The following is a post from contributing writer Stef.
It’s shocking – but my kids are not about to win any awards for “most behaved homeschooler”. Lets face it – we’re human … born sinners. Good is not in our DNA make up. If your kids are not well behaved normally its a little ridiculous to think they’re going to behave during school lessons. I highly encourage parents to work on behavior before opening one book.
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| Educating Laytons |
How do we homeschool thru interruptions without losing our minds?
* before I share what we do in my home – I will highly stress I do not have a degree, certification, nor umpteen years of experience. This is simply my approach.
First – if your child is flat out breaking “house rules” you need to address those the same way you would during any other time in your home. If you spank, give time-outs, push ups, or what-evers – house rules are house rules no matter where in the house you are or what you are doing.
For small interruptions – I stop my lesson, speech, reading, whatever and wait. Sometimes I shut the book and look at the child. For awhile. Without saying one word. AWKWARD! Usually he gets the hint and stops talking or gives me the “oh, go on I’m sorry” cause he didn’t even realize he interrupted. (sometimes we need to realize our kids are excited they’ve gotten something and we should give them the floor grace to share).
Now when the boy interrupts a 2nd time I share a little word or two … “buddy, I’m trying to teach you now and this is not discussion time. If you can’t wait for me to finish we’ll never get thru this and I should stop right now”. Most times he wants me to continue, so we do. If he interrupts again 3rd time – without sharing a word, without lecturing, without beating a dead horse — I put the book away and get out a math worksheet (Super Teacher Worksheets is fantastic for this).
Do not waste your breath with the guilt trip. “I am trying to teach you and you keep disrespecting me by interrupting me and what I want to say. I know you wouldn’t do this in a real classroom with a real teacher so I don’t understand why you keep doing it to me”. Sound familiar? Simply end the lesson! You’ll both respect you better to just stop.
I do not pick the book back up – its shelved for the day. Now here is where you’re freaking out because you’ve got a schedule to keep and more work tomorrow and that just freaks you out. No you don’t! I wrote a very freeing post titled YOU SET THE PACE!
What is more important – a math book filled in or character strengthened?? Chances are if you allow your child to interrupt you at home – they do it at church, co-op, sports, friend’s houses, and to all authority.
I have learned I do not have to get emotional about it. I do not have to take it personally either. When Adam and Eve – God’ perfect creation – chose to eat the fruit God didn’t give them a guilt trip, He didn’t whine “why didn’t you listen to me”, nor did He carry on and list all the ways He was disappointed. (nor did He threaten public school) He gave the consequence for disobedience and followed thru with it. You do not have to take interruptions personally nor get hysterical. And for the record – interruptions do not make you a horrible homeschooler! Promise.
Stef is wife to Thad and mom to energetic superheroes in Florida! Stef is the author of Educating Laytons and co-founder of The Homeschool Village.
About Stef
Great post!!! This one really hit home for me. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Stef for the encouraging post.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! I needed that little bit of encouragement today, now I feel like I can tackle the day!
I like your approach. I rarely have trouble with interruptions by the child I am teaching, but by the other children. They tend to be attentive during instructional time, it’s when they are doing their seatwork that I have a hard time getting them to concentrate and finish without playing or just spacing out.
Thank you for sharing that! I struggle with this frequently.
This is a great post!
I really enjoyed reading this! I have a MAJOR problem with interruptions with my kids. My 12 year old daughter has her head in the clouds & randomly blurts stuff out. LOL!! Then my 4 & 5 year old sons have a SUPER short attention span. I like how you handle these interruptions!
THANK YOU!
*Dana*
What about when your 2 1/2 year old is doing the interrupting after you have already spent time reading with her and playing A, B, C, games for a while? I have tried blanket time where I give her playdough or something to occupy her attention. It is a daily battle that I want to conquer once and for all. Any suggestions?
Boy oh boy! I should have read this earlier today – got a mental not now and write it in my binder!
we have 10yr old ds and I’m not sure how but we trained this child to interrupt. I just decided that for the new year I was going to take a different approach to school and we are going to focus on some heart issues first and foremost, thanks for the encouragement. Sometimes we need to step back and remember why we homeschool and get back on track!!!
I definitely understand needing to deal with interruptions, but this makes me sooooo sad. I’m afraid that your student will associated math with drudgery or punishment or at least “not fun” for your use of that as a consequence. I love math! Don’t throw them a worksheet as a consequence please. Kids need to see the fun in math and learning, not have it used as a negative.
Also, what do you do when your child learns that if they were rather do something else than what you had prescribed, they can just interrupt or disrespect and you will put that book/lesson away. It seems like you are training them to be in control where you should be leading.
Just my thoughts from an experienced teacher and mommy.
I was going to write the same things as Kristi! Math or any type of learning activity should never be used as a punishment. The child will associate math with punishment and start to hate it. It’s the same as children being forced to write “I will not interrupt” 100 times on the chalkboard–they’re learning that writing is a bad thing that they do when they behave poorly.
Glad to see y’all are so passionate about math! Thankfully my son still loves math ! I think what works best for each parent is different – and as I mentioned in my post – I am not an expert, just sharing what works in our home.