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4 Cures for the Afternoon Slumps When Homeschooling

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4 Cures for the Afternoon Slumps When Homeschooling @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

If you shine in the morning, then by the afternoon you may have a case of the DB (dropsy butt . . . okay, okay). It has happened in my house more times than I care to confess about. But out of that struggle, I have learned a few tips to help you squeeze out a bit more of homeschooling in the afternoon when everyone is ready to quit.

Look at these 4 cures for the afternoon slumps when homeschooling.

One| Take lunch earlier.

It’s a little insider tip about my family, but we eat lunch early more days than we do close to noon. Normally by about 11:00 a.m, we are ready for lunch.

How does this help with our afternoon slump?

It shifts our whole day because by the time we finish eating and rest up a bit, we are ready to get started back to school just past noon instead of closer to 1:30.

We are able to get another hour and half in the afternoon without feeling the afternoon blahs.

The Secret to Finding Peace

One unexpected advantage of eating lunch early is that you can have fast, but delicious meals like a fruit smoothie. I have shared more than one picture with you of us drinking our smoothing in one hand while doing school with the other.



Knowing we are going to eat lunch within a few short hours, our breakfast can be simple. Check out my tips at my article, 5 Easy and Quick Breakfasts Kids Will Eat (Grab the Egg McMuffin Recipe).

I like having the flexibility of starting our day right away, eating lunch early and adding in another hour or two of school after lunch.

Two|Break down hands-on activities into manageable parts.

Then, many years I wouldn’t even have the energy needed to push myself to do hands-on activities in the afternoon because my day was so busy. Science and history is what my boys looked forward to most in the day and I was exhausted by the afternoon.

I regret many times not doing hands-on because I didn’t plan my day for those slumps in the afternoon.

One tip that did help me was to break hands-on activities into two afternoons. I would take just one corner of the house if we didn’t have a school room and leave all our supplies out instead of putting them away.

Putting them away to only get the right back out the next day exhausted me too. If we could, we would just leave half-baked projects on the table because it made easier to sit back down the next afternoon.

Also, I learned that be doing history and science on back to back days, we could slow down and savor our afternoon.

Three|Tackle important stuff first in the morning.

I know my kids have their favorite subjects they want to work on first thing in the morning, but I made sure they worked first on things that took the most mental energy (for me). When my kids needed help, I am my freshest in the morning.

When we got behind on hands-on activities, I make sure we start off the day with a hands-on project and save the afternoon for a family read aloud.

Four| Move.

I have read that exercising is usually done best in the morning, but I am stingy with my morning time because it has always been the best time of the day for me.

That is the time my thoughts flow, I read and otherwise enjoy the slow quiet time to rejuvenate. Making time to put valuable things that I put into my mind is just as important to me as the time I try to find for my physical health too.

I have found that moving when I am mentally tired has been of way more benefit for me and my family.

I have a walking trail within walking distance of where we live and just getting out the house in the afternoon helps me to get my energy level back up. It has made our time for afternoons something that we look forward too.

There are many ways to break up the afternoon slumps when homeschooling but these basic 4 cures have been tried and trued for us.

How do you get past the afternoon slumps?

Check out these other go to tips!

Homeschool Quitters, Dropouts and Wimps (Want to Join Me?)
How to Make Yourself a Morning Person When Homeschooling (Do You Really Need to Wait until the Afternoon to Homeschool?)
How to Create a Homeschool Schedule that You Can Stick To

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

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5 Easy and Quick Breakfasts Kids Will Eat (Grab the Egg McMuffin Recipe)

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5 Easy and Quick Breakfasts that Kids Will Actually Eat (Grab the Egg McMuffin Recipe)

Whatever the controversy with nutritionist about whether or not breakfast is the most important meal of the day, there is no denying the fact that kids need food to kick start their day and their brain. I do too.

Breakfast has always improved my boys academic attention.

