Fitting it all in!

[Flowergirl159]

I am currently studying for my degree and need to devote about about 4 hrs a day to my studying. I am homeschooling my three daughters and when all is going well, I spend between 5 & 6 hours teaching them. 

My question is how do other homeschooling mothers who work or study, fit it all in? What does your look like?

 

[Melissa in Australia]

I studied full time my Bachelor of Primary Education while homeschooling 5 children. I Homeschooled from 8am to 4pm every weekday and studied my Bachelor from 7.30 pm to 11 pm every evening.

 

We hadn't become carers of the twins at this time

[Flowergirl159]

1 hour ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I studied full time my Bachelor of Primary Education while homeschooling 5 children. I Homeschooled from 8am to 4pm every weekday and studied my Bachelor from 7.30 pm to 11 pm every evening.

 

Wow! That is a great effort ? If I did that, I don't think I would get enough sleep ? I find it difficult to focus at night. With those hours, would you mind sharing when you tended to household tasks, meal prep and organising, and other things that take up time?

[Melissa in Australia]

I would get up early around 5.30 to milk the house ow, put the laundry on and tidy the house. All kids got their own breakfast. I would hang washing out during the morning. Fold laundry while homeschooling.

I had a roster for one child to help with cooking tea. So 5 nights a week there a child would cook instead of me. 

At the time all my kids played basketball between 4 and 6. Some times I refereed the games, sometimes dh would drive them in and watch them play.  

All day Saturday I would bake bread , cookies etc for the week. Sunday I would clean the house half of the day and do some reading for my studies.

it was a busy time. Life is not as busy now

[MerryAtHope]

When my kids were those ages, I was working about 10 hours per week. It's really hard to fit everything in! I would assume that something has to give. Split up chores among the kids as much as possible and accept that you won't do as much as you would normally like. I started moving my kids toward more independent learning by using workboxes. Hang in there and remember that it's only for a season. Focus on the most important subjects and household tasks. Consider year-round schooling if needed. 

[Flowergirl159]

On 5/17/2018 at 6:49 PM, Melissa in Australia said:

I would get up early around 5.30 to milk the house ow, put the laundry on and tidy the house. All kids got their own breakfast. I would hang washing out during the morning. Fold laundry while homeschooling.

I had a roster for one child to help with cooking tea. So 5 nights a week there a child would cook instead of me. 

At the time all my kids played basketball between 4 and 6. Some times I refereed the games, sometimes dh would drive them in and watch them play.  

All day Saturday I would bake bread , cookies etc for the week. Sunday I would clean the house half of the day and do some reading for my studies.

it was a busy time. Life is not as busy now

Thanks for sharing Melissa, really appreciate your insight ?

[Flowergirl159]

22 hours ago, MerryAtHope said:

When my kids were those ages, I was working about 10 hours per week. It's really hard to fit everything in! I would assume that something has to give. Split up chores among the kids as much as possible and accept that you won't do as much as you would normally like. I started moving my kids toward more independent learning by using workboxes. Hang in there and remember that it's only for a season. Focus on the most important subjects and household tasks. Consider year-round schooling if needed. 

Thanks Merry ?

Yes I love your workbox ideas! My children do work well independently and I'm very thankful for that. Some of the curriculum we have is parent intensive though, so I need to ensure that I have enough time in our week for me to sit with them for those subjects.

Currently this is what needs my time:

• AAS x3 
• Singapore Math x2
• Sonlight Read Aloud x3
• Grammar, Latin and reading with youngest

All other subjects they do independently.

We do a morning basket style together which mainly covers Bible and history. I usually allow an hour for this in the morning. Then when our day is going well, we do science together after our lunch time read aloud. We are using Apologia Anatomy. I would love to have time for all the fun extras - Shakespeare, French, Poetry, Nature Study, Art, Music. My original plan was that hour at lunchtime would cover most of these if I loop them. But that isn't happening most days.

I usually manage an hour of uni study before they wake up, then I would do some school with them then do another hour of study before lunch. Some afternoons I can manage an hour of study, so that is 3 hours by then. But to ensure that I'm covering school well with them, I need to forego my late morning hour of study.

You are right, I need to only focus on what is really important. My house has not been as tidy this year ?

 

 

[Moncha]

I would suggest combining at least two if not all 3 into one Sonlight core. 

[Milknhoney]

I work 20 hours a week.  I think the keys are: get up and begin school at a scheduled time each day, work to a schedule, have kids do whatever they can independently, and multitask where you can.

I don't have the luxury of sleeping in every morning and beginning school whenever we get around to it. We get up and must be at the breakfast table by 7:30am! I have a schedule of what times we should be doing each subject each day. I don't always stick to it absolutely, but it does help me stay on track, cut off bunny trails, or end a lesson before we're finished if needed. On Fridays I don't work and what a difference it makes starting late and not paying attention to the clock. It seems like it takes me twice as long to get through each subject when I'm not paying attention. 

Multitasking is also very important. There's no idle time. If your child is working on something by herself for ten minutes, that's ten minutes that you have to grade another assignment or go peel potatoes. 

Also go back and reevaluate the curriculum that still requires your time and see if possibly there are things your kids can do themselves - especially the older ones. For example by the end of Singapore 5B, my ds had caught on to things well enough that he started figuring out the lessons from the textbook, on his own. I stopped teaching it to him. Also by the time we did Apologia Anatomy, he did that on his own too. He read the chapter on his own and then wrote out a narration in a composition book. I gave him some direction as far as what I wanted diagrammed/illustrated. That was that. For spelling, AAS is great but I found it to be a lot more teacher intensive than necessary because both of my kids seem to catch on naturally. So I have moved to R & S, which includes phonics but is pretty independent. I just check their work and then give a spelling test at the end of the week. After grade 4, I dropped spelling entirely as a curriculum. It just seemed like a waste of time because he already knew how to spell all the words. Instead I focused on correcting & practicing misspelled words in his writing. 

My youngest still requires my attention for most subjects but there are still thing she does on her own: R&S spelling, listening to SOTW audio, pre-reading Zoology pages, the occasional NJ pages, and reviewing French flashcards. Pre-reading helps a lot. Even though we still go over it together, if she's already read through it once, she is able to answer questions more readily and we get through it all faster. Also, I work the whole day on Mondays and so both kids are totally on their own that day. So what I do is make sure whenever we come to a practice or review in Singapore, I skip it and save it for Monday. Sometimes her dad has to help her, but he is okay with that. He just doesn't want to actually teach it.