School Work?

[NicoleScraps]

Off topic, sorry about that. Just wanted to get some feedback on two kind of related issues.

Home schooling-due to some problems, we pulled our 14 yr old out of school and will be homeschooling her. We bought a curriculum from Ashworth are waiting for it to arrive. It includes books, lesson plans, as well as online and phone support and tutoring. Do you have any advice to me as a parent who has never homeschooled? Do you get up in the morning and get the school work out of the way first thing? Do you spread it out a bit? Anything else you can add?

Homework-I have three younger kids in elementary school and they have homework almost every night. I have always made them do homework right away, as soon as they get home from school. I give them 10-15 minutes to do whatever, use the restroom, get a drink, etc, but they are not allowed to play until homework is completed. Do you do this with your kids? Or do you allow them to complete it later in the evening, like after super or dinner? Any particular reason why you do it one way or the other?

TIA!

[morgandavis]

Nicole,
I have no idea about the Homeschooling. But kudos to you for choosing to do that. (I don't think I could!)

Homework -- I have my kids do it as soon as they get home from school. (Unless there is something pressing at the time for us to do). They have a "Read at least 20 Minutes per night" thing from school in addition to regular homework. This is the only part I let them do later on, if they choose.

[BEGM83]

Hats off on the home schooling thing i personally think you're bonkers and wish you all the luck in the world!

Homework, my daughter is only 5 but in her second year of school (Year 1) and has brought reading books home since she started last year and also various mini-projects to do at various times. We dont get in til 6pm as it is (due to my work) so it's literally dinner, bath, pj's, lunchbox, sit and veg on the sofa listening to her read and get her to write a short 'what i liked' into her log book then bed lol think it tops out at 15mins per night for school work which is plenty at primary age (under 11) imo. We do all of the above together so she preps and cooks dinner with me and makes her lunch with me too.

Kids need time to veg and relax and be kids before embarking on more work imo. Secondary school though is different. No leisure time til homework is done then if she's anything like me she'll be permanently grounded because she'll not do any work! lol

[PamEli]

My kids are all out of school, and many times thought it would be best for them... basically I didn't trust myself to be disciplined enought to make it work.

Since then I've learned more about homeschooling and support it even more. If you search the internet for homeschool associations and groups local to you, I'm sure you'll find loads of support with curiculum and various activities. There are many more people out there than most people know who will provide a community of help for you.

Congratulations.

[tinton14]

I'm no parent, far from that if I ever choose to be one. I think that it is best to complete it before doing other things, keeps them from getting all distracted and tired before work. Then you can always make sure they are not staying up too late with the excuse of doing homework. It is also good practice so that they don't leave things for the last minute. That would be the best I believe (and no I cannot seem to follow that as a college student, although it was much better when I use to do that).