5 Easy and Quick Breakfasts Kids Will Eat

The problem is that I also like my morning time and want to spend it in a less stressful way like reading, looking over lessons for the day or doing a bit of blogging and I also want my kids to eat well.

Too, you remember I shared with you how I plan my dinners for 31 days and not breakfast.  Look at that article here Free 31 Days of Dinner and Editable Menu Planner.

The reason I don’t plan breakfast is that I rotate a handful of quick, but delicious ideas that have worked for us through the years.

Keeping breakfast simple and not preparing extravagant breakfasts that kids won’t eat is the key to a morning that gets booted up quickly, which leaves more time to wake up and start school on time.

Look at these 5 breakfast ideas that make my morning run smoother and keep it relaxed.

1. Egg McMuffins, Breakfast Sandwiches or whatever you want to call them.

This morning I spent about a little more than an hour preparing 30 egg mcmuffins.

After Tiny started school, I stayed in the kitchen and worked on the egg mcmuffins until I needed Tiny for the assembly line, but again, I made these later in the morning, not first thing.

Look at what you need:

  • eggs. 1 egg for each muffin. So grab as many eggs as breakfast sandwiches you are going to make.
  • meat (if any, of your choice) I rotate between ham, Canadian bacon, bacon and sausage patties.
  • English muffins. Grab as many packages as you are going to make. I normally grab two packages (which makes 6) and don’t make less than two packages, but sometimes I make enough for a month.
  • Pam spray
  • cheese. If your family likes it. This morning I am trying Monterrey Jack cheese because Tiny and I love a bit of spice.
  • muffin pan (if you bake your eggs in the oven like I do)
  • diced up onions if you’re eggs are scrambled.

When the boys were little, this would last us a full month or longer.

But I have mean eating machines over here now and 30 sandwiches will go us maybe 2 weeks, but then again they can eat two or more at a time.

Decide right away if your family prefers scrambled eggs or baked in the oven.

Now, I cook my eggs in the oven because I love the taste.

However, for years, I did scrambled eggs because the boys were little and knew what was in their sandwich. Look at this post, Homeschool Organization – Forget Once a Month Cooking When Meal Planning, I did a few years ago where I scrambled the eggs and would freeze only one package.

I prepared this quick breakfast like this:

First, I started cooking my ham slices or bacon. While that is cooking, I heated up the oven to 275 degrees.

Next, it’s true, like most recipes call for that you have to spray the heck out of the muffin pan if you want your eggs to not stick.

Spray it some more for good measure and then do it again. Then I start cracking the eggs in the muffin tin.

I put the ham or meat aside now and let it cool.Then I start toasting the muffins.

egg mcmuffin 1

Depending on how many I am making, I will stick the pan in the oven right away with a bit of butter to let it start browning.

This morning though, I used my 4 slice toaster and toasted the muffins while the meat cooked and I cracked eggs. By the way, I add butter the muffins slightly after they were toasted.

After the eggs are cracked, take a fork and break the yoke and add salt and pepper.

Then stick the muffin pan in the preheated oven and cook for about 12 to 15 minutes depending on your oven.

The Trick to Finding More Mom Time

You want the white cooked, but the yellow doesn’t have to be all the way cooked. It finishes cooking in the microwave when you heat it up. Look at my picture below.

egg mcmuffin 2

Then I let the eggs cool off and set up firm before I lift them out and build the muffins.

Add your meat, cheese of choice if any and egg.

egg mcmuffin 3

Then I wrap them in saran wrap and stick them back in the same muffin bag and in the freezer they go.

egg mcmuffin 4

Heat them up in the morning for about a minute.

Then here is another quick break that I do.

2. Toasted English muffin + 2 tablespoons peanut butter = Done.

Then, normally, in the winter, I love hot oatmeal and not the quick kind, but the slow and healthy kind of oats.

BUT, when I know I want to get a start on the day earlier, I often make Overnight Oatmeal in a Jar.

3. Cold oatmeal in the winter?

Believe me, they are to die for delicious when you make them right.

