Homeschooling Through Life’s Interruptions

Tonights #Homeschoolingscope Blab is about homeschooling through life’s interruptions. This topic is actually very near and dear to me because it’s been on my mind a lot lately. We have switched from using Connections Academy to help us with our homeschooling because I couldn’t continue to juggle four students and also maintain the demands of running the blog and my virtual assistant work. Now we’re working diligently to find a system that allows us to cover all the same topics with ease and have some type of a set schedule for everyone.

However, regardless how many schedules I strive to put into place there are a million life interruptions that tend to happen. We ALWAYS have interruptions in our life from the dog to in-laws to their Daddy and a million other little things.

[Tweet “Homeschooling through life’s interruptions can happen by following this mindset…”]

The number one question is how do I deal with homeschooling through life’s interruptions?!? The quick answer is I just roll with the punches as they happen. That really doesn’t help anyone feeling overwhelmed with feeling like the to-do list just seems to be getting longer and they are running a rat race trying to catch up.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned through over three years of homeschooling, is… it all evens out in the end! At the end of the school year, I look back and I see just how much my kids have learned and accomplished. After one of my most stressful years of teaching, that was the one year that Jimmy surpassed well above average in almost ALL subjects on his standardized testing. Let me tell you, seeing your kids score exceptionally on those darn standardized testing it’s quite a feeling!

One of the ways I’ve learned to roll with the punches is to look for every opportunity to ask questions and find a way to make just about every moment a teachable moment. Shoot, my hikes through the woods with the kids is quite a period of teachable science/history moments. I was teaching my kids drivers education while driving down the road. We do Math problems on the run when we’re doing grocery shopping and even when we’re on the road. My kids have even started their own lesson periods on the road quizzing each other with Math facts. One of their favorite games is seeing how fast they can answer Math problems compared to each other. We host spelling bees when we’re on the run.

[Tweet “Basically what I’m saying is seizing every moment you have to teach your kids.”]

[Tweet “Yet, remember that before you were their teacher, you’re also their mother too.”]

There’s a fine line between those two roles. My kids know that on the majority of the days once it reaches 8pm I’m no longer willing to be in teacher mode at all! If they are still doing school work because they dragged their feet, they are on their own!

Make sure that you don’t over book everyone’s schedules to the point that there isn’t time for life’s interruptions that are bound to come about. In my case, I UNDER schedule tasks for the kids because one thing I’ve learned is IF you tell them they can earn an extra day off they’re more inclined to work extra. I always give them the chance to earn Friday’s off. The only way to do that though is they have to stay one day ahead with their school work. It hasn’t failed me in over two years of using that trick.

They haven’t figured out that Friday Field Trip days are still filled with school work, but it’s outside the home. Plus, in most cases someone other than ME is doing the teaching so I get to relax and savor the moments with them. I call that a win-win situation.

How to Homeschool During Interruptions like Holidays & Appointments w/ @RosieW https://t.co/7jHBgYeHDm #blab

— Crystal Green (@Tidbitsofexperi) October 15, 2015

I hope you can join us tonight at 9:30 PM EST for our #HomeschoolingScope Blab. If you can’t join us tonight, we’ve been having them every Wednesday night at the same time.

I want to know how you handle homeschooling through life’s interruptions in the comments.