I choose to cover 6 subjects for 10 minutes each - one quick hour of homeschooling, then on to other things. It may not sound like much, but you will be surprised about how much a regular 10 minutes of a subject adds up.
Home School Ideas
Maths -
have some ten minute maths worksheets ready. A good place to find some is The Math worksheet site - remember to print out a several days worth. We also like to use one of these free home school printables -these sometimes take my younger child longer than ten minutes so he gets to practice using a calculator!
Languages -
this would be a good time to play a language game, or look over some flashcards. See how many new words you can learn each day - Learn it Lists will provide you with 10 foreign words a day (free).
Art -
Drawing or painting (but have the materials ready). Either work on the same picture for 10 minutes each day (watercolours are good for this), or try drawing the same picture each day (an animal?) but with a 'focus' word (small, angry, red, funny, invisible). If you are feeling really desperate, then just have some coloring pages ready.
This is an ideal use of Doing the Days or other journaling book. Or try one of these .
Exercise
A quick burst of activity. Try skipping or dancing - or learning to juggle! This is a good one to put in just before the last activity - to keep everyone interested!
one possible way to cover these in 10 minutes is by doing quizzes. I set things up like Mastermind - each child rushes to the chair and answers three questions - then it is the next child's turn. I usually just make up questions based on what we have been doing, but you may like to use a quiz book.
Science -
OK - I have to be feeling brave to attempt this in 10 minutes, but its a good use of those 101 science experiments for kids books you see everywhere.
Story time -
Read 10 minutes of your current read-aloud book. If you need some reading ideas see the books page.