Structure & Discipline

​There are so many ideas about how to educate your child and whether any one idea works better than another.
Traditional schooling has taught us to be structured. School starts at the same time every day, lunch the same time every day, and sit in your seat until class is over every day.  It's okay to vary from this occasionally but establishing and maintaining strong discipline and structure is of utmost importance.
Let's think about this.  Most of our working world is disciplined and structured, so we need to train our children to be productive in that world.  Even jobs that have shifts still have shifts that start at the same time daily, they have breaks, some have deadlines on when things need to be finished or accomplished.  What kind of future are we preparing our children to handle? Will they need to constantly be on the go, or will they be behind a desk most of their day? For me, I want my child to able to hand a variety of situations and to maintain their effectiveness throughout all of it no matter what their day holds. 
Keeping this in mind, I want to share with you some things that I believe are very beneficial no matter what ideas you choose.  After all, we homeschool because we want our children to have the best so they can be at their best as an adult and active community member.  
These are elements that should be a part of every program, no matter what method you choose. In another blog, we'll discuss different methods for teaching our kids.

• Prepare a schedule to follow every day. Do your best to stick to it as much as possible.  Much of life is routine; our children need to be okay in a routine environment.
• Schedule in your holidays or school breaks. Be flexible for sticky situations and family emergencies.
• Encourage your children to get up at the same time each day and to have a healthy breakfast to feed their brain to keep them going.  This will help avoid that sinking / sleepy feeling at mid morning.  An alternative to this, is to provide a 15 minute break at mid morning, go outside and walk around for some fresh air. 
• Allow 5 to 10 minute breaks between classes and 45 minutes for lunch.
• Integrate structured exercise. It is not enough to just walk in to your local store to pick up a few things and call that exercise although it can help.
• Don't forget to build in a real and tangible reward system.  And no the reward should not be that they aren't paddled that day, lol.  Provide a system where they can build points and cash in on a variety of prizes such as longer breaks for a day, extra 10 points on their lowest grade, lunch out at their favorite place, late start Mondays, early out Wednesdays, etc. Decide how often your child can cash in on his or her reward.
• Be somewhat sensitive to your child.  There are times when they will lose focus. Help them to recognize those moments, share it with them, and then help them to quickly regain focus to finish their assignment.  If necessary, hold it off until the next day but first try to help them regain focus.  That is a skill many need to develop.

It is important to build structure and discipline in your child. Help them to know when to break from it and how to get back in the game.  Those two things alone will serve your child well in their future.
Do you have a system you believe is beneficial? Please share with us by commenting below [just click on the blue comment link].  Some parents choose to not be so strict and there is some credibility to this as it cuts down on stress. However, the working world does not become successful by flying by the seat of their pants. There is some element of structure and some measure of discipline to stay in the game behind every successful person and business. 
What works for you? Does your child respond well to a systematic approach? If not, how did you deal with the situation?
Will see you again June 10th. 
Lexi

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