I make them while I cook supper and stick those babies in the refrigerator and they are ready to go the next morning.

You can make them different ways, but mine always include; regular steel cut oats, cinnamon, greek yogurt, chia seeds, organic maple syrup, blueberries or strawberries, some walnuts or pecans and coconut milk.

It’s such an easy and great tasting breakfast. I can eat out the jar and read.

The hardest part is chopping the strawberries and I if I get real lazy short on time, I use blueberries. Besides, I prefer blueberries a bit more than I do strawberries.

5992

(pic attribution: The Yummy Life. Reminder pin from original sources.)

Check out Monica over at The Yummy Life because she has a super easy step by step how to make them. I just throw all mine in and stir. (yum)

4. Blueberry banana deliciousness.

Then talking about blueberries, that brings me to another family favorite, which is blueberry banana smoothies.

  • 1 cup frozen blueberries
  • 1/2 banana
  • 1 cup yogurt (I use low sugar or sugar free).

It’s quick and I blend it up in a snap and ready to go.

Too, I can put several batches of this in the blender and just whip it up in the morning.

5. Apple and cheese for the boys, but for me avocado toast.

Then another one that Mr. Senior 2013 loved was apple and cubes of cheese.

For me, I love mashed avocado on toast or another go to for me in the morning is cottage cheese and peaches.

Finding more time for mom and not compromising on a great start to the day always starts the previous day for me by knowing what we will eat.

We have many other go to choices, but these five quick and uncomplicated breakfasts have always helped us to kick off our day and stick to our homeschool schedule. Did I mention picky kids will eat them?

Do you have any quick and fast breakfast favorites?

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

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Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


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Linking up @ these awesome places:

11 Tried and True Ways to Tame the Home When You Homeschool

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With the new school year comes different grade levels for kids. It may mean more relief for mom or it could mean more work when adding in younger children to the day.

Add a few preschoolers that need naps in the afternoons and a newborn baby and I was left many days wondering how I was going to fit in grocery buying, cleaning the house, menu planning and running errands.

11 Tried and True Ways to Tame the Home When You Homeschool @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

It didn’t take too long into the school year before I was behind on cleaning the house and preparing for meals.

Tips and Tricks for Making a Messy House Clean

Though I thrived with schedules, my do-a-little-each-day method to cleaning wasn’t working.

Stepping back to examine even my method of cleaning, I want to share these sanity-saving tips that I used through the years.

  • If your kids are real young and you are outnumbered, make your shopping day Saturday or when Dad is off work.

For a few years, I took my oldest to the store while my husband took care of the youngest boys. It just had to be or otherwise my whole day was wasted getting only a small portion of what we needed.

  • As the boys got a bit bigger, I joined a local co-op in my neighborhood where I get could get fresh fruits and vegetables.

That was awfully convenient and I didn’t really need much preparation when they showed up in the neighborhood.

  • Also, the Mr. didn’t mind a bit stopping by the store after work and grabbing a few things.

So I would go about once every two weeks for the big items and the Mr. would grab perishable items if we ran out.

  • Limit your days to the grocery store. You only have so many days in the week.

It’s exhausting to not plan meals and go to the grocery store every other day.

I never wanted to do that and didn’t. When I could, I went once every two weeks, but sometimes I had to go weekly but not every day or every other day.

  • Then as the boys grew older and entered middle school, I was able to go to the store weekly and more on a schedule, but it had to wait until after school or about 2:00 or so.

This still gave me time to shop and get back before dinner.

  • As the boys approached high school, I made sure my grocery list was organized by aisles so that when Mr. Senior 2013 learned to drive, he could take over the grocery shopping.

There was no guessing what items or brands we liked because he had been shopping with me for many years since he was little.

Now, just organize your grocery list and let your highschooler do it.

  • Another tip that saved me countless of hours was investing in more than one crock-pot.

I would have 3 crock-pots going at one time.

