It's About Time

The world is comprised of two kinds of people: those who complain that they do not have enough time for everything on their to do lists and those who lament their boring lives where time hangs heavy and they have “nothing to do.”

 Yet, time is the one thing that every person on earth shares equally. Whether you are Donald Trump or a resident of a homeless shelter, whether you are the picture of health or dying of a terminal disease, whether you are a genius or an idiot, you have exactly the same amount of time as every other individual. Each day every person on earth is allotted twenty-four hours. No one can buy additional time and no one can sell time that he will never use.

Time wisely spent has resulted in the acquisition of knowledge that has led to the eradication of many deadly diseases, the ability to communicate with anyone in the world in a matter of seconds, high speed travel, and numerous products that make our daily lives comfortable and enjoyable. Time wasted is like a piece of down carried away by the wind never to be seen again.

When I think about using time productively, my mind always turns to the years I spent homeschooling my ten children. During those years I met many homeschooling mothers who began their school year in September each year with high expectations only to discover in the spring that they were behind schedule and that their students could not possibly complete their courses by the end of May. At that time most reacted in one of two ways: Either they became so discouraged that they did not even try to rectify the situation, and just before Memorial Day they pronounced their students finished for the year, or they embarked on a game of catch-up that made their school days impossibly long. In the latter case, the students became overwhelmed and were able to learn very little.

Because the New Year falls in the middle of the school year, I think this is a good time to take a fresh look at how we as homeschoolers are using our time and the time of our children. Therefore, during the month of January, I will be writing about time management for homeschoolers, and I will share some of the things that worked for me as I homeschooled my ten children. I will offer tips to keep your homeschool on schedule and your school days short.

I also look forward to sharing some of the time management lessons that continued to guide my life after my children had all graduated and I began working full time in our mortgage business. I hope that you will join me this month as we all prepare for a productive New Year.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her personal story of homeschooling her own ten children from the first grade through masters' degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.