{Take a sharp pencil and leave your dull}
In my classroom teaching days I spent the first week or two practicing procedures over and over again–training those first grade babies how to hang backpacks, turn in homework, sharpen pencils, walk in the hallway, organize their desks. Learning those procedures and making them habits made the rest of the year run so much smoother. Of course they still needed reminders, but taking the time to first firmly establish the expectations made a necessary correction just that–a reminder.
But no matter how smoothly my classroom ran back then, teaching my own kids is hard! And some of my frustration last year was in that fuzzy line between home and school.
True, the fuzzy line can be a huge benefit of homeschooling, but for me, adding the responsibility of “academic educator” to my “mother” title changed my identity. And I realized in order to be successful at this long term–I would need to establish more “teacher” authority and better “school time” procedures.
Research (in the traditional classroom) shows most behavior problems are a result of unclear routines and procedures, and I can definitely see this applying to home as well. Our homeschool day will run smoother with better established procedures, and routine can eliminate so many of the typical “home” battles (chore time, anyone?).
And so our first few days “back to school” have been less about curriculum and more about intentionally teaching and practicing these “school” procedures and routines. Over, and over, and over.
{Daily assignment binder}
It’s been hard. No sugar-coating–there have been some tears, yelling, and lots of hugs and apologizing. Patience seems to come easier in a classroom than with my own kids. (Don’t judge.) But we’re getting there.
{We start every morning with a journaling prompt.}
Suggestions for practicing procedures and routine at home or school:
- Clearly explain (or show) each procedure.
- Rehearse the procedure until it becomes routine.
- Praise the correct behavior.
- Gently correct and re-rehearse an incorrect procedure.
- Post a visual of the routine or procedure in a prominent place.
- Be consistent.
I know I ‘m late to the game seeing as this post is a year old, but I’m so thankful that I came across this! I’m homeschooling my daughter for our first official year. We did Pre-K last year but it wasn’t nearly as structured as Kinder is this year. I too am a former classroom teacher. Today was our first day of school and it was not at all what I expected it to be. Teaching your own kiddo is definitely more difficult than teaching a full classroom of unfamiliar kiddos. Thanks for sharing!
I like routines I have weekly ones for myself and the kids(even though they go to school) we do homework in the mornings as our little boy is very tired and emotional after a day at school. So we need to get stuff done pretty fast so routines help a lot. Unfortunately for a family my hubby is Not into routines and really does not like having a fixed routine with chores etc so I find that difficult to balance. Although just recently he has come to understand for Me to get stuff done for our family home I want/need a daily chore list and it benefits him too to get on board as I would actually keep the house cleaner and more organised like he wants! So we need to work on that.
I love routines. But I’m awful at implementing them. Unless I have an outside (meaning outside my own home and control) source to be accountable to, I can’t seem to stick to them, no matter how hard I try. So I’m really looking forward to school starting next week so we can get BACK into a routine: set times for play, chores, school, homework, family time, etc. We all do better with routine. 🙂
I always think of back-to-school time as a new year for mom! Time to make “new” resolutions and get back into routine again. Good luck to school starting again!
I think routines are totally important… and I’ve been failing at them my whole life. I think my recently diagnosed ADD probably has some impact there, and I’m hoping treatment will help. Meanwhile – thanks for the good tips on it.
Maybe start with smaller routines, like a morning routine or bedtime routine, and try to become successful at that? You can do it!