Flexibility is the key to homeschool sanity! Don’t be a slave to your schedule. Learn how to make your homeschool schedule work for you.

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.

Fifteen years later, I have more of a flow. I have learned how to have a flexible homeschool schedule, because it suits Emma better.  She has a daily planning page with all of her assignments on it. She works with me in the morning for spelling tests, oral grammar lessons, and Bible study. Typically, she tackles her independent work after lunch.

Flexible Homeschool Schedule

No matter which type of planner you are, it can be difficult to adjust 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!

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. I can also see where we can work a little later, if necessary.

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Get ahead to allow time to slow down.

Last year, Emma auditioned for a big ballet performance that took place in February. She was offered two roles in the ballet! While we’re excited, it also means double the rehearsals some of which forced us to end our school days early.

At the same time, she still had commitments to her home studio that she had to stick to, as well. That meant, she was one busy girl! Her ballet rehearsals would start in January – at the same time she started beefing up rehearsals at her home studio for competition season. So, we adjusted her homeschool schedule from October to January.

We worked hard to get as far ahead as we could in her lessons so that we could slow down in January. I knew she was going to be tired due to the extended dance schedule, and we’d have to cut our days a little shorter to accommodate her rehearsal schedule. Because she worked diligently to get ahead, we were able to 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 before summer break. 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!

Resources for Homeschool Moms

Below, I’ve featured just a handful of how to homeschool books that will help you plan your homeschool year. You should be able to find them at your local library or bookstore. If you can’t find them locally, you can click each image cover to purchase them on Amazon.

 

Creating Homeschool Balance – “Creating Homeschool Balance” will help you understand what balance looks like, feels like, and how to create it. 

Your Goals This Year – No matter which kind of homeschool parent you are, this book will help you understand the stages of homeschooling high school, put you on the path to success, and keep you from feeling overwhelmed. You can homeschool through high school, and here are the tools to help you.

Scheduling: The Secret to Homeschool Sanity – When you homeschool, it’s important to take time to plan and rest, and not just work, work, work! Using schedules in your homeschool can help you avoid burnout.

Your turn:

How do you keep flexibility in your homeschool schedule? 

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