keeping to schedule Archives

Time Management for Homeschoolers

*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

I cheated on the planning for this school year for a lot of it, I had BookShark do all the planning for me. And I love it, the schedule and the curriculum but shiny new curriculum is hitting me, and I feel like I want to try something different. And with that in mind, I’m thinking about elements that are important, like time management.

I’m also working on getting us back into a library routine, going more consistently on a certain day of the week again instead of whenever we feel like going. It also makes for less late fees.

A Four Day Schedule

We work best right now on a four day work week. We did four day weeks before we started using BookShark, so we really lucked out there. We do school Monday and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We’re still in lower elementary grades right now so I’m not pushing long hours sitting at the table or computer just yet, because I’m a big believer in kids playing, and my oldest who is nine years old loves to build with her Lego sets and I think it’s great, she learning while doing so. My kid can put together a Lego set, following the instructions far better than I.

Our off day through the week gives us a day to relax, a day for field trips, and such. It also gives us a catch up day if need be, if someone was sick or we had to be somewhere and were unable to get to our school.

When We Do School

Our homeschool start time bounces back and forth on this one: first thing in the morning to after lunch. In the beginning of the year, right up until about Spring we tend to pick mornings for school time. Come Spring school work tends to happen after lunch. I think seeing and feeling the heat from the sun again just makes us more relaxed in the mornings and more focused in the afternoons. It doesn’t matter what time of day we start, we still follow the same routine…

Time Management Routine

The routine that works best for us, is to always start with reading. Reading from our history book, our read aloud, and then our science. These are the subjects that we do together. Our reading happens on the sofa, with a cat or dog curled up with us. Then we move on to subjects such as language arts and math, that are individual subjects.

Similar posts that you may be interested in:

Homeschool Planet - Online Homeschool Planner

Homeschooling can be stressful as can selling your house, putting them together can be more stress than you can imagine. I know that it has been extremely stressful for me, and we have barely gotten our home listed for sale. I’m not the best housekeeper, I tend to let dishes pile up through the day and just play catch up in the evening after super. Having our house up for sale has meant changing the way we do things, like housework and homeschool.

Homeschooling While Selling Your House

*This post may contain affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.*

House cleaning and homeschooling do not necessarily go hand in hand. After all your kids are home all day instead of going to school and where children wander there tends to be a mess, whether it be books or crayons, or toys or just general untidy.

Our realtor, who knew we homeschooled when we bought our home, asked if we still homeschool because I have always made an effort to keep our home looking more like a home and not like a classroom. It’s one more way that our home is going to look inviting, with lots of space, not cluttered with our junk. We want it looking perfect for potential buyers, not welcome to our classroom. We’re lucky that when we bought our home it came with an old dining room hutch as I call it that I can store a lot of our homeschool stuff in. No piles of books, papers, or other “stuff” looking cluttered.

But let’s face it, it’s not easy to keep it looking this way. Here is how we’re making it happen.

Keeping to a Schedule

A lot of viewings will be on the weekends, and in the late afternoon. Both of these options are perfect for our family because: A: Hubby will more than likely be home to lend a hand with the kids and dogs, and B: we’ll more than likely be done with our school work for the day, unless we end up on an afternoon schedule again.

Knowing people may want to come see the home without a lot of notice means I want the house to be in order. Our kids will be helping out with chores, and I’ll have to make sure that they are getting done everyday. Once I got our house to the level of tidy (and clean) I wanted it is much easier to keep it there. It is easier to have your children clean up an hour worth of untidy than all day’s worth or a week’s worth.

Homeschool on the Go

Homeschooling and selling your house at the same time may not be easy, but you can do it, and I know that we can as well, positive thinking!! Not all viewings will be during the weekends or afternoons when we have finished our lessons, for those I am keeping our homeschool lessons together in away that I can grab and go this year. One binder to grab per child (for the most part) and then we can work in the truck during showings if necessary. I have my binder of questions and answer sheets for our history and science curriculum. Plus books are super easy to grab and read while in the truck.

I have my nice BookShark tote bag to toss everything into – binders, pencils, books, etc – to make storing it in the truck easy as well as juggling everyone into the truck to leave. I foresee the leaving part to be the hardest of this whole thing!

I know that selling our house in our tiny little village is going to take time, like it takes years(!) for some of the houses to sell here. But once we have sold, I’ll follow this post up with a Homeschooling With Your House Sold and You are Moving post.