Homeschooling Hacks, Part 1

January 25, 2014

3:48 AM

Any recipes, ideas, or tips you can offer to other parents?

I say "Homeschooling Hacks", because most of these ideas sparked during the past several months during our homeschooling journey. Really, any parent can utilize these ideas. It's just a matter of finding what works best for your child(ren). Since Jay has a hard time paying attention (and he's gotten pretty mouthy lately), we had to devise a way to teach him self-control and discipline, all the while teaching him basic academic lessons. Typically, when he gets in trouble, we'll revoke a privilege. Well, that's starting not to work, because he never seems to have any privileges by the end of the day, and then he'll come up to us asking what can he do to keep himself entertained. When that happens, he doesn't really seem to learn from his mistakes. He'll apologize, but it's not clicking. So, we wanted to come up with something that allows him a clean slate at the start of every morning. This is what we came up with:

You guessed it! We are giving Jay the opportunity to "earn money" to "buy" the things he enjoys doing! Whenever he is polite, uses his manners, completes a task within the allotted time frame, does't whine, etc. he earns money. When are using the Melissa & Doug play money set sent to us by one of my sisters and brothers-in-law. I can't even begin to tell you how many different lessons this incorporates! I'll list five:

*He understands the concept of earning money

*He'll learn how to budget, count, and save money

*He'll learn the valuable lesson of accountability

*He will understand that at any given time, the Lord gives, and He takes away

*He'll also learn two of the greatest blessings that we can ever receive from the Lord: grace and mercy

There are so many other lessons that he will learn and not even realize it! We implemented this idea yesterday, and it worked! He focused more on completing his assignments and got them done in a timely manner. He wasn't as mouthy as he normally is. He worked more diligently. By the end of the first day, he earned $104! He spent some of it on playing with his cars/action figures, bringing them downstairs, and play-doh. We know that he'll want to do the big-priced activities, so instead of starting fresh everyday, the money he earns will build up throughout the week. On Sundays, he'll start over. There are negative consequences for not doing what he's supposed to do. If he acts up, he'll earn less money and/or he'll have money taken away. But, it's up to him whether or not he is able to earn enough money to do the things he wants to do. Praise the Lord for giving us this effective idea! 

More homeschool hacks to come! Part 2 will feature some of my favorite recipes that are guaranteed to be a kid-pleaser!

Jay got a 100% on his spelling test! He earned $20 for this!