Motherhood is a hard job to have, and we all know it. If you’re working from home and homeschooling at the same time, then you basically have 3 full-time jobs. Between being Mom, teacher, and worker, what can you do to stay on top of it all?
Today I’m going to share my top 5 tips for homeschooling and time management.
Tip #1: Stay Organized
I know it goes without saying, but I can’t stress this enough: be organized!
About everything and I mean everything.
From what the kids are going to wear, what they’re going to eat, and what they’re going to study.
Now, the reality is that they’re going to be some weeks where things happen, and you may forget to get groceries one week or someone catches a cold.
But I can’t stress enough that one of the most critical things for successful homeschooling and work-from-home situations is to take the time to set a schedule and keep to it.
That way when life does throw a curveball at you, everything doesn’t just immediately fall apart.
Tip #2: Take 1 Week at a Time
One of the mistakes that I made when I got started homeschooling is that I planned an entire quarter using the schooling program and tried sticking to it…
The only problem was that things don’t always go as planned! Often, I’d have to redo the entire week on the fly because we didn’t have enough time to get through every topic or lesson. (I found myself using a whole lot of white-out!)
I learned that much like what teachers do in school, it’s best to take the plan one week at a time to allow continuing/rolling over from any topics unaddressed.
Tip #3: Schedule Days Off From School
If you’re working from home, I want to remind you that you don’t have to schedule school Monday through Friday! I know it may sound crazy, but if you have an extra busy Tuesday, jam-packed with meetings, then postpone school!
I promise you, your kids can successfully complete an entire school day on a Saturday! (If they’re young, maybe even two full “school days”!)
While kids do need to be in school five days a week, please remember that the whole point of homeschooling is to educate your children in a way that’s best for your kids, your work, and your life. You have the power of flexibility! Use it!
Tip #4: Use Your Saturdays
Speaking of Saturdays, use them!
What you have to remember as a homeschooling-work-from-home-mom is that you’re going to have to prioritize what parts of your children’s curriculum come first, and what gets second place.
For my young children, their history and science materials (although important subjects) read much more like storybooks than actual textbooks.
So, on Saturdays or even during the week, we’ll read from the science and history books as bedtime stories and the kids never even know that they’re still learning!
Tip #5: Be Creative
Which brings me to my last point. Reading from textbooks as bedtime stories is a creative way to get two of the kid’s subjects completed and that’s just the thing. In homeschooling you want to make sure that you’re covering as many subjects as you can per day if you’re following a program with subjects.
There’s alot to get done….from English, Phonics, Spelling, Reading, Math, Science, History, and so on. Being creative is the key to completing it all! For instance, in order to cover PE, we go to the park. (Yes, every day we go to the park!)
The kids get to run, toss a Frisbee, and play games to complete PE in a way that’s both fun for them, and flexible for me.
When it comes to homeschooling, there are tons of twists and turns to cope with. Going through this journey being a parent, teacher, and someone who works from home, I can honestly say it’s a struggle.
The thing is, though, to remember that it can be done. Yes you will have days when you question your decision. I do everyday! But you’re going to remember always why you choose homeschooling and dig deep because believe it or not you’re teaching your children how to dig deep everyday to accomplish what needs to get done. And that’s an important lesson for them to learn.
If any of you out there are moms or dads embarking on this journey too, you’re not alone!
Were these tips helpful? Tell me your thoughts and share your best tips to help each other out. Hopefully, we as parents can learn some things along the way, too!
Good luck and have a great day!
