Hey everyone! Whether you are a working mom trying to home school, or a stay at home mom trying to homeschool… homeschooling is NO JOKE if you have no experience doing so. Also let’s be honest, while I admire the homeschool blogs, they stress me out and leave me feeling like a failure. Mainly because I am not “pinterest-y” like that and I can’t stand projects that make messes, because let’s face it. My boys are messy to begin with so I am sticking to the old school printed worksheets, reading books, and learning videos.
Below I will show you our daily schedule. I also work full time, so first I am going to discuss how I am managing that. If you are only here for the kid stuff just skip the next paragraph 🙂 But first, read this article because it made me feel SO much better about homeschooling the boys during this time.
How to Balance Working Full Time While Doing Homeschooling
I wake up about 2 hours before they do. I grab my coffee, check/send emails, and plan out the day for my team. I thought at first I could work a little here and there while they did lessons, etc. but quickly realized I needed to give my all to them, and then my all to work. I shared this blog post listing 5 tips I’ve learned over the years that help me stay productive while I work from home if you want to check it out.
So from 8:00am to 2:30pm it is the schedule you see below. I stuck to their normal school hours. During their free time I am basically picking up the house and kitchen and or getting myself dressed and ready for the day.
At 2:30pm, their “school” day ends, they get their daily chores done and the screens come out. Yes I know that is too much screen time (like 3 hours per day right now), but until Mark is home with me as well (next week) that is how we are doing things. It is the ONLY way I can work without interruptions. At least the first hour of that is educational Netflix shows (more info with link below). After that is fun on the iPad for 2 hours. Mark gets home and then takes over while I am still working. No family sit down dinners right now but it is what it is. Not THAT big of a deal in the long run – this will pass!
If you guys want a new schedule next week when Mark is home everyday and we are tackling this together let me know!! Basically I predict the kids’ schedule will be the same but I will take morning and he will take afternoon (or vice versa) equalling to less screen time for them and a tiny bit more normal work hours for us. I have a sample daily schedule at the end of this post.
**UPDATE** – How We Take Turns Homeschooling the Boys
Since Mark has officially been home, I wanted to update this blog post to share how our schedule has changed. We basically work in morning/afternoon shifts and we alternate each day. So for example, on Monday morning, I will teach the boys and Mark will takeover in the afternoon. Then the next day, Mark will be in charge in the morning and I will have afternoon and so on. This has been SO helpful since it gives each of us uninterrupted time to focus on work.
Helpful Articles for Talking to Your Kids About Covid-19 – here & here
Educational Activities & Helpful Resources for Homeschooling
Printable Worksheets & Quizzes
Facebook Live Field Trips & More – Chris Field Serial Disruptor
Learned about this one from a mom friend. It is about 45 minutes in each day. One day was a tour of a police car and there are lots more field trips to come. The boys love it!
Educational Netflix Shows That Are Also Entertaining
How can you go wrong with Netlix lol. This list of 30 educational shows is broken down between elementary, middle and high school levels. The boys consider this a treat! They watch one of these shows per day and it has been a hit.
Resources from Youtube
- Art for Kids Hub – we are using this youtube channel during creative time (you’ll see this on the schedule below).
- We usually go for a bike ride or walk, but this is a fun idea for the kids!
The Kids’ New Daily Home Schooling Schedule
After working out the kinks in the first two weeks, I’ve updated the boys’ schedule to what it looks like now on a daily basis. The boys are getting many more assignments from teachers and zoom class calls so that has been helpful.
7:45am – breakfast
8:15am – Ely class call
8:30am – Ely class work, Fynn quiet read, Zander read to parent
9:00am – E, F + Z class work
9:45am – F + Z worksheets & E quiet read
10:15am – snack/P.E.
11:00am – creative time
12:00pm – lunch/parent shift change
12:30pm – spelling test, sentences
1:00pm – finish class assignments + send to teachers
1:30pm/1:45pm – FB live field trip or Netflix learning
2:00pm/2:15pm – chores
Freetime afterwards
We have all been taking time to get used to this new norm and taking things day by day. How are you guys adjusting to your new schedules? I know it can feel overwhelming but we’re all doing our best!! If you are with kids, I hope this post was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions or topic suggestions. Talk soon!!
xo, Jaime
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