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time management

Time Management Hacks for Homeschool Moms

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

Do you feel at a loss for everything that you are “suppose” to be getting done each day as a homeschool mom? You are not alone. Time management seems to be just out of reach some days but how about we take our time back and make it count.

Time Management Hacks for Homeschool Moms

Time Management Hacks for Homeschool Moms

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

Homeschool moms have a lot of responsibilities on their plates and it’s easy to struggle with managing our time wisely throughout the day. After 5 years homeschooling I have learned some time management tips throughout the years that I hope will help other moms feel less overwhelmed.

First, you cannot do it all. You can’t teach all the subject each day, clean the house, and have much needed time for yourself. You’ll burn out, you’ll end up hating that you homeschool and I don’t want that.

Daily Routine

Having a routine that you follow without really thinking about it can be a lifesaver. Start by figuring out what you need to accomplish each day, and write it down in the order that you need to get it done. Have a routine for yourself, and your kids, and include the little stuff.

My early morning routine would be:

  • 30 minutes of exercise
  • drink coffee
  • check email
  • etc.

My kids routine would be:

  • breakfast
  • hair, teeth, get dressed
  • Brookland & Austin alternate math and language arts (they need no help with Teaching Textbooks)
  • Gauge starts math
  • etc.

Create lesson plan/routine that you aren’t trying to fit all subjects in in one day. We do math and language arts each day, rotating science, history, art, etc through the other days. If you’re interested in how I schedule our homeschool lessons this post gives you a little more insight.

Time Management Hacks for Homeschool Moms

Meal Planning

I am still working on this particular area. I can go through spurts of time where I know what we are having each night for supper without searching for something quick to throw together at the last minute, but not often enough.

There are great programs available to help out with this one if you want someone to completely take over and plan your meals. I use these meal planning sheets that pop into my planner, when I meal planner that is.

Have Help Around the House

Without having your kids help out around the house, you are never going to have the clean home that you want. Your kids are home more than other children, they are eating meals and snacks repeatedly through the day making more mess. Have them help clean it up too.

Make sure your kids have age appropriate chores to do around the house. This is teaching them life skills that they need to be functioning adults in the world. My kids used to get allowance for chores, but no longer do, I don’t get allowance for cleaning up either sadly.

Have your husband help out too. My husband works a full time job and still cooks supper once or twice a week. He is also the one that does bedtime more often than not.

I try to start a load of laundry each day, and Austin (10 years) switches it over to the dryer at some point through the day otherwise it would sit in the washer until the next day. I do not fold my kids laundry or socks. Each has a basket that I toss them into, yes the socks have their own basket, and when it gets full my kids match them up, matching socks is a time suck for me.

Time Management Hacks for Homeschool Moms

Avoid Time Sucks

Lastly, avoid time sucks. I’m talking about Facebook. And Pinterest. And Instagram. The places I scroll through on my phone all day long it seems. Instagram is a pretty place to hang out instead of washing floors, right?

There are only so many hours in a day and you need to sleep, and to take time for yourself so you don’t burn out. Ask for help Momma. Get your family to help out and create a schedule for lessons that are manageable.

Filed Under: Homeschool, Homeschool Helps Tagged With: Homeschool Mom, time management

Time Management for Homeschoolers

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

Everyone wonders just how homeschoolers manage to get everything done, how long it takes you each and everyday to get all the subjects done, and how many hours per week you spend homeschooling. I am in a lot of groups on Facebook for homeschoolers and I see the question all the time. How long it takes my children to get their work done each day is going to be different each day, let alone how it compares to your children. It’s all about time management in the end.

Time Management for Homeschoolers

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:

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Homeschool Binder Organization

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Homeschool Planet – Online Homeschool Planner

Filed Under: Homeschool, Homeschool Helps Tagged With: homeschool schedule, keeping to schedule, Schedule, time management

My Blogging Challenge – Time

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

Ah blogging. How I love thee, how I hate thee. It is definitely a love/hate relationship. But, for me, so rewarding. I have had experiences that never would have happened if I hadn’t started blogging or had given up on it such as

  • opportunities to meet and work with some great people
  • work with some amazing brands
  • earn a little extra for my family

While those are great, I like sharing with others. The fun that we have as a family could be the fun that another family could have because we shared it with them. Delicious recipes that we have shared or products that we have reviewed.

My Blog Challenge [Read more…] about My Blogging Challenge – Time

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: Blogging, blogging challenge, time management

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A Little About Me

I'm Ashley, a Canadian secular homeschool mom of 3, living in Nova Scotia.

I share our adventures in homeschooling and parenting.

You can usually find us at the library surrounded by books.
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