wordsfromcris

Working from home is one thing but working from home and  homeschooling your child/children is something completely different.  

Most people, at one point or another, ask the question, “How do I balance it all?” Well first thing first, take a deep breath and relax. Then you must assess the situation that you’ve found yourself in, make a schedule and stick to it. 

Make a list of goals that you want to accomplish. Answer the questions, “Why do I want/need to work from home?” and “Why do I want/need to homeschool my child/children?”. Take a look at your goal list and begin to work out a plan to accomplish these goals.

Let’s say that you want to make x amount of dollars and that you will need to work four hours a day to accomplish this. In addition to your work goals, Little John needs to school for five hours a day in order to meet the homeschool requirements and to actually learn something. You’re up to 9 hours in your day. However, you must also squeeze in housework time, dinner time, play time, spousal bonding time, bath time, etc. Whew, you have a busy day ahead of you and we’re just getting started. Now, calculate a rough estimate on the number of hours you need to spend each day doing the general household duties. For blogging purposes, we’ll say that you need an additional four hours to accomplish these things. We’re up to thirteen hours in your busy day.

Stay calm, you’ll get through this. On a sheet of paper, daily planner, or some sort of scheduler write down the hours of the day and make out your schedule. Here is an example to get you started:

6:00 a.m.- Rise and shine. Have your coffee, brush your teeth, watch the news, etc.

6:30 a.m.- Begin your work day. Check email, make out your to do list, get some work done, etc.

8:00 a.m.- Rise and shine, kids. Time to get ready for school. Make and eat breakfast, prepare for the school day, etc.

9:00 a.m.- School begins. Teach, teach, teach. Study, study, study.

12:00 p.m.- Lunch! Everyone’s starving. Prepare and eat lunch. Give the kids a recess and/or down time. Take this opportunity to do the dishes, rotate laundry, take out the garbage, whatever you have time for.

1:00 p.m.- Return to school. Finish up anything that wasn’t accomplished during the morning session.

3:00 p.m.- School ends. Kids are free. Take thirty minutes to an hour to prepare for the next school day.

3:30 p.m.- Back to work. Work, work, work. Don’t forget to take breaks to check on the kids.

4:30 p.m.- Play with the kids. Prepare dinner. Use the rest of the evening to bond with your family, get some more housework completed, and perform bath time and bedtime routines. You may be able to squeeze in a little work time if everyone is occupied with other activities.

8:30 p.m.- Kids are in bed. Back to work. Work, work, work.

11:00 p.m.- Your work should be completed by now. Off to bed. 

You may want to take Saturday for family day or house cleaning day and take Sunday off. Do absolutely nothing on Sunday but what you want to do.

It’s a tough road you’ve decided to travel but with the right schedule and a “can do” attitude, your journey will be much smoother.