How to Balance Homemaking and Homeschooling Part Three

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Thank you for meeting me here for the third and final day in this mini-series on balancing homemaking and homeschooling. If you have not read the previous posts, you can read How to Balance Homemaking and Homeschooling Part One and How to Balance Homemaking and Homeschooling Part Two.

In day three I wanted to cover a few more practical tips on what really makes our days run like a well-oiled machine  – a well oiled machine with a few hiccups now and again since we all know these things happen at times.

With that in mind, let’s get started.

Systems are your friend

This can be anything from meal planning and meal prep ahead of time, arranging your kids’ clothes for the week on the weekend, having designated places for kids to complete their work, or organized places to put things. Creating systems like these have been a lifesaver for me.

Schedules are also your best friend

Now let me say that schedules are made to be broken at times because life is fluid, therefore we must be fluid as well so there is no need to beat yourself up about it if schedules fall by the wayside at times. However, daily schedules for homeschooling and homemaking times as I spoke of in day one, schedules for how your school day plays out, and the proper methods to keep track of all your schedules and happenings like a planner, a calendar, or just a notebook or an app on your phone can be a lifesaver. For this reason, developing schedules and having a proper way to track these schedules is key.

Training your kids to be independent is such a help when balancing homemaking and homeschooling

Kids who have their own set of household responsibilities and duties, times where they can help with younger siblings even minimally, and times when you have kids who are old enough to help younger kids with basic school tasks will always be worth the effort you put into training them. Even kids as young as two can help in the daily ebb and flow of life with small things like gathering trash cans that need to be emptied, picking up toys whether their own or others, or helping get things from the pantry for mealtimes.

This brings me to my next tip – enlist the help of others

I have times built into our school day where my older son (12) is helping his younger brother (5) with his school and my older daughter (14) is scheduled to help teach her younger sister (8), too. The thing is that you can’t do it all, and I find that my kids love learning from their other siblings, at least most times. Do you have a spouse, grandparent, or friend who can help grade papers at times? This can be a huge help, even if it is just once a week or once a month. I find the grading can be the most time consuming part of homeschooling.

Don’t let your grading or planning tasks fall behind

I have made this mistake, more than once. Just trust me on this one, don’t do it. It is really hard to dig yourself out from under a mountain than it is to take an unplanned “in-service” day. With that in mind, schedule yourself a few of these days off here and there. The schools take them, you should, too. There is often a lot to keep straight, especially if you live in a state that requires documentation for homeschooling. There is nothing wrong with “records day” within a homeschooling setting.

Perhaps you’ve heard me talk before of how I rarely make dinner at the dinner time hour – or the witching hour as I call it since everything falls apart between 4:15 and 6:00 – precisely!

This is such an important part of making our home life and our homeschool life come together. If your school is anything like my school, it always gets behind. When you have dinner already prepared, running behind is not nearly as big of an issue. Generally, I make dinner in the morning while I am standing there dealing with breakfast anyway.

Designate a place for each kids’ homeschool supplies to go as well as for your homeschool supplies to go

There is nothing worse than school stuff everywhere because you don’t have a designated area to put it in. I know of people who convert living room furniture or even take their armoire from their bedroom to their school area to store school things in. Whatever you have to do to make it work, establish a place to put everything that your kids can utilize on their own.

Don’t overlook recess

Schools and on to something with recess, and it is just as important for you as it is for your kids. This is when I can sneak away to have a pocket of calm in my day that you may have heard me speak of. I can almost guarantee that if you take a 20 minute recess, you will come back and both you and the kids will get your will make up the “free time” you took on being more productive with renewed minds and bodies that aren’t nearly as jittery or sleepy, depending which end of the spectrum they were on.

When either your homemaking duties or your homeschooling duties fall behind, don’t feel guilty about not moving forward in your schooling for the day to have a day of “catch up”

When either of these two worlds overwhelm you, don’t pretend they aren’t overwhelming you and just keep pressing on. In most cases, the day off will make everyone much happier since everything will be running more smoothly. Just like me, my kids don’t like the pressure of getting behind either. Sickness, unexpected babysitting or yard work jobs in the neighborhood, or an invitation to spend the day with a friend can all change how much work gets done. Accept these detours, deal with them, and then move on.

Homeschooling is an amazing experience for countless reasons, but one of the challenges of homeschooling is that it takes place in the home. People live in my home, people live in your home, and when people live in our homes messes unfold, various duties need to be tended to, and life simply happens simultaneously along with school.

After more than 10 years of homeschooling with a large family, I can say that the time and effort I put into helping both life and school run more smoothly has always been time well spent. These are some of the best strategies and methods that I have found to more seamlessly allow these two worlds to coexist. Try them out, you are sure to find some great things that can work for you, too!