Fitting Learning Time Into Your Day Part 2

Part 2 of this series is for...

At-Home Parents With School-Age Children

(for Part 1 of the Fitting Learning Time Into Your Day series, click here)

The following are suggestions for times to do learning activities with your school-age children.

Extracurricular Time
One way to set aside time to learn with your kids is to schedule it as an extracurricular. Maybe your child is a basketball player and the winter schedule gets really hectic for the whole family. Could you have him “sign up” for Spring Institute, in which Mom or Dad gives him lots of facetime making learning fun? Or you could set up a Summer Apprenticeship for Junior to shadow someone at work, learn the daily tasks of his parents, go on customized field trips, and make a video portfolio of the whole shebang.

Vacation Time
Kids get plenty of days off school during the year. Learning activities could fit nicely into vacation day mornings and summer vacation. If you keep up with doing them at a set time on days off from school, the kids will take it for granted and you won’t have to battle their ideas of what they want to do on their vacation...until after learning time, at least.

Down Time
Do your kids get a snack as soon as they get home from school? You could lay out the activity at the table in front of them while they eat. Combining snack time with learning time can be an effective wind-down and break after the school day.

TV Time
If your kids get a certain amount of time to watch TV or play computer and video games each day, learning time could be the activity they have to complete in order to start their TV time. If homework already serves this purpose, you could save learning activities for the days when there is little or no homework.