You Need to Simplify Your Homeschool Day

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Are you drowning?

Then let me tell you, nothing is worse than following all the well-meant homeschool advice only to discover your schedule has you running around town all day, every day. You’re stressed. You’re exhausted.

You need to simplify your homeschool day!

I’ll be honest, homeschooling provides a wonderful opportunity to join various activities. Activities like field trips, sports, dance classes, music lessons, and co-op classes. And it’s tempting to add too many activities.

But the beauty of homeschooling is building a home for your family. Having time to sit down, read, and discuss good books.

And if you’re running around all day, you don’t have time to read and discuss good books.

Instead, you’re rushing through breakfast. Rushing through chores. And rushing through the homeschool.

Personally, I think it’s a disease that’s running through society right now. After all, if a little is good, then more must be better. So you need to add more activities, more organized events, and more field trips to your week.

You need to go, go, go!

Now I’m not saying that homeschooling means you’re stuck at home. No, you’re free to join activities. Go play with friends. Explore the world!

But keep in mind that when you’re heading out constantly, you’re wearing yourself out. And you’re using up the best part of your children’s lives rushing around town.

Then one day you wake up and discover you’re stressed. Your children are stressed. You need a better way to homeschool.

A way that doesn’t require you to be out of the house every day!

Simplify Your Homeschool Schedule

Let’s step back a moment and think about what you can get done if you simplify your homeschool day by reducing the number of activities your kids are involved with.

You’ll have time to stay on top of the housework.

Just think about it. No more digging through the laundry basket looking for clean and matching socks for your kids to wear! Instead, the socks will be neatly folded in the appropriate drawers.

You’ll have time to foster strong relationships between your children.

Kids bicker more when they’re out of the house too much. They’re too tired to get along. And why should they? Their friends are not as annoying as an adoring little brother or sister. I’ve found that cutting back on the number of activities means my kids have to get along and play well together. They pull out board games.

Just last night my older teens were playing cards in the kitchen while my youngest two played chess on the living room floor.

You’ll have time to homeschool your kids and do it well when you’re not rushing out the door at 10 am every morning.

Your kids will have time to think about their math problems. They’ll have time to ponder the water cycle. And they’ll have time to build a model of the Nile.

But in order to do that, you must reduce the number of activities your family is involved with.

You must choose your activities wisely.

Choosing Activities

I’ll be honest. It’s hard. My own family goes through cycles of doing too much and cutting back. It’s hard to say no to that extra activity. It’s hard to say no to a weekly playdate.

But you have to adjust to your family’s needs. And young kids need their families more than they need tons of activities.

My kids, right now, have about four activities a week that they’re participating in. Free swim with a few friends at the pool one afternoon a week. Park day where they play with friends at the park one afternoon a week. Swimming lessons. And church.

My high school teen doesn’t join us for swimming at the pool. Instead, he heads to a friend’s house to play games. And the result? Our schedule is full enough for the children to have friends. But it’s not so full that I’m going crazy driving the kids all over town.

We have free afternoons for history and science.

We have free afternoons to curl up and read books together.

And we have free afternoons to head outside for a nature walk.

My children and I have time to homeschool and time to add in the extras. We can add that fun art project to the afternoon.

We have time to back cookies and enjoy a long discussion about the Aeneid and the message Virgil is sending to the Roman people.

When you cut back on the number of activities, you have time for the best parts of homeschooling.

You have time to be a family.