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Just received this email from a good friend of mine which I thought I would share to you all.

Q: I homeschool my youngest boy who is 5 but my middle and oldest boys 7,11 go to public school right now. my youngest has some disabilities and they wanted to main stream him but I didn’t feel it was appropriate. Also I run a home daycare. I am thinking about pulling my older two next year because the schools here are so violent anymore. But I have to get a handle on what I have to do here now first. I cannot get my boys to listen to me about anything. Right now they are supposed to be cleaning their rooms and they instead are running around my house like wild animals. I don’t like to hit them and I hardly ever do. I hate this and I feel like a bad mother.

A: I have a rule with my children, we work together and then we can play together, each person can have free time to pursue their interest, or we my go to the park, etc. If things aren’t done no one goes!! I went through about 3-4 months before they figured it out. When my kids would lose track and quit cleaning their part, they went to time out in the corner or wrote sentences until they were ready to do their part again!! NO FREE PLAY until the tasks were finished. It took a lot of work and follow up by me-but it was sooooo worth it!!

They stay on task much better-not perfect yet. They have mastered getting things done when they want to go to a birthday party or something. At least we can go places now because I know they will hurry to go somewhere!! We are still struggling with the amount of time it takes to complete tasks and I am currently implementing a timer method and if they complete the task “on time” they get to choose an activity to do. It could be to play a game, make cookies, do a craft of their choice, make candy or treats, make homemade ice cream, etc. Mine are nearly 7 yr. old twins-Dec. 31st is there birthday.

I have noticed they are staying more on task with their school work as well. Hopefully you can glean some ideas from this. Hang in there it will work out, the hardest part is following through on our end because it is so easy to get side-tracked!!