I want to challenge you to figure out how to have your best homeschool year yet in 2014!

Today we start with looking at what has worked well for you in your homeschooling in the past. This is a great way to draw on your experience and build on the things you have done well before.

You can read more about looking back on your homeschool here.

Of course, I need to walk my talk! It is all very well challenging you, but I can’t just sit back and watch. I need to participate too! So here is my answer to challenge 1.

Looking back on my Homeschooling

When I look back over the years I have homeschooled, then two things really stand out for me.

1. My Best Schedule

Out of all the different homeschool schedules we have tried, the one I most enjoyed was the Time Out Schedule.

In that schedule we set a time period where all switch off from technology and spend some focus time together. No checking emails, no chores, no seeing if someone has bought something from my store! I have to admit I am the biggest culprit. I am always trying to do about 10 things at once (unsucessfully!).  The time out schedule made us all slow down, gave us time to do some of the things that we really wanted to get to. And it became an oasis of productivity.

I am not really sure why we stopped. I think that things just crept in. Technology is such a large part of our lives and we use it such a lot. I think it was a case of – “I just need to look this up on Google”, followed by, “this would be easier to do in a drawing program”, topped off by “how can I learn C++ if I am not on the PC”!

So I am thinking that if I re-instigate this, perhaps just a day or two a week would keep us focused on other things, without feeling it was limiting what we did. And perhaps give us a chance to follow up on some of the questions and projects we have.

2. Family Meetings

This is something I did really well last year and definitely want to continue.

Every week we sit down together and plan out our week.

We look at our schedule, talk about how we feel the week before went – and air any frustrations or problems we are having. It is a good opportunity to go through my Best Year Yet workbook and make sure we are on track with the things we want to be doing.

Sometimes the meetings are long and involved! We might plan a holiday or a field trip. We might research events we want to go to.

And sometimes it only takes 10 minutes to check everyone is happy doing their stuff!

We used to hold the meetings on a Monday morning – but we have recently switched to a Monday afternoon as my daughter often has something scheduled Monday mornings now. I try to bake a cake and we have a cup of tea together (is that peculiarly English?)

If you haven’t tried doing this I would really recommend it. It really keeps us focused and on track!

That is it from me 🙂 I would really love to hear your thoughts and experiences about what has worked well for you in your past homeschooling.

You can leave a comment here, or pop over to my facebook page and leave a comment there.

I will issue Challenge 2 in a few days to give you a chance to think about this one!