Sometimes it would be two meals and one side dish and then sometimes it would be 3 meals and one of them a breakfast for the next day.

There is no such rule that you have to have only one crock-pot.

Our lives are very different from most families and we need to think outside of the box.

  • Did I mention that I even ordered once in a while from the Schwan’s delivery grocery? They have a few great tasting dishes.
  • Nowadays, you can even shop at Walmart and with free delivery, things can be delivered straight to your door.

My sister does this all the time. It’s a great way to shop with no stress and everything comes to your door.

  • As far as cleaning, I learned to have less products to clean with so that I could do all of the rooms in the house quicker instead of a different cleaner for each room.

I had to change the way I liked doing laundry too.

  • I tried to do a one day laundry day and get a majority of it over with.

I saved back things like linen and towels, which could be washed and dried, but could wait on being folded.

Those kinds of clothes I did while we did school and of course the baby’s clothes were washed just about every day.

I learned that by washing a bulk of them on one day, I made a dent for the week and could focus on school.

Those are just a few quick tips that saved me during the time school booted back up and during the year when I felt like I was getting behind.

What do you do to get it all in for the day?

Hugs and love  ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

Also, look at:
Inspiring Your Homeschooled Kids to Do Chores
Should You Switch to a 4 day Homeschool Schedule?

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Why the Hectic Pace in Homeschool? What’s the Rush Girl?

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Why the Hectic Pace in Homeschooling @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

What’s the rush? Why the hectic pace in homeschool?

Homeschool curriculum options have literally exploded in the market.  Instead of simplifying homeschool it seems like the huge amount of curriculum choices have complicated homeschooling.

We are constantly bombarded with more deadlines, stress and a growing list of of homeschool subjects.

Pressure to perform has mounted. Constantly expecting too much from our children and ourselves is not good.

We can’t slow down the hectic pace of this world when it comes to educating our children, but we can make changes in our everyday journey.

Is Your Homeschool Teaching a Trickle or Torrential flood?

One thing we have control over is the pace we set each day for our school.

The pace we set in teaching our children made me think about a point we learned in science.

When there is a quick down pour, rain runs off  the ground because it’s too fast and the ground doesn’t have time to soak it up.  Digging down the surface a bit, you can see that the ground is still dry.

However, when there is a soft, gentle, rain that trickles slowly throughout the day, the ground soaks up the water and nourishes the plants.  The slow trickle saturates the ground.

Do you tend to flood your children with lots of information and busy work or is your day of teaching more like a soft gentle trickle so that your children can soak up what you are teaching?

 Realistic Tips that Work

Besides understanding that a constant hurried pace is not good for you physically, here are some doable tips that will help to reduce the stress in your day.

Routine is vital.

Routine is a habit and instead of stressing each day about how to start the day, there is no pausing for thought, we just do it.

Progress and routine are inextricably linked.

Progress reduces stress and helps to slow pace down but it only comes if a routine is formed.  Routine can be  anything but hum drum if we allow a gentle unfolding of our day that suits our family.

Organization (the realistic kind) is a must.

I have said it many times throughout the years and that is as homeschoolers the way we organize has to be different.

We can’t follow the organizational tips given by many well-meaning books and blogs of stay at home moms who do not wear the teacher hat or who don’t share learning and living spaces.  Those kinds of tips makes  the already overwhelmed unorganized homeschooler run the other way from organizational tips that will breathe calm into her day.

Organization takes on a different meaning as homeschoolers.

When time is wasted fumbling for lesson plans, kids don’t have a place to put away their papers or books or when kids don’t understand their morning routine, this starts our day off at a hurried pace.  We seem to spend the whole  day trying to catch up.

Equally important to choosing curriculum is choosing a plan of action.  Take as much time writing down how you want your day to flow and where to put away your homeschool things as you do mulling over curriculum choices.

Homeschooling and life blend together the longer you homeschool.

When you have a plan for cooking and laundry as much as you do for chemistry and language arts, then you have balance in your day.  Tension starts to subside.

