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How to Make Yourself a Morning Person When Homeschooling (Do You Really Need to Wait until the Afternoon to Homeschool?)

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How to Make Yourself a Morning Person When Homeschooling (Do You Really Need to Wait until the Afternoon to Homeschool) Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Homeschool families have varying circumstances and waiting to the afternoon to homeschool works for some families.

However, instead of adding one more thing to your added responsibilities by telling you that mornings are best, I want to show you how to seize your day by being sure you are getting the best start.

How to Avoid the Stress of Running and Rushing

So today, I want to share how to make yourself a morning person when homeschooling.

I hope too that just because I do my best work at 5:00 a.m. that you won’t hold that against me because my perfect homeschool morning routine bombed when Mr. Awesome 2015, my night owl was added to my day.

So if you’re like me and absolutely love the mornings, but have children who do not share your same “radiance” in the morning, then maybe a tip or two will help them too.

Forget the Complete Breakfast.

Though I am ready to rumble and that means a pretty hardy breakfast right when I get up, my run from the morning son is almost sick to his stomach when he wakes up.

Did I mention that is not the time for explanations about low blood sugar or needing to be refueled?

I learned that while he was hungry, a big breakfast early only seemed to slow him down.

Instead, a light meal like a yogurt, banana and blueberry smoothie (his favorite) was just enough to help him get past the morning sickness.

Because he didn’t want me asking him questions in the morning, I suggested that he dump the ingredients in the blender the night before.

All he had to do was push a button in the morning and he had it ready. No conversation with me was needed.

10:00 or 10:30 a.m. is STILL Morning Time.

Another thing I had to accept was that it was okay for him to start later after I did with the other boys.

Some days we are ready to start by 8:00 a.m., but Mr. Awesome 2015 did not do his best work at that time.

Instead of fighting his natural design to a slower start to the day (wouldn’t want it done to me), I realized that starting even at 10:00 to 10:30 a.m. is still a great start to the day.



So if you have several children that require more time in the morning and your household runs better by a later start, 10:30 a.m. is still a morning routine.

If your child is real young and needs you to start his day, but you know that he is absolutely not a morning person, then plan for a read aloud.

As he grows older, he will appreciate the fact that you allowed learning at his peak time.

Subject Matters.

Another thing I learned about helping homeschoolers who fought to focus in the mornings was to start with lighter homeschooling subjects.

Normally, I suggest tackling the hardest subjects first in the morning when you’re fresh and motivated.

That same advice does not work for night owls.

Even meaningful conversations with your children while you sip your brew, which morning people normally do after school or in the evenings can fill your morning and it still counts as homeschooling.

Too, instead of assigning harder subjects first, which most morning people tackle first, assign subjects that your children can do independently.

This gives you more time to wake up and for the morning time to pass peaceably while your children start their day slowly.

If your child is not a morning person, support them by helping them to organize their subjects by getting a slower start too.

Save the hard subjects to tackle when they come alive like later in the afternoon.

Do You Homeschool When the Sun Rises Sets?

If you do have children that are morning people and can work independently of you, let them start their day. Morning people need their time to start when it’s best for them too.

However, just make a simple rule for you, which is that all questions will have to wait until after lunch or later in the morning.

Find the Sweet Spot – Compromise.

Just be sure to answer the questions of your child that is a early riser right away, like early afternoon. Don’t wait to the evening to help a child who thrives with the morning time because that is akin to you feeling absolutely sick in the morning and not wanting a person to say a peep to you.

Early afternoon to mid-afternoon is the perfect compromise time for both morning and night owl folks to meet half-way.

Homeschoolers homeschool for all sorts of reasons from health related problems, gifted learners, secular homeschoolers to faith based homeschooling. And sometimes that means starting later in the day.

It’s hard to set up hard and fast rules for all circumstances, but you do want to set up a measuring standard for what your family is accomplishing for the day.

How Do You Measure Success?

For example, I encourage you to homeschool as early as you can and make it first in your day, whatever that time is for your family.

Interruptions can happen the longer the day goes on and by starting as soon as you can, distractions can be minimized and time learning maximized.

Many homeschoolers struggle with getting in the basics for the day because they didn’t gauge how much time they actually need in the morning.

Finding the time for your family and sticking to it is key to having a fuller day.

What time do you start your homeschool day?

