3 Mistakes to Avoid When Creating a Daily Schedule
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Have you been trying to create a daily homeschool schedule? It’s hard to create the perfect daily homeschool schedule for your family, especially one that works.
Because people keep making the same mistakes that destroy their schedules on the first day.
Mistakes to Avoid When Creating a Daily Schedule
So if you’re creating a daily homeschool schedule, you’ll want to avoid these three horrible mistakes that make you look dumb.
No Margin in Your Day
The first mistake is to create a schedule that has no margin in your homeschool day.
Margin is the extra give time you include in your day. It’s the time that gives you room to breathe. Room to change a diaper, stick a bandaid on a skinned knee, or just pour yourself a cup of coffee.
Now I know it’s tempting to say that language arts should take 30 minutes and so you allot 30 minutes for language arts.
But we’re moms. To put it bluntly, we’re homeschool moms.
You’re going to be interrupted. The kids will fight. Your preteen will have an urgent math question. The toddler will unroll the toilet paper in the bathroom.
Interruptions are a fact of life for homeschool moms!
So you need margin in your daily homeschool schedule.
But how much margin do you need? I’ve found I need about 5 minutes for every 30 minutes or 10 minutes for every hour.
It’s just a bit of cushion room to give me space to breathe.
Time to change a diaper. Time to mop up a spill. Or time to explain a math problem.
One way I add margin to my day is to figure homeschooling will take 3 hours, so I add an extra 30 minutes to hour homeschool time period.
It’s a simple method, but it gives me the time I need to deal with the small crisis of life.
So as you’re going through making your schedule, make certain you’re adding a few minutes of margin to your schedule.
When Creating a daily schedule Include Time for Yourself
Moms make the dumb mistake of never planning time in the day for themselves and their needs.
As a mom of six kids, I can tell you it’s easy to get caught up in the day and forget that you’re a person too.
You need time to recharge. Time to enjoy a hobby. Time to read a book. And time to pray. And time to simply sit with a cup of coffee and be.
So I’m going to ask you, have you included time for yourself when you created your daily schedule?
Or are you planning to do office work during nap time? Run the kids to all their activities. Make dinner. Teach math. Reading history. Spend time chatting with your husband. Clean the kitchen. Put everyone to bed and then fold laundry.
Homeschool moms are busy. It’s a fact of life!
But at the same time, we need to care for ourselves. We plan time for ourselves otherwise it’s not going to happen.
We’ll be too busy dealing with a crisis!
So choose a time to dedicate to your needs.
Use the quiet time for yourself. Send the kids outside. Ask your husband to read a book aloud to the kids. Get up early. Grab a few minutes after the kids go to bed.
The time doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you get the time you need to recharge. Care for yourself.
To make time for yourself.
Too Many Outside Activities
Another mistake many people make when creating their daily homeschool schedules is to include too many outside activities.
Now I’m not telling you to avoid all outside activities, but outside activities take you away from home.
Outside activities make it harder to get your daily homeschool work finished because you’re constantly having to rush out the door.
And too many outside activities make it more likely that your daily homeschool schedule will fail, simply because you don’t have the time and space at home to homeschool or breathe.
But on the other hand, I’ve found my kids are motivated to get their schoolwork done in a timely manner on the days we do have outside activities.
So what I recommend is to keep your mornings clear of all outside activities and appointments. No dentist appointments. No doctor visits. And no driving lessons.
Instead, dedicate that time to homeschooling.
But set a time in the afternoon after which you’re free for outside activities.
This year it’s 2 pm at my house. We’re free after 2, although I prefer to schedule activities and events at 2:30 to give us the margin we need to leave the house calmly. Sorta. Leaving the house with kids, even preteen kids, is never a calm event!
But that being said, choose your outside events wisely.
Because it’s too easy to get caught up adding activity after activity and ending up with no time or energy to actually homeschool your kids.
Remember, keep from making dumb mistakes that will derail your daily homeschool schedule before it gets started.
Make certain you have margin in your day to handle life’s daily crisis. Ensure that you’ve made time for yourself so you can recharge your own batteries and better care for your family. And avoid doing too many outside activities.
When you avoid these three mistakes, you can create a thriving daily homeschool schedule!
These are such good tips. It has taken me 9 years to learn these. Of course our homeschool has evolved through the years, but at this point planning in with margin in mind and keeping mornings sacred, free of any appointments or commitments, has made our homeschool a success where we would have failed otherwise. My time for me seems to have been taken by a nursing baby. That’s when I unwind. I am enjoying this time to rest (because that’s all I could do right now), but I look forward to the day that I can take that time all for me.
Hi Francheska, I’m thrilled to hear that your homeschool is a success this year! Homeschooling with babies is challenging. 🙂