Keeping kids focused and organized while learning can be quite challenging, especially when homeschooling. They are surrounded by distractions on a daily basis that are difficult for them to ignore. While many of you may have been homeschooling your children for years, others of us have only recently had to adjust to teaching our younger kids at home.
Although it may be difficult to make this change, there are actually great ways that you can keep your children focused while learning. To help you stay on top of homeschool organization and keep your children engaged, keep reading for some quick tips!
Set Up a Schedule
Children typically experience more success in a given task when provided with a consistent routine. To do this in your homeschool classroom, you want to make sure to set a schedule that mimics one of a typical public school. It should be made clear what time school starts and ends, when it’s lunchtime, or even when it’s time for recess. Depending on your child’s curriculum, you may want to plan out how much time is spent on each class as well.
A consistent schedule like this will help children to deal with transitions in activities easily. Small children and toddlers are less likely to be surprised and upset when recess ends and their school work starts again. With a persistent schedule, they’ll know what to expect and can cope with it much better.
Designate a Space
When homeschooling, it is so important to make children feel as though they are actually in a learning environment. If not, it can be very challenging for them to mentally separate home from school. Ideally, you’ll want to set up homeschool supplies in a room separate from all of their toys and games. If you don’t have an entire room to dedicate to homeschooling, you can still separate the learning and play areas with a divider or bookshelf. The power of a designated space is often underestimated but you’d be surprised how much easier it will be for your child to focus.
Storage and Organization
While you may only think about storage as a way to keep your learning space clean, it actually helps improve a child’s focus, too. Clutter in a learning environment can undeniably overwhelm a child’s mind. It can cause them to have shorter attention spans, feel frustrated, and so much more. To organize your space, try investing in convenient storage containers to help store your homeschool supplies. You may want to color-code your storage and supplies for toddlers and young children. This makes it effortless for them to find what they need quickly. You can even designate a particular color to each class to help them decipher which is which. Click here to explore more homeschool storage setups!
Make It Interactive
Use digital apps and other online programs, like Reading Eggs or ABC Mouse, to make learning fun and engaging for your child. These digital resources take some of the teaching stress away from parents and equip them with activities tailored to their child’s age and ability with fun characters, songs and animations to make learning fun. These digital outlets often gamify progress, incentivizing children to take on more advanced lessons.
Trying these simple organization tips will surely help your homeschool classroom come together accordingly for everyone.
