Are you a work at home homeschool mom?
I’ve worked outside the home, and I’ve stayed home full time with my kids. Each has its own set of obstacles.
Honestly, I never thought I’d be home full-time. And I certainly didn’t think I’d be homeschooling my kids and working from home at the same time.
It’s like all my worlds combined into one. Add in a dash of cabin fever and you’ve got yourself quite the recipe for disaster!
How can one mom manage such a full plate?!
I’m always learning from my mistakes as I go. However, I can offer some insight into what is working well for me in this season!
Over the last seven years, I’ve been homeschooling my three kids. I can’t believe that my oldest is finishing up her last year of elementary grades this year!
Throughout those seven years, I’ve also been working to build a career out of writing, through blogging, and freelance writing for others.
It’s been quite the task to find the right flow for pulling all of this off simultaneously!
Are you in the same boat? Would you like some ideas for staying sane through the chaos that is homeschooling your kiddos and working from home?
Let me help you out!
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5 Tips to Stay Sane as a Work-At-Home Homeschool Mom
The following 5 tips are here to help you stay sane as a work-at-home homeschool mom!
Use these as a guide to inspire you to prioritize your well-being so you can best love your family well. You can’t pour from an empty cup, Friend.
Beleive me, I’ve tried.
1.) Pinpoint your most available time of day.
Figure out what time of day works best for you to have alone time to focus.
For me, like many, it’s usually the morning hours before everyone is up. This started many moons ago when my second kid was colic and up so, so early. I had to find a way to get ahead of the mental sluggishness that came with motherhood.
It didn’t happen overnight though. Time and patience and trying again and again got me to a healthy morning routine.
Evening works well too or nap time/afternoon quiet time. It looks different for everyone.
The key is to find what works for you and your family. It doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s.
2.) Find what fuels your focus.
Confession: I struggle with this a lot. Focusing is so, so hard. Especially with social media today and technology overall.
So curbing distractions and lighting a fire under my unmotivated self are some of my top priorities. Limiting cell phone usage and mindless puttering seem to be the most helpful when acquiring focus.
One thing I was introduced to that helps with this is an app called Forest for Productivity. Some of my fellow writing friends mentioned its benefits in keeping their mitts off their phone when they need to concentrate.
In the Forest app, you plant various trees on a map. Foliage increases the more you stay off your phone.
Give it a quick search in your app store and see if it’s for you. If not, check out some similar focus-type apps.
Spending time free writing for 5-10 minutes helps get all the gibberish out of my head. And it’s also a focus fueler. Doing this helps me gain the momentum to move on to the rest of my needed work tasks.
Specific music and lighting can be helpful too. Try a few different ideas and see what fuels your focus.
3.) Develop some semblance of a routine.
Admittedly, along with focus, routine is another struggle area of mine. However, I know the importance of it so that the day can rightfully flow.
If you’re like me, you love routine and then you start to struggle with it. You want the structure, but also need to be able to fly by the seat of your pants occasionally.
You like a good mixup. Still, you need a basic routine or daily/weekly to-do list to fall back on.
Make a to-do list for homeschool, work, and the home. Here’s a cleaning checklist for home to simplify the cleaning to-do list.
Note your areas of strength, your areas of lesser strength, and how the day already looks in your home. Then plan out how you can use this to find a steady pace in your day-to-day or week-to-week routine.
It doesn’t have to be a strict schedule or it can be. What’s going to mesh best with your family and your work that you can maintain a steady rhythm with?
Related: 11 Homeschool Tips for Beginners (2023)
4.) Maximize your work time.
Make a list of important, have-to-be-done tasks that need priority. Then make another list of things that can be done with a lower sense of urgency but still need to be done.
Tackle the priority list right away and then the less urgent tasks throughout the day or during your designated work times.
Making the most of what I have to zero in on for work tasks makes the biggest difference in my overall day. If you maximize your work time, it will set you up well!
5.) Don’t let guilt settle in.
So many of us struggle with feeling guilty for dividing our time between work and taking care of our kids and home.
Sometimes you start to feel like you’re lacking as a parent or failing at bringing an income in, along with many other thoughts and emotions.
It’s important to not let those feelings settle in and make a home. Do you what you need to do to sort through them and kick them to the curb.
- It can be journaling,
- going for walks,
- or it can be jamming out to music.
You’ll know what helps you.
Recap: Staying Sane as a Working Homeschool Mom
Whether you’re homeschooling, working from home, or doing both, it helps to sit down and pinpoint your goals and what will get you there.
What do you need to focus better and maximize your time?
What can you do to manage stress levels?
From family life to work life, staying sane isn’t the easiest task but with a few tips and some digging around it might be just a bit easier.
I hope these tips are helpful for you!
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This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn a nominal fee from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your support. See my disclosure policy for more info.
Author Bio:
Samantha Emert is a homeschooling mom of 3 and is a huge introvert who leans toward the highly-sensitive side. In her free time, she shares about life, homeschooling and writing at samanthaemertwriter.com
