last week i got very frustrated at the boys' not finishing their school work before dinner. and had to come home from church and spend more time on school work. all because they were wasting time and not staying on task.
this is typical. but, lately they have been taking more and more time to complete their work. i have had to adjust their schedule in ways that is giving less time for some 'home' lessons. such as not scheduling literature or geography, or vocabulary every day but just two or three days a week to accomodate their co-op classes. this is leaving me concerned.
will they be able to accomplish what i think they need to accomplish in the allotted time frame. but, i do have to remind myself of the overall requirements and plug in reality.
the reality is they are in good standing - even with our adjustments.
but, i still needed to deal with the ongoing issue of staying on task and wasting time.
so last week, on thursday, i didn't just schedule their days work i scheduled tasks by time.
beginning at 8:00 and scheduling each hour with an assignment. vocabulary gets 1/2 hour; Spanish 45 minutes - an hour (plus study time later); Math: 1 1/2 hour (plus finishing up time), etc.
when i came home from bible study thursday afternoon the boys had lined through all of the scheduled assignments and where heading into lunch with only the after lunch assignments to accomplish. they loved it so much that they asked me to schedule their assignments by time every day. hopefully this will teach them deadlines, scheduling of personal time, time management, etc.
obviously at some point we'll need to sit down together and have them work out a schedule for themselves - and see how that goes. but, i think this is a good start.