Like most of you, I’ve got a lot going on in my life. I’m a wife, mom, homeschooler, business owner, friend, teacher, etc. You get the idea.
I’m busy.
Last week I promised you I’d share a technique to help you get more done. I’m here to deliver!
This is it.
Yep. A kitchen timer.
The attention span of a goldfish is nine seconds. That beats the average human, who only has an attention span of 8 seconds.
And it is shrinking.
In 2000 the average human attention span was twelve seconds. That means that it has decreased by 25% in less than 25 years.
Scary!
This week I spoke to several people about the most important things to cover when educating children.
What do you think is most important?
Do you think of the standards that the government has given us? Or maybe the lists you can find on a website or in a book?
Most of those center on certain types of knowledge.
I don’t think knowledge even makes the top 10.
I took drastic measures this week.
Nothing could be accomplished. Every minute there were distractions.
A beep here. A ding there. Emails, texts, messages, videos, reels, stories, posts.
I had to take a stand. So much time was being lost. Stolen. It was horrible.
I deleted Facebook and Instagram from my phone.
Full confession. I have some bad habits.
One of them is not taking care of myself. For example, during the last few months not only was I doing everything for the Realizing Genius Homeschool Conference, but I was also moving my mom into my home – on top of all the classes I’m teaching this semester. I didn’t take time to take care of myself and I crashed HARD. Big wake-up call.
Another bad habit I have is getting sucked in by television series. I have a really hard time not doing something so when I crashed I started watching TV. It helped keep my mind busy enough that I didn’t go stir crazy. But I get so involved in the storyline that I have a hard time turning the TV off. And then I would fall asleep and miss half of it anyway!
It’s not just TV. My family and I are big Harry Potter fans. We would go to the parties at the book stores when the books came out and I would buy the book and then go home, send the boys to bed, and stay up all night reading. The boys would be on their own until I finished.
I don’t read a lot of fiction due to this problem. Somehow nonfiction is easier (most of the time) to put down.
You Need to Think Outside the Box for Homeschooling
“School-at-home” is not really homeschool. At least not what homeschool could be. The pandemic forced the whole world into distance learning, and many thought that that was what homeschooling is all about.
They couldn’t be more wrong.
I was recently asked by a mom how I did it when all five of my boys were home. How did I teach all of them at their different levels? All the different subjects? And then grade everything too? I’ve had other parents ask how I do it all now, working full time and homeschooling only one kid.
I didn’t, and I don’t.
We all want to be a superhero to our kids. We are the cook, taxi driver, event coordinator, education facilitator, and chief bather and bottle washer, among many other things. And just like in the comic books and movies, sometimes the superhero fails. Sometimes they need help.
I didn’t usually do school in the month of December. At least that is what my boys thought! We did fun things like study about how other countries celebrate the holidays, bake cookies for friends and family, and read Christmas books. Sounds fun right? It was a great way to make special memories and break up the school year without stopping the learning. Here are 5 fun and educational activities you can do with your kids: