You're right that it can be a chore to keep the TV turned off, Trinity. (Though we already have an "edu-tainment only" policy in place, so that helps. If it's not on PBS or Noggin or the Discovery or Science channels, we don't watch it.) But I'd have to say that part is not as hard as I thought it would be. DS6 and I both know we have a responsibility here, and we both really try to live up to it. We usually keep the TV off until work I done. If we take a TV break (usually only done when I have something I need to do, ala the "electric babysitter"...), then it's never more than one 30-minute show. Then it's back to work.
I've tried to keep my policies as simple as I can. Here's my list, in full:
*read fiction of his choice for 15 min. per day,
*read nonfiction of his choice for 15 min. per day (though I will try to steer him a bit more as the year goes on so that we cover all required subjects by year's end),
*be read to by an adult for 15 minutes per day (usually before bed),
*do a math lesson every day,
*write two lines of handwriting of his choice every day,
*do something he loves every day (This was Dr. Amend's suggestion, and I love it!),
*tidy up for 25 minutes per day. (You're right, Trinity, that this last part is VITAL to family sanity!)
Exceptional days are days with field trips, art or P.E. class, or a social gathering. Since these things are important, too, and there are only so many hours in a day, we usually let school slide a bit on those days. Otherwise, I'm as firm about hitting all these points as seems reasonable.
Actually, my bigger problem is not the TV, but how much of the creative but only marginally educational activities to allow. If he's building transformers out of tangram pieces, does that count as school? What about making cars out of clay? Or creating his own "I Spy" book with crayons? Frankly, a lot of his day is devoted to projects like these. I usually just chalk them up under "doing something he loves" and let it go provided he's done his reading, writing and math. I'm just not sure he's learning a whole lot in those times. Sometimes I feel I should be a bit more rigorous, kwim?
But as my wise DH said, "If you handed DS6 a developmentally appropriate book to read for 30 min., then sent him out to play the whole rest of the day, he'd get more out of it than he was getting from where he was." The fact that this is true gets me over many of my worries. HSing may not be perfect, and I KNOW I'm not the perfect teacher (!!!), but I also know DS6 is better off than he was at the start of the school year in that particular public school classroom.
Asking what you want your day to be like is really key, Trinity. You're spot-on there! I chose to be as laid back as I could be without feeling like I was shirking my duty to him. Happily, DS6 is interested in virtually everything, so I don't have to push him to learn. If I did, I think he'd go back to traditional school. That's just not the way I want our family life to be.
Realizing that it's a learning process is key, too. I think you really have to let go of perfectionism if you're going to hime school. It's a system that will evolve--must evolve!--as you and your son go along. In fact, I warned DS6 before we even pulled him out of school that I would have to learn what worked and what didn't; I told him it would take time and I would surely make mistakes. But, I told him, we are a team in this home schooling endeavor, and he's going to have to communicate with me about what's working and what isn't, and he'd have to be patient with me as we figure it out together. That really helped, I think, to start us off on the right foot and to give us license to experiment a little.
It helps to get out of the house, too. We do a lot of our work during the 3-afternoons-per-week that DS3 is at preschool in our church. We just stay in one of the Sunday school rooms and get lots of intensive work done without interruption or temptation to play.
I'm going on and on. Sorry. But I think you're asking great questions, Trinity! They're just exactly the right ones to ask!
