Summer is always the time I would reassign chores to each of my kids.
I made a master list of everything that needed to be done in our home on a regular basis. Then each summer, I would run off a new copy of the list and evaluate who in our home was the best choice for each chore for the next year.
The reason I did this in the summer was because that was the best time for training each child in the chore they were responsible for. It doesn’t work to just say, “Go clean the bathroom”, for instance. Your child will do what they think makes it clean but they need to be instructed and trained as to how to do it correctly.
It’s kind of fun to change up the chores each year so everyone learns how to do all the chores eventually, and since we’re not doing school in the summer, I took that time to train everyone. By training them in their chores in the summer, the school year would flow more smoothly, rather than having to train in chores as well as doing school work.
Continue reading Summer Time Tip: Assign Chores for Next School Year
One great reason to home educate your kids is the advantage you have in being able to design your own curriculum for each child. Schools sometimes teach kids things that aren’t worth the time it takes to learn them (one history text featured eight pages about Marilyn Monroe). And of course, they sometimes omit things that kids really need to know, such as the principles of the Constitution and who Nathan Hale was. Sometimes, they teach information that has some value, but they teach it at the wrong age. I remember I was taught to balance a checkbook in eighth grade, five years before I would open my first checking account. It was no surprise to find that I no longer remembered how to balance a checkbook when I finally got one.