Take Time to Plan
Having a plan can make a huge difference in how your school day goes. A good plan can allow you to have a sense of direction and clarity as you go about teaching which can help you to move forward with confidence as you go through classes.
Having an outline for the day will also help add some structure which can be important to promote steady growth and learning.
This also gives you a chance to prepare activities better so that your classes run more smoothly.
How detailed you want to plan is based on you and your preferences as well as the situation.
In some cases, it may be nice to know exactly what questions you want to discuss or what worksheet you want them to work on. In other cases, a general outline that isn't too detailed may be more suitable.
However, even with a detailed plan, this doesn't mean that you can't call audibles and make changes as you go through the school day.
Remember that a plan is there to aid and help give direction to the school day, not to constrict it.
Have a Routine
This is very much related to the first tip. A routine can also help add stability and structure to your day.
This can help your children get into the proper gear to learn as they can better recognize when it's school time. Some children may especially benefit from having the same routine regarding location and the time of day that they learn.
You'll likely find that certain times of the day are better suited for different classes and activities.
Generally speaking, I like to have classes like math and reading in the morning and more hands-on classes and projects (like science) in the afternoon.
This is another area to experiment so that you can find out what works for your family. You'll probably find a good base routine that works well, and then you can continue to tweak it and make improvements so that it's even better!
Quality Over Quantity
To truly have a better effect on your child's learning, focus more on having quality learning time than on just spending lots of time trying to teach your children something.
One way to do this is to have shorter (but more focused) learning sessions followed by breaks. For example, you could take 15 minutes introducing your child to a new concept, and then you can go outside and play for 5 minutes.
The exact amounts of time you'll want to take depends on your child and what they're learning (as well as their age), but the concept remains the same.
In a nutshell, focus on having good quality learning time.
Have Fun With It
Remember to have fun and enjoy it. Sometimes, our attitude is the biggest determining factor to how well a school day goes.
And if things aren't seeming to go smoothly, still choose to make the most of it and do what you can to make improvements in the future! If things are going smoothly, be thankful and enjoy it!
Regardless, do your best to choose to have a good attitude and to help your children cultivate a joy for learning.
