How to Create a Morning Ritual and Reach Your Homeschooling Goals
/
“Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives
you a 1,000 percent Return on Energy!”
We know the hours can easily disappear when we don't have a morning ritual in place especially when homeschooling.
THE MORNING RITUAL
To reach your year-end goals, you want to set your mornings up for success.
You also don’t want to feel overwhelmed and exhausted scrambling to get everything done after you’ve run out of time.
HOW TO PLAN YOUR MORNING
It’s easy to create your morning ritual. You’ll need to decide what gets done and at what time, and then you’ll stay razor focused doing it.
Decide first what time you will wake up (which also means you need to decide what time you’ll go to sleep). If you need downtime in the morning, and I strongly recommend this, then make sure you wake up at least an hour earlier than your kids.
Two hours would be even better.
Have a cup of coffee. Spend your time doing things that matters to you like reading, exercise, prayer or meditation. Whatever it is, pencil it in so you have enough time in the morning to do it.
The things you choose to pencil in will become your morning ritual. It’s that simple, but so very important.
But it doesn’t stop there, not when you have kids.
THE OFFSPRING RITUAL
You want to follow your morning ritual with what I call the Offspring ritual.
Teach your children to get into the habit of getting up at a certain hour each day and performing their own morning ritual. Your children wake up, brush their teeth, get dressed, put their dirty clothes in the hamper, make their beds, and come in for breakfast by a certain time.
Eating on a schedule is much easier on the body than random meal times, and having a specific time to eat should be a part of your morning ritual.
So while they're getting dressed, you're preparing breakfast.
After breakfast, the children clean up while you get ready to homeschool.
THE HOMESCHOOLING RITUAL
On some days you might go out for an outing, so the school routine is obviously for the days when you stay home and teach your children.
Do you have a designated school room? It's better if you do, but not everyone has an extra room to spare.
If you don’t have a spare school room, then you want to designate an area in your home for school things. It doesn't mean children can't read a book while outside sitting on the grass or do a science experiment in the kitchen, but having a place to organize school supplies will save you time hunting for things later.
After you finish breakfast, head to your homeschool area and examine your plan for the day. Your homeschool plan should have already been mapped out and reviewed the night before.
Get your mind in gear for teaching, and ring your school bell!
WHAT TO TEACH FIRST
A general rule is to teach your most essential subjects first, the ones that if there were an interruption to your day, you could still relax knowing you'd gotten those finished.
Language arts and math for the morning hours work well.
Give your children breaks every hour or when they seem restless, to stretch or run around the block or jump on a trampoline. It's better for their thinking power to get a good dose of oxygen into their brains periodically.
You want to schedule a long lunchtime break when they can eat and then go outside and play for a while.
Let the morning hours be the more intense hours of study, and in the afternoon you can take it easy. Read some history, do a science experiment, read a story out loud.
Let the children have some reading time to read books of their own choice. Let them pursue their hobbies: practice an instrument, do some artwork, or play a sport.
The point is to keep a schedule that you adhere to or the day will slip right past you. If you don’t keep to a schedule, too many times you’ll find that the afternoon has rolled around, and you’ll have barely made it past grammar.
“Excellence/Perfection is not a destination; it is a continuous journey that never ends.”
If you're a homeschooler, I'm sure you know what I mean. Create a morning ritual—yours and theirs—and then create a homeschool ritual and stick to it.
Try to finish homeschooling around the same time each day, so everyone has leisure time before dinner including, and most importantly, yourself!
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents and let me guide you in homeschooling to raise intelligent children of good character. You can enroll using the link below and be confident knowing you can and will homeschool successfully.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with our online course, Raise Your Child Well to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and a Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach with 20+ years of experience working in children’s education.
Utilizing her unusual skill set, Elizabeth has developed a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child. She devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
She is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.
