Homeschooling is quite a chore. It requires a plan. We, the parent/teacher, have to know what we’re going to teach in order to be effective educators. So, we plan. Some homeschool mommas are strict planners. They plan their days in time blocks – 9:00=math, 9:45=spelling, etc. Some homeschoolers have a flow, but it isn’t set to a timed schedule. They move from one subject to the next as the previous one is completed. Others have a list of things to be accomplished in a day, but the order isn’t important to them as long as things get done.

When I started out, I was a strict planner. When we headed out to enjoy story time at the library, we schooled later in the day so I could check everything off of my planner page. If someone got sick, I went into a tailspin, because it threw us off schedule. Thirteen years later, I have more of a flow. We have a list of what needs to be done in a day, and we just move from one thing to the next in an orderly manner. 

 

No matter which type of planner you are, it can be difficult to readjust your expectations when life happens. What do you do when the kiddos get sick? Worse yet, what if mom is sick? What if your dawdler takes two hours to do math leaving no time to do grammar? Flexibility is the key to homeschool sanity!

How to Have a Flexible Homeschool Schedule

Make a checklist of what has to be done. 

Over the summer, I put all of Emma’s lesson on a quarter planner for each subject. This allows me to see at a glance what each subject looks like on paper. I get a visual of how much time it will require to complete each program. From there, I can see which subjects need to be done daily, and which can be done 2-3 days each week. Then, as I plan for the upcoming week or month, I go to my quarter planners and plug the lessons in to our weekly lesson plan. I consult the calendar to determine where I need to schedule less work – for co-op or field trips – or where we can work a little longer in the day – Fridays, if necessary. 

Get ahead to allow time to slow down.

Last month, my daughter auditioned for a big ballet performance that will be take place in February. She was offered two roles in the ballet! While we’re excited, it also means double the rehearsals. However, she still has commitments to her home studio that she must stick to, as well. That means, she’s going to be one busy girl! Knowing her rehearsals will start in January – at the same time she starts beefing up rehearsals at her home studio for competition season – we have readjusted her homeschool schedule from now until then. We are working hard to get as far ahead as we can in her lessons so that we can slow down in January. She’s going to be one tired young lady due to the extended dance schedule, and we’ll have to cut our days a little shorter to accommodate her rehearsal schedule. But, if we work diligently now to get ahead, we can slow down in January/February and still get her lessons completed before summer. 

It’s okay if you don’t cover it all right now. 

Whether you are dealing with illness, a new baby, or an unexpected opportunity {like the chance to perform with a professional ballet company}, it’s okay if you don’t complete every lesson in every book this year. This was something I really struggled with at the beginning of my homeschool journey. The public school teacher in me wanted to finish all of our texts. However, I knew deep down that public school teachers don’t typically finish any book they teach from. So, I quit pushing myself – and my kids – to finish them all. Sometimes, we’ll work as far as we can and shelve the book for good. We move on to the next book the next year and know we’ll fill the gaps along the way. Other times, we’ll just pick up where we left off when the new school year starts. 

We have the freedom of flexibility in our choice to home educate our children. Let’s capitalize on that freedom and quit stressing ourselves out. We don’t have to be slaves to our schedules. We can make them work for us! How do you keep flexibility in your homeschool schedule?