In this series on how to homeschool we've covered a variety of topics.
We've covered topics such as identifying a family vision, figuring out what your children want to learn, decluttering the school area, and planning a daily rhythm.
But it's often the care of our homes that derails our homeschool even more than the actual homeschooling.
The job of getting food on the table, keeping the laundry done, and organizing school supplies while also teaching math and reading can overwhelm us, especially when you add small ones into the mix.
Simplify Your Homeschool
But over 25 years of homeschooling and homemaking, I've learned a few things about simplifying.
- Rotate meals-Instead of planning complicated menus, simply have a rotating menu. For instance, Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Soup or Salad Wednesday, Crock Pot meal on Thursday and Pizza on Friday. Use the same strategy for breakfast and lunch as well (We've had some great menus shared in the Peaceful Loop member area)
- Minimize clothing-Ideally your children will be able to get themselves dressed, put their dirty clothes in a basket, and put away their own clean clothes. This means only having clothes available that they can dress themselves in and not having an overwhelming amount of options. If you have too many clothes, simply bag some up to pull out when the current options are stained.
- Minimize toys-You don't want to have more toys than your children can pick up themselves. Aim for small baskets with a manageable quantity and insist that one type of toy gets picked up before another kind gets dumped. This will eliminate the toy tsunami that produces tears when it's time for pickup.
- Let the children help- Use our Chore and Routine Pack to help your children become part of the care of the home, and make teaching chores part of the school routine. Simple tasks like putting away clothes, unloading a dishwasher, and chopping vegetables for a salad all help with motor skills, critical thinking, and organization, and when we all work together, it leaves more time to play together.
Each of our learning bundles includes a daily practical skills activity to help your children learn valuable life skills. Over the course of the year children get to shake cream into butter, make their rooms shipshape, bake bread, dust furniture, make their own non-toxic cleaning products and more.
These activities feel like play to young children but are important building blocks to a whole life.