This post is part of Thirty Things That Help.
Leave your phone out of sight
Imagine your indignation if you saw your child’s school teacher on her phone mid-lesson. Imagine she explained that she was only on the phone because she had to add dishwasher capsules to the grocery order, or check in with a friend going through a tough time, or confirm arrangements for an appointment later in the afternoon.
Still not really acceptable, right?
And yet, who among us hasn’t done exactly the same thing while educating our children at home? I certainly do. I don’t say you should leave your phone out of sight for moral reasons or because you’re ruining your child’s life, but because homeschooling phone-free usually means things go much more smoothly.
Homeschooling parents already have their attention divided. On any given morning I might also be doing laundry, making a loaf of bread, making plans, checking my bank balance, checking in with a friend, trying to work out what we’ll have for dinner, renewing the library books, making an appointment at the opticians… the list might not be endless but it certainly feels it. And I’m meant to educate my children as well?!
By all means use your phone first thing. Read the news, send some messages, whatever. But once you and your child(ren) get down to work, or whatever work looks like for your family, put it away. Leave it upstairs or in a drawer, on silent. In less than an hour everyone will need a break and you can check in. (Bonus tip: set a timer for the break, otherwise we all know what happens!)
In the meantime, your children will have much more of your attention. You will be alert to the child who has gone beyond mild frustration at their maths work and is about to arrive at unadulterated rage. You will notice when somebody needs a snack plate put in front of them whether they ask for it or not. You will be able to think of more creative ways to explain a difficult concept, and because you’re not wasting time on your phone you may well manage to squeeze in the read-aloud you otherwise never seem to get to.
Phones aren’t necessarily terrible but even when they’re being useful they are black holes for time and attention. When homeschool is in session, choose to give your attention to your child, not your phone. Leave it out of sight.
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The image for this post is by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash.
The added benefit is that you're modeling priorities when you put your phone away to be attentive to what (who) matters most. Children are always watching and they'll see and learn from your good example. Good cuing!
Yes! We don't really separate out any particular parts of our day as school but my heuristic is that if my kids are doing something that requires significant effort it will go much better if I'm doing hard work alongside them. Particularly when we're doing our daily spaced repitition work I try to make sure I have my boogie board and not my phone and solve the math problems and write the spelling words and name the countries and birds and whatnot along with them.