How to get more done in a day when you are a Homeschooling Mom

Time management as a homeschooling mom isn’t always easy. Want to know how to get more done as a homeschooling mom?

I love that I am able to homeschool my children. It’s a joy for me to have them at home with me every day. However, homeschooling does present it’s challenges, and one of those challenges is trying to get everything you need to done in a day.

Maybe you are like me and you work from home as well and need to find time to fit that in. Or maybe you don’t work from home but you volunteer at your church. Or maybe you don’t do any of those things but you still have to figure out how to make time for teaching, cleaning, and chauffeuring the kids to all of their activities.

No matter what you do, life as a mom is BUSY. We are always having to be creative in thinking up ways to squeeze extra things into our daily schedule.

I’ve been homeschooling for almost 12 years now so it’s safe to say I’ve had to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Today I’m gonna share with you some little ways you can get more done.

Of course, this is going to vary based on your kids’ ages. Now that my kids are 10, 13, and 15 I am able to fit more in because they don’t require constant attention.

If you have littles, chances are you won’t be able to fit in as much at that stage of life. That’s okay. Sometimes acceptance is half the battle.

How to get more done in a day when you are a homeschooling mom

This post contains affiliate links.  Please see our full disclosure policy HERE.

Spend the first half hour or hour in your room working

Before I even leave my bedroom in the morning I spend 30 minutes writing a blog post for my blog. It won’t be done in that time, but it means when I get to it again later in the day the majority of it will be completed.

Is there something you need total quiet and uninterrupted time for? Use even 20 minutes to work on stuff before you leave your room in the morning.

Give your kids chores

If you have older kids like I do they are finally at that stage where they can be quite helpful. Give then daily chores. It’ll help you get the cleaning done around the house without feeling like it all falls on you and there just isn’t enough time for it all. Kids are often more capable than we give them credit for.

Make a schedule and stick with it

A schedule is going to help you stay on task, and it will also help you move on to all the things you need to do in a day. Making up a schedule is a homeschooling mother’s best friend!

They make some great homeschooling planners like this one.

Multitask when possible

If your child is old enough for some independent work, give the child their school assignment and then use that time to do something you need to get done. I like to make sure I’m still available to help them if they need me so I often use this time to cook or clean in the kitchen while they sit at the table nearby. It also allows me to supervise them to make sure they are staying on task and getting their work done.

Aim to have schoolwork done by 1:00 pm.

Many homeschooling families do schoolwork from the time they wake up until around lunch or just after. This allows the families to focus on other things in the afternoon. This may involve free time to have some fun, or for mom to get some work done if she has a job from home, or it might be time for cleaning and chores.

If you leave your afternoons free to do other things besides school work, this will allow you to get more done in the day.

Even after nap time ends, have a daily quiet time

Once my kids gave up their naps we still had a regular quiet time in the afternoons for awhile. This allowed them to quiet themselves down for a bit, but most importantly, it gave me time to get a few things done during that time.

Have a reading time before bed, or an early bedtime

If you have young kids, aim for an early bedtime so you have a few hours after they go to bed to do what you need to do without distractions.

If you have older kids like I do, you can send them to their rooms a half hour or 45 minutes before their bedtime to read quietly in their beds.

We have done this for years and it’s just become part of the regular routine. The kids look forward to reading their library books, and I take the time to do a few more things without being needed.

Use tasks you need to do as part of your homeschool curriculum

Need to cook dinner? Have a child help you and teach them how to do it. That’s part of home economics.

Need to go grocery shopping? Have your child add things up as you toss things in the cart. That’s math for the day. Or teach them how to figure out what item is cheaper while comparing cost per unit. That’s budgeting.

Trying to fit some exercise in? Take the kids along outside and that’s gym class.

Life is full of learning opportunities that can be incorporated into your curriculum.

Remember that you aren’t trying to recreate traditional school

This is one I’ve struggled with over the years. Because I was so afraid I would mess something up I was trying to do the same thing at home that they do in school.

But we need to remind ourselves why we are homeschooling in the first place. It is to do school differently. School doesn’t need to take 6 hours a day. School doesn’t need you to spend hours and hours prepping and marking work. Homeschooling is meant to be flexible and more relaxed.

Cut yourself some slack and make it easier on yourself by not putting so much pressure on you. By doing that you’ll find more time to get other things done throughout your day.

Being a homeschooling parent doesn’t mean you will never have enough time

I remember hearing an analogy of how we should look at our to-do list during the day. Imagine you have a jar. First you put in your big rocks. That’s going to be your non-negotiable things you need to get done in a day. The ones that are the most important.

The next thing you will add to your jar are some pebbles. This represents things that are still important on that to-do list, but…if you don’t get to them today it’s not the end of the world.

Lastly, you’ll add to the jar some sand. This represents things that you’d like to get done, but really aren’t that important or urgent. So, for me that might be to clean and organize my bathroom closet. They are things that can ait for awhile and everything will still be okay.

When planning out your day, think about that analogy. Focus on what is urgent and important, and don’t stress about the rest. After all, stressing and feeling frazzled won’t help you get any more on your list done than is already done or not done.

When you are in the thick of homeschooling it is busy. But its only a season and one day you will have more time to get done all the things you want to do that don’t involve kids. So, try and enjoy this time while you have it.

I know that’s really cliche to say, but as someone who only has about two more years of homeschooling for my oldest, I can see it slipping away before my very own eyes. and before I know it I’ll be in a new season of life.  One that allows me more time to get things I need to get done.  

So for now, if my to-do list is often unfinished at the end of the day I’ll try to not worry too much about it.

 

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *