Do you make your home schooled kids get dressed in the morning?

Question

Do you require them to get dressed before they do their work or do you let them stay in their night clothes? What about shoes do you make them wear shoes and socks?

Answer 1

Yes, I do; shoes and socks are worn also. However, school is not always done in the morning; it depends upon my work schedule as I work from home.

The beauty of homeschooling is its flexibility, although most of the time our schedule remains for the same for my son's sake--he does a lot better with a consistent routine.

I hope this answers your question.

Answer 2

Yes, I make my son 'get dressed' before we start school to formalize the transition from whatever we are doing to a learning atmosphere. He likes to sleep in his boxers so I have him put on a pair of shorts, a shirt is optional. Shoes and socks are not worn in our house to keep the dirt levels down.
I find that being 'dressed for school' lets my son know that we are going to focus on a subject(s) and that play time is suspended. He is easily distracted and any tool that I have to help him stay on track is used. He is not self motivated yet to do some of the academic work that he needs, but when he is told to go get dressed we are going to sit down and get to work he transitions well and is starting to come to grips with his attentional difficulties.
And I agree with the above answerer...thanks for a innovative question about how different homeschools work on a daily basis.

Answer 3

Yes, I require my kids get dressed in the morning. Doesn't necessarily have to be first thing (sometimes they start some sort of work as soon as they get up--their decision, usually, not mine!), but if they aren't dressed by the time they've finished breakfast, then off they go to get dressed.

Socks during colder weather is a must in our house. Especially if there's snow. Summer is almost always barefoot. We never wear shoes in the house. It's not the norm here.

Answer 4

We do both, depending on the day. Most days, yes; my son is required to shower, dress, eat, and brush his teeth/hair before he's allowed to do anything else. (This is more for the fact that it helps him wake up and focus than anything else. He likes the routine.)

Some days, we're both in our pj's when my husband comes home from work. These days aren't often, but they happen.

Why do you ask? Is your next question going to be "do your kids sit home alone and play PS2 all day? (by the way, that would be a no...)

If we're going somewhere, he wears shoes. Socks are his choice - if he decides he doesn't need them and ends up getting a blister, then next time he learns to wear them.

I don't make or force every single solitary decision down his throat...he's very much able to think on his own. Again, why would you ask? Very odd question.

Answer 5

From just about the first day of life, I have always gotten my kids up, fed and dressed. That is what people do in the 'real world' most days isn't it? Socks and shoes? No shoes in the house, socks if they want them.

There are some days that we relax in jammies, but for the most part we get up and get dressed.

Answer 6

I don't usually have to "make them" get dressed. They just do when they get up. As far as shoes and socks, they prefer to be barefoot or just in socks in the house, they put on shoes to play outside.
I never really thought of it as being necessary to get dressed before beginning homeschool, but out of habit we get dressed before we start our day, no matter what that day will hold.

Answer 7

Well, certainly glad I kept reading, I thought you were talking about running about nakie, lol.
I completely leave it to my kids, but usually they enjoy staying in house clothes during the day if we have nothing going on. It's always been that way in our home though. Even when my daughter was in PS, on the weekends, when we had nothing better to do, we would stay in our PJ's.
But, we don't run around in nightgowns and full pajama sets and stuff like that.
More like sleep pants or shorts and a t-shirt or tank top.
But the rule is, you walk outside, you put on regular clothes.Our family is not the type that goes to the grocery store in pajamas and slippers. I cannot stand that.
On the flip side, I know people that require their children to wear uniforms to homeschool. They don't understand my style, I don't understand theirs, but we are friends and we do not judge each other based on what we choose to wear in the privacy of our own homes.
Life is just too short for that type of stuff.
PS: no shoes in the house, that's a rule. Barefeet or sockies, or slippers, but no outside shoes.

Answer 8

This has to be one of the oddest questions about homeschooling I have ever seen. In our family, we usually get up and get dressed after breakfast, but we only wear socks if it is cold and shoes are put on as we go outside. We do not wear shoes around the house, in fact we take them off as soon as we get inside, I feel it helps keep the house a lot cleaner when you aren't tracking in outside dirt via your shoes.

The term "make them wear" rather amused me. If it is very cold and my kids don't want to wear socks, why do I care? If their feet get cold, they'll put on socks. I think making all those minute decisions for kids turns them into little automatons that can't think for themselves, or have their own feelings constantly torn down and invalidated.

When my one child had a difficult time understanding how aggravating it was to constantly put her shoes back on (after she flipped them off her feet in the car, but was too young to put them on herself), I just told her if she did it again, she'd have to walk whereever we were in whatever was on her feet. That happened to be hot blacktop in the summer. She didn't make the choice to yank her shoes off again, and I think it stuck much more efficiently than my constantly "forcing" her to leave the shoes on. I call this "natural consequence" and it is pretty darn effective.

Anyway, we don't dress in uniforms to indicate "school time" if that was your next question...

Answer 9

No, we don't have any dress codes we enforce at home.

My teen usually sleeps late--but as long as she keeps up with her college courses and other activities, and does her chores, I don't bug her. She's 17 so I let her make her own decisions at this point.

My little boys are both different-- one likes to get up, eat, and get dressed immediately (except shoes). He's always been like this, ever since he could dress himself. He's 6 now.

My other boy, who is 8, doesn't like to get dressed in the morning. He'll wake up and just do his skills practice work and unit studies and projects in his pjs, and wait to get dressed after lunch when we're getting ready to go out for our clubs, classes and social activities.

Doesn't really matter either way to me. I was never one that liked jumping out of bed and getting dressed, mysef.

Answer 10

Love the question, finally a change. I have thought about just copying and pasting my answers to save time........... anyway.


I do not make my kids get up and get dresses unless we have some place to go that day. I have found with my kids anyway it doesn't make a difference if they are in their jammies or clothes.

When we are out, library, home-school group, doctors, YMCA, park, zoo, etc. I do have my kids wear not uniforms but matching clothes just so it is easier to find them in a group. Then we go clothes shopping I just make sure I buy everyone a few matching shirts, my husband and I have the same colors, too (hobby lobby is good for finding matching colors in all sizes and cheap) so everyone has a bright yellow, blue, red, and green tee shirts matched up with a pair of jeans or khakis.

Plus being a part of Connections Academy (virtual public school) I have made them name tags with their pictures on them that they where too. (it also holds their library cards too) we just hang our "necklace" by the door and we are ready for our next trip. (It also comes in handy incase they get parted from me because inside has all our information, names, address, phone numbers, & medical conditions/allergies. Really good when you have two that doesn't talk the greatest, one is 2 years old and one is 4 years old and has sensory intregration disorder & speech issues)