Start Your Homeschool Day With These 3 Success Tips
It’s no secret I am not a morning person. My tendancies are to stay up way too late and then regreat it in the morning. Which means I am struggling to be a human much less trying to actually starting to homeschool.
If you are anything like me and you are dragging to even get out of bed much less have an intelligent conversation or teach a tiny human then this blog post is for you! I am going to give you my top 3 tips for setting my homeschool day up for success.
Days where you feel rushed or pushed to meet a deadline rarely end well. If you, like me, are not a morning person, consider a slow start to help you adjust rather than rushing in and feeling cranky. No great homeschool day ever started with a rushed any cranky mama, trust me on this one!
After years of trial and error I have 3 things that I do that have helped me start the homeschool day on the right foot and set us up success. I hope these tips will help you too!
1. Prep The Night Before
Do your best to at least prep the materials you will need the night before the lesson. If you don’t, you run the risk of having to run around gathering supplies at the last minute.
When you’re not prepared, it’s difficult for your kids to stay focused on learning.
I try to make an effort to lay out everything I will need for the day the night before. Sometimes this means I need to print and prep things in the evening before I head to bed. I am always thankful the next morning when I have prepped the night before
Even if I don’t manage to get everything prepped perfectly the night before I plan for margin with my next tip by having something strewed to start the day and buy me a little time when I need it.
2. Strew Something
Strewing is all about providing opportunities for learning through creative exploration. It’s a great way to encourage independent learning in your homeschool. Plus, you can use strewing to discover what your kids are passionate about.
For me this process involves leaving items out the night before to be discovered in the morning.
I choose items I am comfortable with Emily exploring independently with little to no expectations about the outcome from me. Puzzles, science kits, books, and Lego bricks are perfect items for “strewing.” I put them out at night and it usually gives me a 30-45 minute window to wake up and get myself ready for the day.
If you’re ready to try strewing, but unsure where to begin, I’ve got just the thing to help you get started. I’ve put together a guide to strewing complete with pro tips, a hundred strewing item ideas, and strewing planning pages.
3. Utilize A Morning Basket
Morning baskets have totally changed the way we begin our school day! We really look forward to it because it’s a peaceful way to connect and start our day with the things we love that we can’t always fit into the homeschool day without morning basket.
What is so great about a morning basket is that all of the thinking has already been done. A coherent mom (that’s me at night) who was not half asleep organized and placed everything in the basket. This way the non-coherent half asleep mom (that’s me in the morning) can easily conduct a beautiful morning time with ease.
If you’re a night owl mom like me, a morning basket might be just what you need to get the day started on the right foot. If you’re not a morning person, a morning basket can totally save the day. I encourage you to try setting one up in advance and see how it goes. If you would like to see how our morning baskets fit in our day you can do that in our homeschool day in the life video.
How do you set homeschool day up for success? I can’t wait to read your tips in the comments!