by Linda Kay

Created on: July 20, 2009

Whether you are a perfectionist or not an organized school day is not only a possibility but also a very beneficial use of your time. Once the preliminaries such as selecting and purchasing your curriculum and setting up the area of study that best suits your family are complete, you can begin your daily preparations in earnest.

An important first step is to divide each topic per student by the number of required teaching days. This shows you how many pages will need to be accomplished daily. Some grade school subjects such as "Health" are much smaller books than others. For these subjects I divided the amount of pages the amount of pages by the number of days in the first semester. During that period of time my children were required to do all the written answers and all the tests per chapter. During the second semester we would read through each chapter once again. This time, however, our children were given questions and quizzes verbally. This reiterated what they had previously learned, and made it more fun for them.

Contrary to the opinion of many parents, a proper bed time is important. Growing bodies need rest. From the time our children were one year old through grade school they were in bed by 8:00 pm. In Junior High they went to bed at 8:00 pm but could read from eight until eight thirty. In High School bedtime was by or before 9:00 pm. The exceptions were for church-related services and activities. They all did well scholastically. I believe proper rest to be a key factor.

Proper eating habits are a must. Bodies of any age need essential vitamins and minerals. Snacks should lean toward fresh fruits and veggies and away from ice cream and sweets. Our children's meals were at seven am, twelve and five pm.

Since students learn better when they are rested, it is wise to schedule their most difficult subjects during the morning hours. Some parents find it helpful to stagger these courses for their children. This allows them more freedom to help each child individually. Your older students can help the younger ones when they have time. It is also wise to allow some time for 'getting the wiggles out' or refreshing their minds. There are many ways to do this; for example, jumping jacks, running a few laps around the yard, or going up and down stairs. Our personal favorite was the mini trampoline (rebounder). Many things were memorized over the years as our children bounced, jumped, or jogged in place. Deep breathing is also very helpful, as it brings

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