CHM089: 5 Back To Homeschool Tips for Busy Moms

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Hello, hello and welcome to the Christian Homeschool Moms Podcast.

I'm Demetria, your host and it has been a good while since I've been back on mic to talk with you all and I miss you.

I miss podcasting for you and recording.

So.

So I'm back on the scene and wanting to just catch up with you and see how things have been going for you this summer.

I hope that you've had a wonderful, wonderful summer vacation or summer break.

And if you homeschool year round, I hope that you've had a great, great time with your kids this summer.

So I'm gonna be talking today about some back to school tips because for

a lot of us who don't homeschool

year round, we are coming back to school.

We're in the back to school mode.

So I'm gonna give you some tips.

Actually five back to school tips for busy homeschool moms.

A lot of us are super busy.

I think every mom I know is busy.

I don't know a mom who isn't busy.

So I think that this podcast will be applicable to any of you who are listening who happen to be homeschooling.

So.

So let's get straight into the subject of the day and I hope that this will be an encouragement to you and help you out as you enter the new year, the new upcoming school year.

If you don't homeschool year round and you did take a break, then it's kind of a transition, leaping back into things.

So let's talk about that

now.

I can barely believe that it's time to get back into school.

These past couple of months have been really, really fast.

In my last post, I talked about our summer school routine.

So I do have a post about that, if you haven't checked that out.

And the fact that although we don't homeschool year round, we definitely landed in the let's learn over the summer department.

So we were restless and the summer days have been really long and we

found some good books to get into

so we didn't do anything major.

But those semi lazy summer days for us are now coming to a very abrupt end as we say goodbye to our library summer reading program and saying goodbye to the late mornings and sleeping in, vacationing at the beach.

We've had a lot of vacationing this summer and just really a lack of routine which has kind of gotten into this, this rut, you know, just kind

of get up and get up really late and it's time to get back,

back into the swing of things for us.

And it's really hard.

And we're entering a new season of

school and the kids are older and everybody's going to a higher grade and things are just changing and they're changing rapidly.

So it starts next week for us.

In fact, at the time of this recording, we'll be starting the middle of August.

So in the spirit of understanding how busy we homeschool moms can be and how getting back into the school groove is not going to be an easy feat for some of us, I think I want to leave you with some actionable tips that you can take with you through at what may be the beginning of the school year for many of you and definitely is for us.

So here are my five back to school tips for busy homeschool moms.

My first tip is to do your best to get and stay organized.

I know it's not super easy to get organized.

I'll be the first to tell you that, much less stay organized once you get organized.

But you know, the sooner we can

get our things together for the sake of an easy school year, the better

off we're going to be and so will our kids and our husband, our family.

I tend for myself.

I tend to thrive better in an organized environment.

I think most of us do.

When I know where things should be

in the home and where they are.

A place for everything, everything in its place, my creativity really takes a huge leap for joy.

I really can start to express myself more and do things that I wasn't doing before.

I can finally live and breathe when I'm organized.

But getting organized, as you know, takes a lot of work.

It means taking assessment of where we are and figuring out how to get there.

For me, it's organizing our family mail, the bills and all the important documents for my husband.

He really likes when I try to stay on top of that and just keeping cleaning routines running smoothly for each room in our house.

That for me, it's more of my thing.

I really need to get the cleaning routines going and get it moving smoothly from room to room.

And I can't do this all by myself.

So this leads me to the next point, which is we should make the kids help and get all hands on board.

That's really important to us, especially as the kids are getting older and I have girls and these girls are growing up and they are getting tall and every time I look at them, they're getting taller and taller and I keep thinking, wow, I really have some helpful hands nearby that can do things that they couldn't do maybe five, six years ago.

They are smart, they are intelligent, and they can definitely help out with anything

that needs to be done in our home.

So if I need help, the first thing I do is I get my hands, my extra hands, my helpers on board with me.

When my girls help me cook dinner, when they do their own laundry and clean their own bathroom and bedrooms, my life becomes lighter.

And not only does it instill responsibility within my kids, but it gives me the break that I need to focus on.

The essentials for me and my husband, like keeping the other rooms in the home tidy and preparing healthy meals.

You know, those are tasks that take time to develop and manage.

And I can definitely use all the spare time I can get in order to run my home more efficiently.

So all hands on board is a must in our family.

The third thing I want to share with you about just getting back into the groove of back to school tips that can help you as a busy homeschool mom is to eliminate non essentials in your life.

And what I mean by this is really cut back on scheduling, purchasing things, and cut back on the time spent doing the things that just don't matter to you.

If it's a non essential, it may be the season for you to just let it go.

Now is the time, you know, before the hustle and bustle of school, or if you're at the beginning of the hustle and bustle, to really begin making some year long decisions up front about your values and what you'll keep or not to keep in your life.