Hugs and love ya,

Should You Switch to a 4 Day Homeschool Schedule?
How to Create a Homeschool Schedule that You Can Stick To
The Sticking Power of a Homeschool Schedule

Don’t Forget to Follow My Keep You Homeschooling Board

Follow Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s board Keeps you homeschooling on Pinterest.

 

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

Stop the Homeschool Time Drain!

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

Because we genuinely care about raising well-rounded children, we are constantly analyzing our homeschool approach, poring over how-to articles and are trying to think of creative ways to connect with more homeschoolers.

We never want to be one of those homeschoolers.  You know the ones that didn’t socialize our kids.

The “art of socialization” is a never ending topic in the homeschool world.

I am not even going to go there about the hotly debated term of socialization because I’ll leave that when I have had more caffeine.

Today, I want to encourage you to think about the stress we bring on ourselves when we try to adopt this world’s view about our children needing socialization.

Are Your Homeschool Activities Losing Value?

How do you stop the homeschool time drain when you are connected with more groups, homeschoolers and co-ops than you would like to be at this time in your journey?

In our quest to raise our kids in the real world, we can take on more than we should when it comes to homeschooling activities.

Justifying our demanding schedule in the name of learning and homeschooling can lead us down a road where we are reacting instead of being proactive about our schedule.  Have you lost control?

Finding homeschool balance is not easy and it’s normal somewhere in our journey to be over involved with outside activities.  Finding the exact number of activities that enrich your year instead of encumber it is what counts.

For example, the time I had when my household was younger with preschoolers and toddlers was a terrific time for outside enrichment.

Not only did going to Kindermusik (music classes for babies, toddlers and early childhood) nurture my sons’ readiness for learning, but it was a way for me to educate myself about child development and to make lifelong friends with other homeschooling moms.  I didn’t realize that of course at the time.

When my son got to high school age and before Mr. Senior 2013 was driving on his own, his need for visiting with other young men his age, his need for fulfilling some of my class requirements in high school and his desire to look for a job made for more demands on my time for outside activities.

Stop the Homeschool Time Drain! It's not easy to manage your time with so many outside activities to do. Look at how one seasoned mom did it!

Gauging how much time to spend outside the house is not easy.

Look at these points that can be used to help you take control back of outside activities.

  • Return on your Time.  What value are you getting from the outside activities?

If your goal is for your children to have more homeschooling friends, then is taking a private class worth the investment right now?  The class has to be weighed against several factors to see if it’s of value at this present time.

For example, if you have several children and they are all very young, then would an active group with a regular park day be a better investment of your time than an activity for one child?  Don’t make decisions based on mommy guilt.

The more kids you have the harder it is to satisfy their individual needs.  I am not discouraging you from doing this, but I am encouraging you to try to meet whatever your goal is for the current year.

I do know this and that is the older kids get, the easier it is to meet their individual needs because you have help in getting out the door, help with the house and even have supper cooked for you on certain days by your teens.

  • Alternating Activities = Sanity-Sparing.  Also, as kids get older, they really don’t care how many siblings they have when it comes to a class or hobby they want to take.

One reason we are homeschooling is to explore unique educational opportunities for each child.  To balance one child’s needs with the needs of the other family members can be downright puzzling.

When I got to the point in my journey when each son wanted different classes, I came up with another solution.  I alternated their classes each week.

I cannot tell you how much stress this relieved, but also how effortlessly it worked.

Though it took more time on my part working out a new schedule other than the one suggested by the different teachers, each of my sons were delighted to be taking classes that interested them and I was glad I was able to control how much time we were away from the house.

Raising Selfless Children in a Selfish World

It worked something like this.

Using Tuesday as an example, we would take art class the first Tuesday.  The next Tuesday, it would be wood working class and then back to art class the third Tuesday and so forth.

Did I mention a couple of unexpected side benefits? The cost was lower because it was spread out and the extra time in between classes allowed the boys to focus more energetically on what they were learning.

The plod along pace was a luxury that made learning about each topic more meaningful for the year.

Too, I switched to year around homeschooling and that was a perfect fit to help my sons finish the full course though it was done slower.

The key to making this plan work is to be sure you use the same weekday.

Making my schedule stick to one day outside the house in what would be otherwise be two days away from the house because the woodworking teacher wanted one son to come on Wednesdays and the art teacher wanted my other son to come on Tuesday is the sanity-sparing tip.

Be very picky in about giving up another day away from home and be very creative in how you use days away from the house.

  • Half-Day School.  Half-day classes are not just for kindergarteners.

