Thank you to a friend on a homeschooling egroup from back home AND to Brave Writer on Facebook (HERE) for this terrific list of Homeschooling mom advice. 

1. Fill a sink with warm soapy water. Soak all dirty dishes gathered from the four corners of the house while you do the other stuff, like homeschooling your children.

2. Ask for help, from your kids or your best friend or your spouse. Set a timer for 5 minutes and tackle the pile of laundry or the cluttered desk or the dog-hair-covered carpet. Then get back to what you need to do: homeschooling your children.

3. Turn off the computer. Don’t turn it on again until you have… homeschooled your children.

4. Take a shower before breakfast, then put on clothes, then lace up comfortable shoes… Now get outside, take a walk, and homeschool your children outdoors.

5. Pick a place to keep all math books (and any other daily use books). Do not pass go, do not eat cookies, do not leave the house, do not go to bed until all the books that go in that space (cubby hole, top of desk, under coffee table, foot locker, pantry shelf) are in that space. Every day. So tomorrow you can… homeschool your children.

6. Brush your teeth in the morning, and brush your children’s teeth in the morning. Let toothbrushing signal the start of your homeschooling day…. every day.

7. Keep your pencil sharpener near your pencils. Use old tin cans for pencil holders (decorate if you’re that motivated). Put these in the same place every day. Restock pencils regularly (check weekly before shopping to make sure you have pencils/pens ready to go). Buy fun ones, not just work-a-day sorts. These make it easier to homeschool your children.

8. Buy a printer that scans and photocopies. Install the drivers on the weekend, make sure all computers in the house can print over wifi. Hire someone to do it for you if you must. Don’t put it off for some day. Use the machine every day, keep back up ink stocked in your desk. Printer-copiers make it easier to homeschool your children.

9. Overstock folders, lined paper, notebooks, page protectors, card stock, markers, Prismacolor pencils, watercolors, stickers, composition books, hole punchers (several), three-hole punches, rulers (clear wide quilting ones work great!), scissors that are for both righties and lefties, scotch tape, glue stick, pipe cleaners, polymer clay, paint brushes… all at once, before you get going. Never having to drop everything to run to the store helps you homeschool your children.

10. Put a list on the refrigerator that everyone can add to titled: Stuff I wish I could do today. Then everyone adds to it any time they think of anything. Then when you are bored, frustrated, suffering from PMS… look at the list and do one, so that you continue to homeschool your children.

11. At the start of the year, pick 5 places you want to take your kids. Put them on the calendar (at least pick the month if not the date). Schedule them. Do them. Invite friends, but go alone if you must… so that your homeschooled children have adventures!

12. Wear lipstick. You’ll be nicer and smile more… while you homeschool.

13. Wear sexy/feminine underwear so you remember that you’re a woman, not just a mother… because there is life after homeschooling.

#3 is a bit of a puzzler as more and more we implement our computer into our schooling, like with the dinosaurs and Emanuel… or the videos we hunt down to supplement or even answering random questions the kids come up with. So instead I see it as not closing myself off in a corner to do personal internet things. I can have my email or Facebook open… but it is secondary or rather LAST in line for attention. I cannot tell you how many headaches it has saved me to be able to suddenly turn and hunt down some random information or a colouring page for an impatient little one.

I would like to add a #14… Be flexible… sometimes a tangent is so much more fun, educational and relevant than your prepared lesson! 

I would love to hear YOUR added advice!!! Please leave a comment!

Keep the learning going!