What time should Homeschoolers Wake Up?

The wifie and I have been married to one another for over 26 years ..... and for the vast majority of things, we see eye to eye.  When we don't, usually one or the other easily slides to the other persons point of view with very little resistance.  However, one area that neither of us has budged on is around what time the girls should wake up in the morning.  Val believes that the girls should wake up at the same time each morning, say 7am, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush their teeth, and then start their day.  I'm of the opinion that the girls should sleep until they naturally wake up, then start their day even if that means 9:27 am or 10:11 am, and that if they feel like doing the first half of their school activities in their sleepy clothes then they can.  Brushing is important for hygiene purposes so that should be done too of course, but pajama clothes are fine.    

As I searched out the homeschool social media sphere to gather more opinions (hoping to find more of mine of course), I've found plenty of arguments and "scientific" reasons for both points of view.  They run from the "get them ready for the real world" perspective to "children need more sleep as they go into their teenage years."  It seems there is no "best" approach, just as there isn't a best approach for any one way of home schooling. 

So, here we are ... Val and I on opposite sides of the matter, with equal say into the approach.  Where did we end up?  Well, the girls made this a non issue by simply getting up and handling everything themselves by 8:30 am!  They make their own breakfast, eat, brush teeth, get dressed for the day, and we are into our martial arts training.  Now, there have been some mornings where one of the daughters is slow to get up, and on those rare mornings (about once every three weeks or so), I don't go pushing them out of bed.  I let them rest, trusting that their body must need it.  There are also some mornings where the youngest likes to stay in her PJs until after Karate training, and that's find too.  They are self driven young ladies, so when they slow down .... there is a reason.

Our Homeschool Students Will Start and Run Thier Own Business

As our homeschool charter makes clear, Self-Reliance and Self-Sufficiency are key competencies for our daughters (II. Mission Statement).  Self-Reliance and Self-Sufficiency span every area of life, and one area in particular is woefully underrepresented in school environments (be it public, private, hybrid, or home): how to make money.  Maybe this is by design, maybe this is from ignorance, maybe this is simply an oversight, maybe this is a byproduct of the school's operating constraints ..... I'm not sure, but we will not miss this important societal requirement.

Our Homeschool model requires each of our daughters to have their own business.  This is explicitly listed in the Operations portion of our school charter (VIII.2).  This is to be a multi-year activity and will carom through law, scams, deceptive business practices, planning, public presentations, liability, risk, and so much more.  By having their own companies, in areas of interest to them, they get an excellent crucible to learn both sides of the business game, and in a consumer driven society like ours, this brings forth many powerful lessons that can materially impact their lives as adults.

We are now a few months out from our 11 year old becoming a full time homeschooler, so the discussions of business ideas will gain some weight and dimension as one of the first deliveries in homeschool will be a formalized business plan. This will require her to spend a few months, for example, doing market survey work, analysis, choosing a model, sourcing goods (if needed) and the like to see if her business could be viable. She will present the plan to a few business owners we know to collect their feedback.  Once a solid plan has been created, she will enact the plan, measuring and monitoring its growth and adjusting the business as needed.

We've been speaking with them about business models, marketing, selling, end-goals, operating costs, capital expenses, customers, durability, competitive advantage, pricing, scale-ablity and more ever since they were old enough to talk. Having owned three companies ourselves, we have plenty of personal experiences to share with them making the car ride discussions far more rich and valuable. Now they will get a chance to try it out, and do one their way.  Proving to themselves that they can make money on their own is one of the most powerful gifts we can give them.  Self-Reliance and Self-Sufficiency.  Amen!