Sometimes parents need a little home schooling help. What if one day you look around and realize that you need to change something with your home school or discipline in your household? What can you do?
Homeschool Help: Phone Encouragement
Homeschooling is difficult. Thankfully there is a way to get the support you need with a phone consult. I will listen to what is going on at your house and help you come up with a plan that could work with your family. Get on my calendar here.
Join us! is available if you need more homeschooling support.
If you just need a few ideas to get you on the right track, here’s what worked for us:
The Toys Are Getting Dumped Out All The Time!
For example, what if you realize that your children dump all the toys over and over again all day long and you are sick and tired of the mess? You’ve tried a few things but nothing has worked. What do you do now?
My Homeschool Day IS Starting Later and Later!
Or your children are moving the start time of your home school day later and later in the morning? Take the following steps to start over:
Homeschool Help: FIVE STEPS TO MAKE CHANGES:
ONE: Have a family meeting. Explain that you are going to be changing how you are going to be handling the situation. This is a great time to get Dad involved and show a united front with Mom. (Make sure you and Dad are on the same page with the plan before the meeting! If you are not committed to being consistent and following through, don’t even start.)
Example 1: We are not going to be dumping all the toys on the living room floor every day. We are going to have a new plan that we are putting in place.
Example 2: We are not going to be starting our home school day later and later every morning. It is not working for our home school day. We are going to have a new plan that we are putting in place.
TWO: Identify the specific behavior that you want to see happen.
Example 1: We are going to play with one set of toys at a time. When we are done with those toys, we have to pick them all up and put them in their tub. Then Mom will get out another tub of toys to play with. All toys have to put in the tubs by 8 pm.
Example 2: We are going to start our home schooling day by having breakfast at 8:00 am. Everyone will be down here at the table at 8:00. You will be finished by 8:25 am and ready to start school at 8:30 am.
THREE: List the steps that you are going to take to get to the desired goal. If your children are old enough to contribute to the plan, it would be great to get their input and get everyone on board.
Example 1: All the toys are going to be divided into 5 tubs. Only one tub at a time will be allowed in the living room at a time. The other 4 tubs will be in the basement/ storage area.
If you want to play with something in another tub, you will have to pick up all the toys from the first tub and request another tub. Mom will be in charge of getting a new tub for you.
Example 2: Dad may say that he will knock on each door at 7:45 and again at 7:50. Mom will make sure breakfast is ready at 8:00.
Homeschool Help: Discourage Non-Compliance
FOUR: Then decide on a plan of action that will discourage non-compliance. Most importantly, you need to know your children so you know what kind of actions on your part will discourage disobedience on their part.
If this is a VERY serious problem, non-compliance can be considered direct disobedience and dealt with accordingly.
Example 1: If you go get more than one tub of toys out and dump them all out on the floor, whoever dumped the toys will not be allowed to play until the toys are picked up AND each of the children involved do 3 chore slips from the chore jar.
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Example 2: If you are not down to the breakfast table by 8 am you get instant plain oatmeal or plain Cheerios for breakfast, no matter what the other people in the house are eating.
Home Schooling Help: Chore Slips
If you are not ready to start your school by 8:30 am, you will have to do 3 chore slips from the chore jar in addition to your usual chores. If this happens more than once a week, you will not be able to have a friend over or go to a friend’s house this week no matter what.
FIVE: This is very important!! Decide on a reward plan to encourage compliance.You need to know your children so you know what will motivate them to comply.
Examples: Home schooling help for parents
Example 1: If you can help Mommy keep the living room clean by keeping the toys neater and using this tub system every day this week, we can do something special.
We can work on getting a special ______________ (craft project, field trip, dessert, new sticker book, new box of crayons, special breakfast out with Dad, overnight at Grandma and Grandpa’s, trip to the library, etc.)
Example 2: If we can make these changes, and have everyone down at 8:00 am for breakfast and be ready for school every morning at 8:30 am for a whole week, we can plan a special __________________(craft project, field trip, dessert, new sticker book, new box of crayons, special breakfast out with Dad, overnight at Grandma and Grandpa’s, trip to the library, etc.)
Homeschool Help: Find a solution
Thankfully, you do not have to put up with toys all over the floor. What a relief to know that you do not have to stay frustrated. By coming up with creative solutions, you can manage how your home school day will start without the clutter.
Fortunately, when our brains are focused on coming up with creative solutions, we excel! Get your children on board to brainstorm creative and workable solutions to the problem. You may find out they have some complaints about the toys being on the floor too. They may ask for colored organizational tubs, a large dustpan for picking up the blocks or a dedicated sheet to put under the blocks to make pick-up easier.
It will take work to make the changes. However, by getting everyone on board with a plan and positive reward system you can have a better day.
Have a family meeting and make the changes soon so your house and home school works for you. I’d love to hear how you motivated your children to make changes in the comments below.
If you would like a free home school consult with me, you can email me at homeschoolchristianmom@gmail.com.
Download your action plan sheet here.
Let’s face it- we all have bad days. This action plan is not for a bad day, but it may help you break a bad pattern of behavior. And sometimes, it just helps you identify and decipher what is really going on with your child.
Homeschool Help: What behavior is happening that you don’t like?
Example: Every day I am going up and down the stairs and tell my children 4 times before they get out of bed and come down to breakfast to get started with the day.
What is the problem in one sentence? Let’s get to the heart of the matter. The problem is: My children are not getting up and coming to breakfast as instructed. (In a way, you have been teaching them that they don’t have to obey until you have told them 4 times!)
What is your goal? Now, the children should obey the first time they are told.
The action plan can have both positive reinforcements and negative consequences. You need to know your child so that you know what things motivate him and what things he would find a negative consequence.
So what are some of the actions that you could take to solve this problem? You and your child should come up with a plan together.
You should have a separate action plan for each child, unless you can come up with one plan everyone agrees on. Because each child has different motivations, it can be difficult to have one all-encompassing action plan.
Your plan might look like this:
- I will purchase an alarm clock for each child and make sure the alarm clock is set each evening.
- If the child is not down for breakfast on any morning during the week at the correct time, he has to do extra chores for up to 30 minutes that day, and
- If the child is on time every day all week, he gets to choose a box of favorite breakfast cereal for the next week or have a friend over.
Now, Mom, that means you have to stick with the plan, too! The child signs the action plan to agree to it and the parent signs as well. Your signatures show your commitment to the action plan. Finally, set a review date and time to see how it is working and if things need to be changed.
Download this action plan free by clicking on the link below:
ACTION PLAN
An action plan can get you and your child(ren) on the same page working to solve the problem. Comment below if this article was helpful or if you have other solutions that helped you through the “Badlands.”
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There are very good boxed all-in-one curriculums out there. I used mainly one curriculum: BJU Press Homeschool curriculum for all my kids K thru 12. I knew some people that worked there and we really liked it. It is a curriculum where the subjects are integrated (like the spelling words are in the reading and science lessons.) You can do parent led where you teach or purchase the DVD’s or get the same material through the computer. For any of those ways, there are recommendations for grading or they do it for you. I love the BJU curriculum because they have thought of everything. Subjects are well put together, they list tons of extra resources if you need it and all the prep work is done. On day one, you teach lesson one, etc. So the value of that kind of complete curriculum was worth every penny to me. You can see their curriculum here.
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