Allocating Time for Play in Homeschooling

If you believe that every silver lining has a cloud, then welcome to home school. Most parents find home school and distance learning to be a great way of educating their children and equipping them with a good education to take them forward in the future. Its also fun and builds strong family bonds. But there are, as in everything in life, a few minor headaches to be taken care of. One of the biggest of these is the question of allocating time. And especially time for play.

One of the hassles a homeschooling parent has to put up with is conflicting demands on time. No matter how carefully you plan, there will always be times when your children need you in the home school and some urgent domestic hassle calls you away. The easiest solution to this is to cut the class short, tell the children to play, and come back later and take up where you left off.

This is a big mistake. While distance learning can be without time pressures and should give children time to explore on their own, it must remain structured. There must be a time for study and a time to play. Mixing them up will result in the children having difficulty differentiating between the serious and the fun – and both will suffer.

Playtime is important. It gives children a time to relax mentally and burn off some of their seemingly inexhaustible physical energy. A relaxed and refreshed child is a child that will be willing to learn and more capable of absorbing what is being taught.

The two main factors to keep in mind when allocating time for play is when and for how long. When should be at a fixed time every day- like a school recess. It is easier for children to focus when they know how long they have to do it for. The ideal time for a play break is after about two hours of study. This will give the parent time to attend to domestic chores and since no emergencies are likely to arise every 2 hours, the chances of domestic chaos are small.

The second issue is of how long the play break should be. Normally it should be between 20 to 30 minutes. But if the play incorporates some element of what has been taught in home school the timing can be increased once in a while but only after the children have been told that it is because their play is study related that they are being given extra time. This will help to reinforce the concept that studies can be fun and play and studies are not two extremes of the homeschool world which will never meet.

With distance education parents have the freedom to incorporate non book learning into play. For example, once a week extra playtime can be allocated and the children taken to the supermarket. They can be put in charge of finding the cheapest brands or the products furthest from expiry. This is essential practical experience that is also a game to them.

Allocating time for play in a homeschool situation is not difficult. All you need to do is remember to be creative and keep the play times reasonably structured.

To learn more about a quality, distance learning homeschool please visit Laurel Springs School. Laurel Springs School is an accredited, college prep private school offering distance learning programs and teacher services for students in grades K-12. Laurel Springs uses web-based communication tools, a standards-based curriculum, and personalized instruction to offer students the highest quality home education experience based on your child's learning style.