Tips for a Better Homeschool Day

We’re all looking for ways to make our homeschool days function more smoothly; aren’t we? Every year will be different, and sometimes even the days look different! However, there are certain tips I find helpful in trying to keep a more stable homeschool life.

Focus on school
When doing school, stay focused on school. It is easy to lose focus and get pulled in many directions throughout the day – thinking about housework, other responsibilities besides homeschooling, hobbies, social media, etc. Keep your focus on the school day and its needs.

Be available for your kids
During school hours, we need to make ourselves available to our children. They are our priority.

Schedule chore times
Since you are in your house all day, it is easy to see piles, messes, and dirt and want to run off to fix these things. Try to establish chore times that work for you. Separate them into various time slots or days, lump them together into one time slot for each day, or do all of your chores on one day, like Saturday. If you can, complete a chore in the morning, before school, so you feel like you did something before your school day started.

Maximize your mornings and evenings
What we do with our mornings and evenings greatly affects the course of our days. We can accomplish things in the morning that make us feel good as we start our school days, and we can prepare well in the evenings for the next day so we don’t feel so swamped starting a new day.

Keep up with checking and grading
If you allow schoolwork to pile up and not be graded or recorded for a long time, you will feel overwhelmed. Establish good habits and routines for staying on top of checking and grading work.

Simplify breakfasts & lunches and/or prep food at night
Meal preparation and clean-up can take good chunks of time out of our day. If we can simplify food options for breakfast and lunch, especially, we will save ourselves time. If you are making more time-consuming meals, make provision for that in your schedule and try to prep as much food as you can in advance. If your children are old enough, train and allow them to make some of the meals.

Try to keep a positive attitude
When our homeschool days go awry, it can be difficult to maintain a positive attitude. Negativity and discouragement, however, will rob us of precious energy and moments in our days. Do whatever you can to remain positive.

Have a great homeschool day!

Linking up with Teach Me Tuesday at “Growing Home” and Thrive at Home Thursday.