Working and Homeschooling - Are You Going Crazy Yet?
With COVID-19 keeping us all home, more and more parents are working AND homeschooling their kids. It is a delicate balance at best. Usually I feel more unbalanced than not, but I try!
I have been homeschooling my 5 kids for over 6 years and running at least one business (for a couple years 2) during that time. The first few years, I had a nanny about 15-20 hours/week still. She was amazing and actually better at teaching my kids than I was! Over those years, the time I had her faded. I needed to be the one home and in charge of their education. After about 2 years, I gave up having help at all. I was on my own, and it was not always pretty!
Other than calls, although my work took a lot of time and concentration, the timing of it has always been generally flexible. I can do 10 minutes here, 30 minutes there and 3 hours in the evening after the kids go to bed. From these 6 years of running companies and homeschooling my 5 kids, I have a few tips, but I guess my best advice is:
Be Flexible, Adjust Your Expectations and Take Care of yourself!
Helpful Tips for the Night Before:
Make reasonable goals for yourself the evening before.
Write your goals down and leave them in your workspace.
Consider organizing your work into 2 categories:
Work you can complete quickly while distracted
Work you need more time and concentration for
Get your work ready to start the night before so that when you have time for it, it is ready for you!
Have the kids make lunches and snacks the night before. This cuts down on time they “need” you during the day.
Move your workspace, if possible, to the space where your kids are working.
As much as I know this is not the best for mental and emotional health - multi-tasking is the key here!
Make a Plan - I say this because it works for most people and families. Setting certain times for certain subjects, lunch, breaks, independent work time…. This does NOT work for my family. We fly by the seats of our pants more often than not, but that works for us. If that does not work for you, make a plan and stick to it. When I make a plan, I write it out nicely, in different colors, with times and subjects and post it on the wall and then - we totally fail to follow it and all of that time planning is wasted. Do what works for you!
OR
Make a List - Now, we just have a loose list of the things that need to get done each day and cross them off if and when they get done. If they don’t, we carry them over to the next day. This works for us.
Ideas For During the Day:
Take the moments when your kids are working independently to get a few things done. But be flexible with interruption! Frankly, during school time, the kids take priority!
My kids try to remember to raise their hands when they need help rather than just blurting out, “Mom, I need help”. This allows me to quickly complete my thought and move on to them. They also know to circle their question and keep working if I can’t attend to them right away.
Set timers! (I linked my favorite one here). Timers are your friend! I set a 30 minute timer for each subject and then the kids get a 10 minute break. We sometimes run over if we are in the middle of something or really enjoying a lesson, but try not to. This keeps us all on task and allows us to get up and stretch.
Plan an activity for the kids when they are done with school, that they can do while you work. Movie, swim, ride bikes, independent craft…. Have them choose! This can be their reward for getting their work done!
When my kids go to bed, that is my time to finish anything that hasn’t gotten done. I am odd in that I want to be in bed! So, I sit in bed and finish my work. Not great for my neck or back, but it is what it is.