Living in a society that is more connected than ever before with smart phones, tablets, and computers, those devices have made life easier than it did for our parents. Unlike our parent’s time though, demands on our time have not lessened. Life now is more frantic and fast-moving than ever before.
When Time Gets Slipping Away
In the beginning of my homeschool journey, we didn’t have as many time saving devices as we do now.
Now, in the latter part of my journey, we have many conveniences at our fingertips, but I still find it hard to make time to homeschool. Can you relate?
Today, in sharing how to homeschool if you don’t have time, I want to share a few sanity-saving tips that have helped me to have forward momentum.
Remain schedule focused.
Come what may in terms of apps, planners and devices, my schedule is the only thing I have control over. And in the spirit of keeping it real, I’m not talking about controlling those moments in life that just happen. I do mean that success happens when your schedule becomes a habit.
Hard is an understatement for training wiggly, active and low attention span boys to learn study habits. But as S L O W as my progress was some days, I cut out time from other things to maintain our schedule.
If I am on the computer, on the phone or still cleaning when it was time to start school, I am not modeling the right study skills for my boys when they are young.
It’s a SWEET payoff now that I am down to the last kid and he starts school on his own while I enjoy extra coffee time, extra time on a walk or on the phone.
My boys have been trained to get started for the day by me modeling what I wanted from them. All I can think of now is back to the time when I started homeschooling and seasoned homeschoolers would say the time goes by fast. It does!
By taking time to model what you want first in the morning, you are freeing up thousands of sweet moments later. It’s been worth every effort of sticking to my schedule!
I demanded chores to be done.
In this world of don’t-require-anything-of-me-because-you-might-break-my-free-spirit attitude, I rejected that thinking and stuck to my guns when it was time to do chores both for the family and individually.
The home is a place shared by many individuals and doing a few chores every morning has been one key to maintaining sanity. The important tip though has been accepting a kid cleaned house and getting started for the day.
Not so easy to do when you want to go behind your kids and do it again yourself to be sure it’s done right. That is the difference between success and failure.
Consistency is the key to homeschooling and parenting (you know the two concepts are inextricably linked) and I want my sons to be the kind of people that other people want to be around and have as friends and marriage mates later.
Considerate, clean and being conscientious are skills learned when chores are required.
Counting the Cost of Trivial Time Pursuits
Did I mention the feel good moment when your adult son’s room mate says your son is one of the best room mates he has had? This gives me a good glimpse into how he is around others when I’m not around. You respect others when you keep your surroundings clean.
Don’t be always ready to share your time with others in trivial things.
It may sound harsh, but like any long term career there is a cost to homeschooling that goes beyond dollars.
Some, not all, homeschoolers are the social kind that needs interaction with friends on a daily basis.
While homeschooling is not asking you to make a choice between your kids sand your friends, it is about making your kids priorities. Especially if friends are non-homeschooling friends, they may not understand why you may decide to not exercise your homeschool freedom right then by visiting or running errands with them.
Be willing to limit your time on devices too.
I don’t ask my boys to do something that I am not willing to do.
Many times throughout the years, I have been tempted to slip away to check email or texts while my boys are busy writing. When they were young, it was more important that I did not do that. Now that my baby is in high school, I have more time to do things like that.
By limiting my internet time in the beginning, my sons learned to do what is important first.
Not getting caught up in the hype of frantic living takes effort nowadays.
Turning off the TV and sitting down in the floor like we still do to play a family board game is a battle, but once we get started, it’s hard to stop our family time. Homeschooling is no different and requires just as much effort today.
Don’t get caught up in the fast-paced, more is better attitude that can saturate our lives right now. Knowing that you made each morning a priority in learning brings sweet peace and progress.
How do you shove back when your life becomes hectic?
Hugs and love ya,
Also, grab some tips from these articles:
Stop the Homeschool Time Drain
Divide And Conquer The Ever Growing List of Homeschool Subjects
The Sticking Power of a Homeschool Schedule
3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine
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