Welcome back! The start of the school year is such an exciting time in homeschooling, filled with lots of energy, big plans, and high expectations. You’ve probably spent a lot of time organizing your curriculum and schedule. But how about a few tweaks to make things run more smoothly? Inspired by some books I’ve been reading, here are some ideas on how to gain more time, empathy, and playfulness in your homeschooling.
Time: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done
In Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done, Laura Vanderkam offers strategies to free up more time. She calls it time freedom or an abundance of time. This is the idea that once you know where your time goes, you can plan ahead to use it wisely, and then reap the benefits of a richer, fuller, and more relaxed life.
In a world that seems to value ‘busyness’, this sounds pretty enticing. Particularly for homeschool parents who serve multiple roles in their children’s lives.
Vanderkam starts off with a tough but perhaps necessary challenge. Track your time. Figure out what you spend your day doing. Not what you think you do. What you actually do. For two weeks. Then, design your realistic ideal day and your realistic ideal week. Finally, hold yourself to that design.
Are you saying, “I don’t have time to track my time”? Vanderkamp says you’re not alone. But she maintains that this is a necessary starting point. It’s worth a shot. (I’m trying this out.)
Empathy: Embrace this Key Component of Teaching
I admit – I picked up this next book at the library because the title made me laugh. I knew it wasn’t written for homeschoolers, but doesn’t this sound like a good title for those less than stellar homeschool days?
Leading the Unleadable: How to Manage Mavericks, Cynic, Divas, and Other Difficult People
Alan Willet wrote for this book for business leaders, but much of his advice is remarkably apt for homeschoolers. In particular, he writes about empathy as a key tool for success. Consider this as you start your homeschool year:
Many leaders are very driven to achieve great results. It is natural to have a strong reaction to bad news or the perception that someone is not driven in the same way that you are.
Alan Willet, Leading the Unleadable
If you think of your homeschool as a company and your students as employees, you might change a few things. Do they understand your mission and goals? Is there a disconnect between your vision and their understanding of the work they need to do? Or perhaps your expectations are too high.
There are times when you put up the high bar of your expectations of excellence and people simply cannot reach it. The way to keep the bar high is to give people the skills they need to reach it.
Alan Willet, Leading the Unleadable
Common sense, right? But we forget. We’re focused on the end goal when perhaps we should focus on smaller, incremental goals to get there. You’re not only a teacher, you’re a leader. Some business leadership tips, particularly those that involve empathy, might help you enjoy more success in your homeschooling.
Playfulness: Live Lightly in a Serious World
Bad news sells and it’s hard to ignore the constant barrage of negative headlines. That and the household grind of bills and chores and what to make for dinner can bleed over into our homeschooling. Have a cruddy homeschool day and it will take a concerted effort to rise above it all and stay positive. One strategy is to embrace more playfulness.
Of course, you can’t play all the time. However, you can think playfully and encourage this in your children. In Playful Intelligence: The Power of Living Lightly in a Serious World, Anthony DeBenedet, MD examines playful thinking for adults. He distinguishes between play and playfulness.
Play is an action. Playfulness is a behavior (or a set of behaviors). Play is the act of throwing horseshoes in your backyard. Playfulness is an inclination to smile or laugh while you’re doing it.
Anthony DeBenedet, MD, Playful Intelligence
Playful intelligence goes beyond having fun during times of play. DeBenedet identified five of the top qualities to broaden our capacity for playfulness.
- Imagination
- Sociability
- Humor
- Spontaneity
- Wonder
Putting it all together
As you start this new school year, I encourage you to consider these ideas for more time, empathy, and playfulness in your homeschooling. I know you’ve got a lot on your plate. You’re trying to get your children settled into a new routine with the curriculum you’ve chosen. Obviously, that takes priority. But seeking some extra tools for success might be next in line.
Best wishes for an awesome homeschool year!
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