This was my other revelation the longer I homeschooled.  If I was going to be away from the house, then I could also satisfy all of my children’s needs for unique classes if I divided up one day.

Getting two classes in on one day for different kids is not easy when they are young, but when they are older, it is easier.

The tidbit to remember here is to try to schedule first in the day the class that is more academically intensive when your child is fresh.

Mr. Senior 2013 took a writing class in the morning with other homeschoolers and then in the afternoon, I scooted by the piano teacher for music lessons for Mr. Awesome and Tiny.

When Mr. Senior 2013 was at his writing class, I headed to the library for read aloud time for my younger boys.

After traveling the distance to town, the younger boys were ready to move around and we will never forget Mrs. Lou Lou at the library because she made reading time come alive through dancing and singing.

The piano lesson in the afternoon was only about 45 minutes for the younger kids and it was time enough for me and Mr. Senior 2013 to grab a cherry limeade at our favorite drive-through restaurant, talk about what he learned without interruption from his younger siblings and to share some heart felt moments when he and I were alone.

It was hectic to get out of the house many mornings but I tried my best on minimizing stress in the morning by having their clothes laid out and trying to prep my crockpot the night before.

It has been worth every effort of both driving in the rain and sitting outside in the car in the hot sun as my sons made lifelong friends.

I finally found just the pinch of socialization we needed each week.

Finding balance with not only filling the individual needs of my sons but my need, though I didn’t always realize it at the time, for homeschool friends was not easy by any stretch of the imagination.

I tend to over do things and have to find my center of balance again.

Over homeschooling, over parenting and over socializing can drain your homeschool time.  It’s worth considering the time you spend away from home each year.

Weigh outside home activities for the return value at the present moment, be creative in alternating your children’s schedule and look at half-day activities to divide and conquer the many activities your children are clamoring to do.

What about you?

Have you figured out other ways to meet your children’s needs without sacrificing your time away from home?

Hugs and love ya,

Grab some more go juice below!

3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine

How To Create a Homeschool Schedule That You Can Stick To

The Sticking Power of a Homeschool Schedule

 

3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine

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

Because our living location is temporary right now and our homeschool routine not so routine because of our recent move to South America, I thought I would share 3 easy fixes to recharge your homeschool routine.

These are things that I keep in mind when I have a big change in my life.

Recharge Your Homeschool Routine

Too, it doesn’t take such a huge thing as a move overseas to feel defeated.  Some days when the boys were all very young, just a move from their bed to the living room was enough for chaos to follow and my well planned routine go out the window.  

You hope as they get to the teen years that it gets better.  Okay, you do get a break, but even as teens they need a recharge for their routine.

If you are feeling a bit defeated in your new routine, try these easy fixes to bring some peace back into your day.

The Challenge

Easy Fix 1.
Try a new location. 

If there is anything that can breathe life into your day, it is changing where you and your kids do school. 

The old kitchen table has stood the test of time, but sometimes we just need to pull back from it. 

Maybe you’re a rocking chair and porch type of girl. 

Give yourself some room to enjoy spending part of the day where you like to be.  Especially this time of the year when the weather is a bit cooler, you can start part of your school day outside. 

Then, when you do come inside to the kitchen table, everybody will be much more relaxed. 

If you have teens, you know they want to be in their room for part of the day.  But if you have homeschooled them from the beginning or as you do, you will find that teens still look forward to spending some of their day with you.  When Mr. Senior 2013 had those moments, we would move to the living room to read together. 

Here is our new and temporary location until we find a home.  It is just a small space in our apartment that I set up to suit them.  Tiny loves sitting on the floor to do his school anyway so he thinks this set up is just perfect..

Our makeshift school room

And then moving a few tables around in the apartment, I have set up a place for Mr. Awesome do some of his online classes.  The key is we are together and embracing a new change.

Push Back When Your Routine Gets Crowded

Easy Fix 2.
Stick with a Set Time To Begin Your School Day. 

Though I thrive with having a set time to start school, I have a lot of fellow feeling for those that feel jailed when they hear the words “time management”. 

My simple advice is this: There is nothing more important in your day than your children. 

Though I love all my family and homeschool friends, I try to remember that my children’s education has to be first in the day and not the musings of my family or friends. 

And guess what? Instead of thinking that your not a close friend or “be there for them daughter”, your family and friends, whether they support your homeschool decision or not, will respect the priority placed on time with your children.

Easy Fix 3.
Stop and Reorganize. 

