But I’m Never Home!

Posted by Christine | 0 comments

It’s the holiday season. I love this time of year! There’s just a special happy that wells up inside me in December. And I have to admit that a significant part of that is the anticipation of a couple of weeks with no kid activities!

I remember a billboard a while back with an advertisement for some brand of minivan. I thought it was brilliant:

An image of a minivan in motion on a stretch of road.

And something like this: “What genius coined the term ‘stay-at-home mom’?”

I loved that ad. I felt understood and validated. Long gone is the image of a stay-at-home mom sitting home eating bonbons. Especially for homeschoolers. It’s a never-ending hamster wheel of school work, housework, discipline, lessons, activities, and home practice for said activities and lessons.

With four children now in extracurriculars (even though we limit their involvement) I am at the stage of life that feels like we are never home. Our children each take private lessons in an instrument and have one physical activity- for the three boys it’s tae kwon do, and for our daughter it’s dance. Then on top of those times out of the house we still have to get groceries, run errands, and complete schoolwork.

This year the opportunity has come up to plan activities during school hours. I have loved this development! Our violin and piano teachers have morning hours for homeschoolers, and the other activities overlap on only one or two evenings a week, and the occasional weekend day. But this then means that school time and routine is compromised and I have had to be creative with our time during the day.

Here are some things we have been doing to take advantage of our out-of-the-house time and really make it count for schoolwork:

• plan assigned reading and have the books in the car
• listen to audio books or learning CDs such as Seeds Worship (to memorize scripture), Music Maestro Classics, or Classical Kids.
• give the kids joint projects while we’re out. For example, when the younger two have violin I’ll print out state maps for the older two and bring two atlases with a list of cities, bodies of water, and geographical elements to label
• have a prepared bag of educational games, paper and colored pencils, mad libs, maze and dot-to-dot books along with a snack, ready to go by the door on busy days
• make packets of independent work for each child to be completed at various times during the week and keep them in the car
• talk and play verbal games while we’re in the car

We are certainly out and about a fair share of the time, but it doesn’t have to be time lost. I actually find that when I’m more prepared for car and out-of-the-house activity time with work for the kids to do, our home time is much more relaxed.

How do you reconcile the time you’re out of the house with the school work that needs to get done? How can you best prepare your time to meet your needs?

Christine Hiester is a Christian, homeschooling mom to three boys and a girl, ranging in age from 10 to 3 years old. She is a musician by trade, eclectic in homeschool style, and continues to grow and learn along with her children in this journey of life and discipleship at home. Visit her blog at Fruit in Season.