3 Ways Homeschool Moms Can Make Their Days Easier

I hate to admit this, but I have sabotaged my own homeschool day before it began. We homeschool moms have jobs that require so much of us, and it helps to do as much as possible to make our days flow better. Well, you would think so, right? But, if you are anything like I was when I began homeschooling, you might be self-sabotaging your homeschool days and not even realize it. 

How We Homeschool Moms Can Self-Sabotage Our Days

Setting ourselves up for failure is much easier than we realize. It only takes overlooking a few seemingly simple things before our whole morning feels like it’s off to a terrible start. 

Interestingly, it’s usually super simple things that we don’t do that can lead to the day’s decline. Maybe you were too tired to clean the kitchen the night before and woke up to a disaster. Or we stayed up way too late instead of getting the much-needed rest that our bodies craved. 

Maybe, it’s our own lousy attitude we decide to give in to that creates negative vibes for the entire home. Yes, that one is hard to admit! But we are in control of making a wise choice or the easy one at the time. And most of the time, choosing the easy thing is what sets us up wrong for the next day. 

Yes, it can be a struggle always to make the most responsible choice. It might even sound a little dull! 

But, what if making a few wise choices each night led to better homeschool days?

3 Ways To Make Your Day Go Smoother As A Homeschool Mom

 

Prepare the Day-Ahead (or Night)

I know, I know! Nobody wants to hear this one or has heard it so many times now it no longer has any sincere meaning. But preparing a little in advance is one of the key ways to make your homeschool days flow better. 

The preparation is different for every family too. But, you can quickly evaluate what keeps negatively affecting your homeschool days or mornings. Is it attitudes? Is it something within the home such as the kitchen or toys everywhere when you rise? What is causing the most significant problem or slowing the start of a good morning? If you can pinpoint what it might be causing your days to flow poorly, you can make adjustments. That’s excellent news!

Once you identify what might need tweaking, start making plans to correct the issues. 

Another smart choice is to create a 30-minute nightly routine to prepare for the day ahead. Customize the things your home needs to function well each homeschool day or morning. For example, I do the following things every night to wake up to a smoother morning. It only takes me 15-20 minutes every night, but it sure does help my mornings to be less chaotic. 

Here is a list of things I do each night to help the morning flow better and to help give you some ideas. You can create your own nightly checklist with your desired tasks. 

• Prepare the coffee maker 
• Wipe down the kitchen countertops
• Load the dishwasher and run it
• Do a quick pick up of toys or items that need to be put away
• Get the dog’s food bowls ready to fill
• Preview my planner for the following day’s events
• Look over the homeschool plans for the next day and familiarize myself with what we are going to do & need

By doing this small handful of things, I limit the amount of chaos that might happen each morning. 

Have a General Meal Plan for Homeschool Days 

Another way that we moms can sabotage our day is to finish homeschooling with everyone starving, and there is no meal plan in place. I have run into more days like this than I would like to admit! If you are like me and struggle in the meal planning area, making a master list of meal ideas might be wise. 

Creating a master list of meal ideas is easy to do and handy to have on hand, especially for those days when you don’t feel like cooking. Check your list for easy meal ideas that the whole family likes. 

We have a master meal idealist, and I use it often when I am meal planning for the week. Many people might think that meal planning takes hours and isn’t worth it. But for many homeschool moms, meal planning saves time, money, and frustration when everyone is hungry. 

To make a master meal idealist, get your family involved. Ask them all of their favorite meals and add them to your list. You might want to section your list to include easy ideas for lunch and more elaborate meal ideas for dinner. 

Once you have a meal idealist, you can plan for the week much faster. 

Some ideas for quick homeschool lunches might include:

• Sandwiches
• Wraps
• Crockpot soups
• Mini charcuterie plates
• Make your own pizzas
• Baked potatoes with a choice of toppings
• Ground beef or chicken tacos
• Spaghetti
• Nachos

Plan Your Homeschool Days and Weeks

We all fall off the planning wagon from time to time. It may be because you are busy with other obligations, or maybe you are experiencing homeschool burnout. Whatever the case, if you can consistently keep up with homeschool planning, your days will flow easier. 

I have found that doing a big-picture general plan for the homeschool year is most helpful. Then I break that down into months and weeks to manage as we go along. 

At the beginning of each month, I reevaluate to see if we need to make any changes based on what our calendar has in store for us. After that, I will evaluate week by week and make adjustments where I need to. 

Homeschool planning doesn’t require much effort once you get a system down. I cover how to set up a homeschool planning system of your own in a self-paced workshop that you can cover in a day (or more if you prefer). 

 

However you choose to plan for your homeschool, a customized plan for your family always works best. 

I hope this gives you a bit of inspiration for customizing your own preparations and plans to have the best possible homeschool days for your family. We homeschool moms have a lot to juggle, and sometimes a few planning adjustments is all we need to keep our days flowing a bit better. 

What types of things do you do in advance that help your homeschool days flow better for your family? We would love to hear about them and maybe even add them here.