5 Things You Can Do Today to Stay on Track This School Year

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Some years it is so hard to stay on track in your homeschool! Really hard.

All sorts of distractions at home abound! Games, phone calls, social media, and more.

So what can you do to stay on track in your homeschool this year?

1. Commit to a Homeschool Time

My first tip to stay on track in your homeschool is to commit to a homeschool time and treat it like gold.

Don’t schedule appointments during this time. Do not clean the house. Don’t head out on playdates or field trips.

Because educating your kids is important.

By setting aside time to homeschool, you show your kids that education is important enough to have a scheduled time.

It’s important enough to be a top priority for your day.

And I know that appointments, housework, playdates, and field trips are important.

But are they as important as your children’s education?

So commit to a homeschool time and stay on track this year!

My second tip to stay on track in your homeschool is to turn off social media.

Yes, I’m saying you need to stay off Instagram and Facebook during your homeschool hours. The best way to do this is to turn off or phone.

Or you can put your phone away in the other room.

Let’s face it, you hop onto Facebook for just a minute to see what’s up.

And 30 minutes later, you’ve finished going through your feed, responding to friends, and liking their pictures.

The same thing happens on Instagram.

You browse through your feed, watch a story or two, and the next thing you know, the morning has frittered away.

No homeschooling got done.

And you can’t stay on track when no homeschooling happens. It’s just not possible.

So, stay away from social media during your homeschool hours.

3. Plan Extra Days into Your School Year

My third tip to stay on track in your homeschool is to plan extra days into your school year.

There are 180 days in a traditional school year. This means you have 36 5-day weeks of schooling or 40 4-day weeks.

But have you thought about what happens if you plan a few extra days into your school year?

That gives you time!

Time to give your children an extra day to understand a topic. Time to deal with a crisis.

And the time to plan occasional days to take needed breaks and amazing field trips.

Without sacrificing your children’s education.

You can use these days as catch-up days into your school year. Or if you’re on track, you can use these days for reading & game days.

Extra days planned into the school year gives you the gift of time and makes it easier to stay on track.

4. Plan Markers in Your School Year

The fourth tip to stay on track in your homeschool is to plan markers into the school year.

As you sit down and plan your curriculum each year, don’t just figure a lesson a day and call it good.

Instead, you need to figure out where the halfway points are, the trimester points, or the quarterly points.

That’s what I do. I use a quarterly system, so I start by figuring out the halfway points of all the curricula my family uses.

Then I divide those in half to figure out where we should be at the end of each quarter.

These calculations help me know where I am in the school year. Are we on track? Are we running behind?

And if I discover that I’m running behind early in the school year, I can use one or two catch-up days to catch up on the curriculum.

It’s a lot easier than finding out in May that we still have 3 months of schoolwork left before summer break!

5. Spend Time at Home to Stay on Track in Your Homeschool

The fifth tip is to plan time at home to stay on track in your homeschool.

One of the benefits of homeschooling is the flexibility it brings.

You can take off on field trips, plan activities for the afternoon or morning, and do appointments during the time that the other kids are in school.

However, it’s harder to stay on track in your homeschool when you’re constantly heading out.

Leaving the house means you don’t have time to spend a few extra minutes explaining algebra to your teenager.

You don’t have time to curl up and read an extra chapter to your elementary kids.

You don’t have time for a spontaneous art project.

And your days end up rushed. You’re rushing to finish your schoolwork. You’re rushing out the door. And you’re rushing around town.

So plan a few days where you spend them at home.

Days when you have time to enjoy nature study. Days when you can spend the extra time reading classic children’s literature.

And enjoy the extra time where you don’t have to worry about rushing through your lessons.

And instead, you can enjoy homeschooling your kids when you know you have the time you need to stay on track.

Remember, to stay on track this school year, set school hours that you honor, stay off social media.

And plan for days at home… days you can enjoy spending time with your children without rushing out the door. Days when you can teach from rest.

What are your best tips to stay on track in your homeschool?