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How Tasks Saved My Summer and My Sanity

I am not a Home-schooler. My child goes to an outside school. But I believe strongly in taking every opportunity to supplement outside education with additional education from us.

At my son's school, the teachers use a Task System each morning. They have a big poster with tasks numbered from 1-30. (Sample tasks are: do a puzzle, read a book, trace, fold paper, etc.) Every morning when the children arrive, the teacher takes turns spending one-on-one time with each of the students. While the teacher goes through this process, the remainder of the children are working through their task lists. I believe this task system teaches independent study skills, and can be used by a parent with multiple children to teach.

When summer came, my son missed doing his morning tasks and asked me for a task to do. So, we came up with a morning task list. I've found that he looks forward to this very much and, since it is a routine, I do a lot less arguing with him to sit down with me and work on Schooling.

I've provided a copy of our Task List for this Summer here. He is going into Second Grade and this is our fourth revision of the list and it finally works for both of us. I'm sure it will continue to change and grow as his needs do, and I'm excited to see what next summer's task list will look like.

About the Author: Nicole Dean is a work at home mom whose life centers around exposing her children to all the wonders of the world. She is owner of Show Mom the Money -- a new and exciting site for Work from Home Moms. Copyright 2004.