Last night when I got home, the kids told me that they had not yet finished their homeschool work. This has been happening a little too frequently over the last several weeks. The work the kids do is fine, but they have not been completing everything. For a period of about a month this winter, I was giving them pretty heavy loads, so we could get ahead enough for everyone to leave for Mexico over the Memorial Day weekend. That got changed when we found that Lorena could not take her math final at the community college until the second week in June. After that, I backed off so the kids work load is really pretty light compared to what they were doing previously. Nevertheless, they have not been completing all the work by the time I get home at between 4:15 and 4:30 in the afternoon…

So, last night, I set out some new work rules. The rules are this. After the kids finish their piano practice and their Bible verse memorization, they are to sit at the table to a specific set of items on their work lists. They cannot talk about anything other than their school work, nor can they deviate from the work for anything other than breakfast until the work is complete. That list of items includes the following:

  • Singapore Math–with Kelly, this includes her Logic
  • Easy Grammar
  • Science (the reading and written part)
  • Cursive
  • Really Good Word Builder definitions
  • Christian’s flash cards and Bible memorization with Mom
  • After that, they are to do their reading assignments followed by their writing assignments. I think that just giving them a time that has to be dedicated only to completion of their work will help a bunch. They really should be able to finish everything by lunch time or a little after. I will report back on how it goes.