Homeschooling and Juggling Life
‘Most people think you have to give up so much to homeschool… in reality, you gain so much more’ - simplylivingforhim.com
Once you’re in the throughs of homeschooling, it can be a hard adjustment in figuring out how your life actually fits into it all.
With wanting to give your child the best education, proving to all those who said you were crazy to make such a decision, it can be difficult managing your own life.
Before having kids, or when your child was in school, it was no problem to take an afternoon off, or be flexible to leave certain things to later in the day.
But as a mum who homeschools, this can be near to impossible to do. Your life is not as flexible, and if you think you’ll have time in the evening to play catch up, then think again. Sorry my dear, but tiredness will let your ass know that it’s won.
Finding the balance between the two is tricky as you don’t want to be too rigid in your daily structure however you need to have some flexibility with how the day will unfold.
Throughout my experience of homeschooling, I have been at both ends of the scale. Being so rigid to the point of exhaustion, just so I can keep up with what my perception of what my child should be learning - to being too flexible that my child wasn’t completing the school day.
When you first start homeschooling, especially if your child has been in the education system, you put a lot of pressure on yourself for the school day to look a certain way. But taking this stance can put an amount of pressure on you that can make you feel like you made the wrong decision.
The doubt that you are not a teacher, that you don’t have a teachers qualification or know shit about the curriculum starts to play on your mind. The thoughts of maybe you’ve done the wrong thing - is it too late to put them back into school - am I going to mess their head up - yes you’ll go through all the feels.
Until you realise, your child learns every moment of every day.
They don’t need you to sit with them everyday, stressing them out with the semantics of long division or the facts on the Romans.
‘The beauty of homeschooling is that it can be done anywhere… even in the living room!’ - Heather Shumaker
The beauty with homeschooling is that you can adjust and reframe the education system to suit your child. Remember, the curriculum is just a guide. Every child learns differently and you’ll be surprised at the amount of work you can get through in a few hours. When a child is in school, on average they are in a class of 30 students, one teacher and possibly an LSA, with an average of 1hr per lesson. If you think about it, how much time can a teacher realistically spend with your child. And if the child is unable to grasp the topic, where is the support?
At home, you are offering 1-2-1 support. Therefore spending even 30minutes on maths is a lot more than what the child would’ve grasped at school.
The other bonus is that structured sessions at home can happen any day, any time. With being more relaxed with homeschooling, some days we start at 9am, other days we start at midday. Our hours throughout the days vary, depending on the subject, how much she can do independently and what I have on.
We can make up time on the weekends and evenings, if need be. We take educated trips, and we tie learning into our daily conversations. This way, it doesn’t feel like learning.
It’s all a matter of perspective.
Being more relaxed and laid back in this process has allowed me the space to be able to juggle my personal life a lot better. Where I assumed I would never have time for myself, I am now sitting in a coffee shop, writing, whilst she is at a Home Ed Musical Theatre and Drama class.
This way of life is also opening her eyes to the fact that we don’t have to conform to societies structures. We have the freedom to create our own lives and learn in ways that suit us best.
Juggling your life when homeschooling can be tricky at first, because what you’ve mapped out in your head is nothing compared to the reality of how things actually unfold.
The best way forward is to be open and flexible in your approach. This is key to successfully managing your life and your child’s education. If you have deadlines, then be realistic to what time you can allocate to getting this done. Maybe you skip cooking dinner that evening, or the housework gets put on hold.
Either way, the sooner you can be flexible to how you need to work, the easier the process will be.
‘It takes nothing to join the crowd . It takes everything to stand alone.’ - Hans F. Hansen
Peace & Blessings,