For some people that may mean saying no to four or five extracurricular activities because travel time is driving you insane.

And for others of you it might

mean letting go of a particular curriculum

you've been holding onto because it worked for your kids for so many years, but it just doesn't work anymore.

And for maybe others of you, it might be letting go of the idea of perfectionism.

Do you absolutely have to cook three times a day?

Let's just be real about this.

Will the kids survive if they have a slice of toast for breakfast along with a boiled egg that you made maybe the night before?

Can they pour up a bowl of cereal twice a week freeing you from breakfast duty?

Could you let some of the cleaning

go and just be okay with a well lived in looking house?

Now that one is hard for me because I do have pretty high standards

about how I want my house to look.

I'm pretty picky about my living space and environment because I feel Happier when

my living space is clean and spacious

and, well, to be perfectly honest, unrealistically spotless.

Okay?

So I do have a little problem in that area, but that's just not reality.

It's not life.

It's not what we do.

Okay?

And as a homeschool mom, I've never even had the opportunity to experience spotless.

And I don't think anybody has, especially if you have kids and if you're homeschooling.

And quite frankly, I am really glad that I've not experienced spotless.

I'm glad because my kids and husband are happy.

And happy families make messes.

We also clean them up afterward, which is where I can get a little bit compulsive.

But I'm working on that.

And so the fourth tip I have for you is to toss out what does not work.

Now, this is going back to my previous statement about eliminating non essentials.

Whether it's old curriculum choices or just the way you're renting your home, if it's not working, it's time to give it a toss out the window and use your God given freedom of choice to choose something different for your family.

You can do that.

I mean, you really can do that.

It's all about exercising your freedom to choose and understanding that it's okay not to choose the same thing every single year.

We're all transitioning here.

Every family is morphing, changing from year to year.

Actually, it's like changing face.

You know, we really are transitioning from where we were five, four, three, two

years ago, a year ago.

We look different every year.

Your kids are developing and they're maturing.

And your home life should also be changing as you transition.

As you and your spouse are changing and your children are changing, the systems and the routines in your home should be transitioning right along with your family.

So is it time to get rid of an old chore chart that has not worked in months or even years?

I know I'm having that issue right now as I'm still looking at my old Melissa and Doug schedule and chore chart that we are no longer using.

So here's an idea, a bright idea.

Toss it or give it away.

When I say toss it, I don't literally mean throw it in the trash, but toss it, meaning let go of it, let someone else have good use of that and find a new system that works for your kids, new ages and abilities in their stage in life.

Are your kids capable of doing more?

That's another good question to think about.

So add that into your routine.

What they couldn't do at 5 years

old, they can do at 8.

Okay?

Is your family waking up too late or too early?

Are you getting to bed too late or too early?

So what doesn't work for you?

Go ahead and toss anything that does not work and free yourself up to make those necessary changes.

You, mama, are the heart of your home, so you get to make those choices and you get to help facilitate the atmosphere within your home.

So go ahead and exercise that right.

And the last tip for you is to embrace the things that you love.

And now I'm just talking to you, homeschool mom.

I'm talking to you.

Every momma needs to enjoy herself, love herself, and get some time alone to meditate and just be you.

You know, you may not get that time very often, especially with younger kids in the house, but if you can snatch a moment here or there, I advise you to take that time, embrace it, and thank God for it.

Don't lose yourself parenting.

I want to share that with you because it's so important as homeschool moms that we not identify ourselves as homeschool moms, so to speak, but identify ourselves as women and as children of God first and foremost.

So remember who you are and tap into that woman deep inside who.

Who loves painting or cooking or writing or reading or.

Or anything that you like to.

If you love music, whatever it is that you love, tap into that.

Remember who you are.

You have dreams, you have visions and goals, and there's things about you that you should not just shove down because you are a parent.

Now, granted, you do have to put some things on the shelf from time to time, but don't let it stay on the shelf forever.

Take it down and look at it and play with it and let it be a part of your life.

Okay?

Take it off the shelf.

And if you have to snag the time to do those things, do that.

Do whatever it takes that you can keep your love alive, your love for life.

You know, you're worth it.

You as a mom, you give, give, give so much of yourself.

But I want you this school year.

I want to challenge you this school year to remember, to replenish yourself by cherishing and loving yourself, because you deserve it.

So that's all I have for you today.

I hope that you really think about this.

If.

And ask yourself, you know, are you getting ready for going back to school, for getting back into school mode?

What are you doing to prepare for homeschooling?

Mentally, physically, spiritually?

What are you doing to prepare?

What are you letting go of and what are you embracing?

Okay, so I hope to hear from you and I hope that this has been an encouragement for you.

If so, please Visit me at ChristianHomeschoolMoms.com and leave me a message at this podcast, this is episode number 89, so I would love to hear from you.

So that's all I have for you today.

God bless you and happy homeschooling.