Breaks should be meaningful.

I love walking and physical exercise has always been a time for me to rejuvenate and be re-energized for the day.

Stepping away from the chaos and doing something physical always has helped me to put things back in the right priority.

If I am stressing that I am not doing enough, then I ask myself why? Is it because life happened like a sickness in our family that went through all five of us or was it because I was helping one of the boys deal with a lot of hormones?  Then we need to bless and release it because that is part of school.

If I am stressing because I planned too lightly then learn from that lesson and move on.

Dwelling on things that we can’t control brings stress.  Stress breeds chaos and an inability to cope.  It’s a vicious cycle and will consume our time if we don’t break it.

Constant reminders are needed about why we are homeschooling and how an unhurried pace year after year infuses our children with a massive amount of knowledge that has time to saturate not only their minds, but their hearts.

Too, plan for the unexpected by preparing your mind for things that will come up and cause stress.

There is a cost for trying to do too much.

Take a look at your pace. Does it need to change before you hit burnout?

Also, look at these helpful tips:

Hugs and love ya,

Should You Switch to a 4-Day Homeschool Schedule?

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Switching to a 4-day homeschool schedule for a majority of my journey is not only one of the best homeschooling tips I can share, but it saved my sanity when many things about home and school collided. Addressing some of your concerns first and then sharing the numerous reasons why the advantages of homeschooling a 4-day week outweighed a 5 day schedule, I hope these tidbits will help you too.

One of the greatest factors for those hesitant to switch to a 4-day homeschool schedule has to do with the amount of weeks or hours needed to meet state requirements.

4-Day Homeschool Schedule

While it’s true that you need 45 weeks instead of 36 weeks, you can still homeschool a 4-day schedule if you stretched out your homeschool year.

It doesn’t even mean you have to school year round, though I am here to tell you flat out that the advantages of homeschooling year round blew away an abrupt stop and start each year.

Should You Switch to a 4-Day Homeschool Schedule?

Schooling year round doesn’t mean all work and no play, but that is another topic. You can check out How to Plan for & Homeschool Year Round here.

Also, be sure you look at my YouTube video How to Create a Homeschool Schedule You Can Stick to

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The second concern I have seen is a mindset that unless we school 5 days we are not really schooling or that we could get behind.  Maybe this idea stems from the fact that we are pressured to conform to the schedule the workforce is keeping.

Clearing my mind of how I thought school was suppose to happen, I set out to do what was best for my family.I do want to mention too that the ages of your children makes a difference in shaping your viewpoint on adopting a homeschool schedule. Having homeschooled from the beginning when all of my kids were little and having no help with the housework gave me the power to move against the norm.

Balancing the weeks we needed to school with the needs of my family took priority.

Advantage of 4-day Homeschool Schedule

Look at some of the advantages of a 4-day homeschool schedule.

When I switched, I maintained more consistency.

Nothing sets back a homeschool year more or builds resistance quickly in a child then to constantly start and stop because you get behind on housework or are just worn out from the constant grind.

When we started a 4-day homeschool schedule, the days were more full and my weeks more consistent because I didn’t start my week depleted of physical energy.

The quality of my teaching went up.

If you are the kind of person that can proceed forward with the house somewhat messed up (I promise I tried hard to do this year after year), I am still learning to follow your relaxed manner.

This is something that can’t be ignored when you are homeschooling.

Either you are more relaxed about your surroundings not as tidy or you are not as forgiving about a messy atmosphere. There is no right or wrong on this because as moms we are wired differently. It is just what is right for your personality.

I realized right away that I could not function when I felt chaos existed in my home. The measuring point is if it hampers and paralyzes you from giving your children 100 percent for the day then it needs to be addressed.

When my mind was heavy with thinking about things I have to still do in the house, it did not make me the kind of teacher I wanted to be.

Instead of thinking it wasn’t important to have my mind relatively free of stress, I embraced my need to have things organized before I started my day.