Without adding homeschooling to our day, this world is enough to make us think that if we stop one moment to plan or reorganize that we will waste a time.  It is kind of funny in a way though we may not see it at the time. 

I think about all the focus we put on curriculum and not enough on the help we will get with supper, clothes washing or bill paying.

One of my back to school chores includes emptying my pantry or kitchen cabinets

One year, somehow I had hoarded collected 9 pie plates.  Not in any dinner I make would I ever make 9 pies to go with it. 

But the fact, they were taking up room in my cabinets was taking up space in my mind and weighing me down. 

It was completely stressful and a waste of time in making dinner when I would have to reshuffle those 9 pie pans each time to get the pans I needed to actually start supper with. 

Why do we do put up with tiny time zappers that turn huge over time?

You may have another room bothering you. For me, it’s always the kitchen that I make time to organize so that I save time.

A homeschool routine is not about scheduling every block or minute, but only the important ones.  Not everything on your list for the day is urgent.  It’s important, but there is a difference.

Whether you have temporary circumstances like me right now or you are feeling a bit defeated, push back when your routine gets crowded. 

Instead of planning your whole day, plan to get started.  It is so worthwhile.

Hugs and love ya,

3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine


A Day in the Life of a Homeschooler Part 1 Early Years

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

With glorious rays of sunshine and melodious sounds of chirping birds, I just knew that bright beaming faces would be eagerly greeting me each morning (ok I do tend to be over idealistic at times) ready to start school.  A day in the life of a homeschooler is different for each family, but it is also very different within a family each year as I have learned.

It’s not like you don’t know, when your children are young, that things won’t change as they grow older.  I knew, but I didn’t know.  For example, I just knew that our Bible reading routine would stay the same because it is my top priority in the day.

Getting our reading done first in the day was all that counted.  Cough, choke, sputter—it just does not work out that way and for many reasons.

Let me back up though and share a few tips that worked for me when the boys were all very young.  At the time that I started “worrying” that we weren’t starting our day early enough, my kids were 8, 6 and 2 years old.

Playing IS Learning

Swinging from one extreme to another in scheduling attempts, I think, is pretty common when you start homeschooling.  It’s not like we plan to switch around so much, but we are just trying to find a balance.

Knowing that I tended to show up as a drill sergeant (bad momma) early on in my homeschool years, I tried harder the next few years to be more relaxed.

A Day In the Life Of A Homeschooler Part 1 | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I let the kids play longer in the morning, but that ended up being more difficult for me because they just didn’t want to stop and sit down.

Finding a balance when your kids are all very young is important.  I learned to involve them in my chores as I started the  day.

Playing is learning and they needed that time each day at those early ages, but key was keeping me us on task.  So I used a timer for a few months as we learned our routine.  Okay, some of my drill sergeant mentality wasn’t too bad.  Actually the kids thought it was kind of fun coming back and checking the timer and I made sure I used it as a way to track our time and not feel stressed by it.

Too, I learned that involving them in house keeping and getting ready for the day allowed for an energy release for them, but also reminded them that it was a school day.

Look at how my day flowed then:

5:00 a.m. Mom time. I normally read, study and pray at this time and generally enjoy a few quiet moments.  I still hold somewhat to this time period in the morning.  Also, this was my time to be with toddler if he woke up then.

7:00 a.m. Kids up and time for them to wake up.  Not much time needed before the kids are ready to be active.

7:30 a.m. Breakfast and Bible reading.

8:00 a.m. or so to about 8:30 a.m. Chores, getting dressed and room cleaning.

8:30 a.m. to 8:45. a.m.  School starts. I learned that  starting sooner in the day relieved my stress of the kids getting sidetracked.  It allowed enough time for them to play for a few minutes.

10:30 a.m. Break for snack or to play.

11:00 a.m  Back to school.

11:30 – 1:30 p.m. We eat lunch early, so we broke earlier for the day.  We did more chores during this time and I made sure I decided what was for supper too and prepped it at this time too.

1:30 – 2:00 Read aloud time together.

This was the general flow of my day for many years.  But, life marches on and things change.  I will share how some things changed and why you have to change how you schedule too in part 2 of A Day in the Life of a Homeschooler.

How do you start your day each day?

Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature Trail of Tears Unit Study and Lapbook

Want to read some more?

The Sticking Power of a Homeschool Schedule

How To Create a Homeschool Schedule That You Can Stick To

Carpe Diem: Homeschool Schedule by The Day, Month, & Year.

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