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Minimise Distractions
by Beverley Paine, Jun 2009
In my article Timing Can Help Motivation I spoke about my need to plan my day according to my moods and state of mind: today I'm focusing on another tip I find really useful.
All too often I find that in the middle of doing one thing I think about something else and, worried I will forget about it, stop what I'm doing and do the other thing instead. Rarely do I get back to completing the first thing? And you can imagine how many unfinished projects I have lying around my home, can't you? And I bet you have just as many...!
One day it occurred to me that I'd be better off carrying around a notebook and simply jotting down my thoughts instead of doing them. This way, half of my 'must do' tasks turn out to be not that essential after all. The other half get done, but because I'm not rushing to get back to the unfinished task, they are done with more thoroughly and care. And I'm less likely to break something!
We can apply that kind of thinking to homeschooling too. While helping our children with a unit study on volcanoes we might come across some interesting information about plate tectonics. Yes, they are associated topics but wandering off topic exploring why earthquakes happen won't get that model volcano spewing out foam before dinner time!
Staying focused will help us - and the children - learn as much as we can before moving on to the next topic. I can quite simply jot a note in my planning diary (which I have handy when working with the children) and make time to cover that topic or material at a later time.
And it keeps the lessons short and sweet, just the way we all like them. I've read that it is better to stop while the children are interested than wait until their eyes glaze over and their minds begin to wander.
Staying focused is also helped by minimising distractions. Turn notifications off or mute the phone, turn off the television, be selective with background music (so it stays in the background!), put the answering machine on and leave a note on the front door that says "Homeschooling in Progress! Disturb only if absolutely essential!"
Give your children your complete attention during homeschool lessons. They deserve it. You'd be miffed if their teacher kept interrupting his or her time with your children to answer the phone, talk to other teachers, read her emails, chat on Facebook, manicure his nails or fix the phone, etc.
Even if is simply reading a story together or mucking about in the junk box with the glue and sticky-tape.
When we minimise distractions and focus on what it is we're doing we end up completing many more tasks each day. This makes us feel good. This makes us feel motivated!
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Together with the support of my family, my aim is to help parents educate their children in stress-free, nurturing environments. In addition to building and maintaing this website, I continue to create and manage local and national home educating networks, help to organise conferences and camps, as well as write for, edit and produce newsletters, resource directories and magazines. I am an active supporter of national, state, regional and local home education groups.
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We began educating our children in 1985, when our eldest was five. In truth, we had helped them learn what they need to learn since they were born. I am a passionate advocate of allowing children to learn unhindered by unnecessary stress and competition, meeting developmental needs in ways that suit their individual learning styles and preferences. Ours was a homeschooling, unschooling and natural learning family! There are hundreds of articles on this site to help you build confidence as a home educating family. We hope that your home educating adventure is as satisfying as ours was! Beverley Paine
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