I used Mondays for cleaning, to have a slower start to my week, to get some of my cooking done, and to look over my lesson plans for the week.

Your week ends or begins on a positive note each month and that triggers a sticking power to homeschooling.

Homeschooling Tuesday through Friday like I did for many, many years or homeschooling Monday through Thursday gave me more control over my time.

It propelled me through each year because I took time on the front end of the week to prepare for school. It ended up being a power booster to keep on homeschooling.

There was a plan for the unexpected.

Another surprising advantage was that I planned for the unexpected.

I find this ironic because I love to plan, but I never gave myself an option for the unexpected in my life.

If I was running a public school classroom this would make no difference, but I am not.

Being at home where life happens, I was more organized because I didn’t have every moment of my life planned.

Feelings of being behind and stressed out that we were not covering what we needed to started to fade.

The bottom line was I had wiggle room in my schedule each week.

Dad’s schedule and support is important.

Though a majority of the teaching was always done by me, it was important to me that when my husband’s scheduled changed that we could spend more time together.

For a good part of our homeschooling journey, he had a set work schedule.  But there were many times during the years that our business was slow and he took advantage of spending that time with us.

Having a 4-day week lesson plan always ready, it didn’t matter which day we took off.  We always had a day to spend with dad because our week did not have every day planned.

Dos and Don’ts of a 4-Day Homeschool Schedule

Look at some of these dos and don’ts when switching to a 4-day homeschool schedule.

Don’t cram 5 days into 4 days. 

Avoiding stress is my goal and so cramming 5 days of lessons into 4 days of school is not a doable plan to keep you homeschooling for years.

This may be good for one or two years if you need it, but it is a recipe for exhaustion if you implement it for many years.

Schooling year round made my 4-day homeschool schedule doable.

Just relax and plod along and remember that schooling year round doesn’t mean you can’t have off weeks or months. They are just spread out during the year so that the time off fits your family.

Do decide how to use the day off.

Deciding to switch to a 4-day homeschool schedule only works if you value the reason you are switching.

For me, because all the children were little and I had very little help with the housework and in running our business, I knew I needed a day at the beginning of the work week to unwind when the Mr. was back at work.

I wanted a slower start to the week and doing that gave me momentum for during the week.

Though I say it was a day off, it ended up turning into a day of relaxed housework and savoring my lesson planning time.

As the kids grew and got older, I had them cleaning the house after school.  We still kept a 4-day schedule but started taking off Fridays.

We used that day for field trips, shopping, swimming or just enjoying the slow days of summer or beautiful weather in fall.

Again, I find it amusing how life and homeschool has turned out now as I look back.

Though I say I followed a 4-day homeschool schedule, my kids still did many educational activities, though unplanned by me on our day off.

They ended up watching educational movies, doing a project, or even if it was just playing outside and in the dirt, they were still investigating, exploring and learning.

A lot of weeks, I counted our day off as homeschooling because of some of the projects the kids would find to do.

Do write our your schedule and study it.

I am a huge advocate of writing it all out because seeing where your homeschool year starts and ends keeps your goals clear in mind.

Too, you are not bothered with the hype of homeschool schedules because you have set a pace that works for your family.

Don’t worry that your stress free schedule seems effortless. Do you really need complicated homeschooling?

Homeschooling is complicated enough. There is no need to constantly question ourselves because we don’t have all the struggles everybody else is having.

Finding your groove to homeschooling can be not only fulfilling, but painless.

Managing your time means to make your time more meaningful while maintaining spontaneity.

A 4-day homeschool schedule was key to not only maintaining my house suitable for us to live in, but advancing to more rigorous academics.

Sitting down to begin our week, we were armed with a full day of activities, rested, and ready to learn!

What about you? Are you still struggling with a schedule that works for your family?

Should You Switch to a 4-Day Homeschool Schedule?

You also love these other tips:

Hugs and love ya,

Should You Switch to a 4-day Homeschool Schedule @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus