational and time management skills will be a part of this process.
If a child learns these skills early in life, these will become habit over time. It is important to start early because as your student approaches high school, they will become more involved with activities, advanced studies, mission trips, testing, volunteer programs, work, and preparing for college.
TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
The staff at CollegeBoard.com knows all too well the importance of time management. They put together a list of resources, including time management tips, from the student section of their Web site. Visit the following Web page, mouse over “Starting Point”, and then “Your High School Action Plan”, and from there you will find “Time Management Tips for High School Students”.
See “Plan for College” for time management tips for high school students.
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/index.html