If you’re like me and countless other parents this year, you’re building a business and considering jumping into homeschooling your kids. Whether it’s only for this year or until they enter college, the whole idea seems daunting and you’re not sure how to make it all work.
One thing I’ve seen is that there’s not a ton of mom’s talking about how they run their non-homeschool-related-business while homeschooling their kids. There’s a ton of mom’s running homeschool blogs and homeschooling businesses, which is great and I’ve learned so much from them. But when your business isn’t related to homeschooling, things work a little differently. So I am sharing what I’ve learned and how I plan to schedule my day so I can homeschool while running my design business from home.
Also, I want to note that my kids are little! They are currently 3 and 5 years old. So if you’re looking to homeschool littles, I think this will be especially beneficial to you. I also can’t function enough to work at 5am or after 10pm and my kids don’t usually nap. So that’s another thing. I’m not doing the whole “work while they sleep” thing, for the most part. That’s just not possible for me.
The Schedule
This is probably the most important part to figure out if you’re as busy as me. In order to figure it out, we did a two week long test drive over the summer. I bought some cheap workbooks from Walmart and we did “homeschool”.
Through that two-week test run, here is the schedule I have figured out.
Keep in mind, this schedule is not set in stone. This is just the framework I use for each day. If my kids finish up before 11 am, I don’t give them more work unless they want to. However if they don’t finish by 11, I’m not going to take away their outside time
Why I Don’t Feel Guilty for Working
For those who feel guilty working after dinner. At first, I felt guilty for working at night too. But I’ve realized, that family time was important when my kids were at school all day. Now they spend the whole morning with me and some of the afternoon. So most of the time, the evening is used to spend some time with just dad, and that’s good for them! If I am able to finish working I definitely spend time with them, but I don’t feel guilty when I don’t anymore. Also, Friday nights is usually game night for our family so they do get that time with me.
Also, I’m not going to lie, there are times I work on the weekends too. If my kids are playing on the weekends, there’s nothing wrong with getting a little work done. Half the time they don’t even know where I am as they are so wrapped up in their own games and playing together.
Get the Schedule
I turned my schedule into a free printable! You can retype the times and activities to fit your own schedule and family needs. I printed mine and included it in the front of my planner to keep track.