As moms (and dads) we have to make choices in our daily activities. What will we do on a given is influenced by a variety of factors in our lives. What our families are engaged in, the weather, commitments we have made, and more. When we work as well as homeschool, sometimes making it all fit together relatively smoothly can be a challenge.
I’ve talked in the past about how you balance work with homeschooling, giving you a snap shot of a week in my life. Today I would rather focus on how you make it work for you. Steps that you can take to cut out a life that is workable for you and your family.
Prioritize
Hubby often asks me “what are your plans for the day?” That simple question helps me to prioritize my day. It brings to mind the most important event of the day whether that be a dinner out, a mystery shop to do, a doctor’s appointment to keep or an afternoon at the library getting blog posts and/or reviews written.
Not everyone has a helpful hubby though, or perhaps they’d rather not depend on their spouse that way. 🙂 That’s where planners and schedulers can be a person’s best friend. Even with my hubby’s help, I rely on google calendar to help me track distant events.
Once you know the main event you can then plan around it, making room for family and health concerns and allowing room for work and play.
On SchoolhouseTeachers.com you can find a variety of planners to assist you. Planners for highschool and mom, as well as schedule makers, calendars, record-keeping and more.
Remember that work is work
I know, it seems weird to say that. One of things I’ve learned is, if I don’t remember that work is work I can put it off or not treat it with the importance that I should.
Do you ever have that? Especially if your work is home-based. That need to remember you have a job that actually NEEDS to get done. Yes, the freedom of working from home means you have that freedom to work around family needs. BUT you still have a job right? 🙂
You are presumably being paid to do it, so you aught to therefore, treat it like it is important.
Family time is important
Whether you work or out of the home spending with our families is important. Adding homeschooling to the mix, particularly if you have littles, and it can be difficult. I remember well the busyness of my lad, learning how to include him so that I could get my paid work done.
Yet it is ever so important to maintain your family time. This time of bonding, and building bridges forms foundational skills for a lifetime of working with and living with others. It also teaches your children that life isn’t just about work, but also about maintaining family connections as well.
Important items to remember
- School at home doesn’t take as long as school at well… school. 🙂 Teaching smaller classes makes the teaching time shorter.
- Work doesn’t have to happen 9-5. It can happen anytime, and get this… so can school!
- Other people can teach your children as well. Tutors, online classes, in person classes, the sky’s the limit!
- You can find your individual way to homeschool. There are many different ways to educate your children, so you don’t have to copy your neighbour. You can find your own effective way.
- Creativity and good planning can make anything happen.
- Remember, unless you are a single parent, you have a spouse who can help you educate your children as well. Use them! 🙂
I love that school and work can occur anywhere and at any time. There are many evenings when our teen and I will sit down after dinner to talk about books or assignments. Or math if his dad is helping.
it’s great to be able to do that.
Great post! I find I’m constantly working at balancing work and homeschooling.
thank you Dawn, some days I find it a constant struggle.
Your tips there at the end are very good ones to remember. And, I would add, that work doesn’t have to be paid to be work that needs to be done. It is easy to discount those kinds of unpaid contributions to your home/family since so many people tend to think that if you aren’t receiving a paycheck, you are not working. Very good post.
Great post! I’m glad that I’ve been able to work part time while homeschooling over the past couple of years. Not just because of the extra income, but because it’s helping me transition to life after homeschooling now that my daughter is graduating.
I’m looking into getting more jobs, my lad is getting so busy I’m finding myself lonely. I need more to do! 🙂
I work for my church. I don’t make enough money to be “rich”, but I meet all our needs with a little for fun things. One of the best parts of working for the church is I have a great deal of flexibility. As long as all the work gets done, no one much cares *when* it is done. This allows me to do the single-parent homeschooling thing. My child hasn’t yet reached a level of maturity where I could leave her a list of assignments and come back to them completed (or, really, even started). We attempted it a couple times, letting her stay with grandma and do work I felt she could do pretty independently while I went to work. I came back a few hours later and none of her work was even started. So I love a flexible job that while I may work out of the home still has the perk for not having to be done at a specific time. Occasionally my daughter has taken her school work to the church to work while (works a little better than leaving her with her grandma to do it but not much), and we’re currently doing our state standardized testing at the church due to loud neighbors at home.
It’s very true that with flexibility comes the tendency to put it on the back burner. I often have to be deliberate with reminding myself I do have a job and it has to get done.
sounds like you have a pretty good arrangements going. Independence will come with time. as does developing a routine so you can get your work done when you need to. 🙂