Homeschool Monday — Common Mistakes — Over-Scheduling

You can’t do it all. You really can’t. If you had unlimited financial resources and an unlimited amount of time, you might be able to swing it. (You’d be insane, but you could do it.) I’m going to assume that that’s not the majority of homeschooling moms. Most of us live with tight schedules and tighter budgets, and yet we still feel the pressure to try and do it all.

It’s easy to see where this pressure comes from. Everywhere we go, we see educational, sports, and enrichment opportunities for our children. The neighbors’ kids, who attend a traditional school, seem to participate in a dizzying array of extracurricular activities. They have opportunities we’ve never even imagined. This means that the older our kids get, the more tempting it becomes to pack their days full of extra classes and meetings. We certainly don’t want for them to miss out on something simply because we chose to keep them at home.

And so we begin to cram more and more into our already tight schedules. Yet we still feel as though it’s somehow not enough. Our calendars become so filled with field trips, get-togethers, group activities, music lessons, art classes, book clubs, etc. that we spend several whole days every week in the car. Our children become masters at writing papers while the car is moving, because we have to get the academics in there somewhere!!!! Then one morning we wake up and want to hide in bed. The thought of our crazy schedules makes us want to curl up in the fetal position and just whimper a bit. We’ve been caught in the over-scheduling trap and it’s hard as anything to get back out again.

Sometimes we just need permission to quit. If that’s what you need to hear, then here it it:

You can quit. Your children will not be ruined if they get to spend an entire day or two…or even three or more at home.

You don’t have to do everything activity you see. You don’t even have to try them all. Your children will have years and years to try new things and have all kinds of interesting outings and learning experiences. They don’t all have to be done this year, or even next year.

The truth is that trying to do too much will make you crazy. It will make your kids crazy too. Can anyone really learn well in the back of a moving car? Is it possible to have good penmanship while going over potholes? Could you memorize math facts while jostling up against your younger brother? Would you be able to remember everything you need to learn in history during the mad dash to piano lessons? Your children can’t either.

Maintain your sanity by scheduling a day for outings and sticking to it. Pick a set day for outside classes and then (and I can’t stress the importance of this enough) stick to your game plan. Pack it all into a single day or crazy driving, or have a set time every day for extra learning. If you’re already over-scheduled, then start cutting a few things out. It may be painful because all of those things are so “important.” I’m here to tell you that their importance is all in your mind. You can live without the whole long list of extra stuff.

Can you imagine a life where nothing happens until after 2? What about one where only Fridays are for running around? How much more could your children learn without  the constant upheaval of a crazy schedule? How much more sane would you be if you could actually have some time not driving children around?

In our mad dash to do it all, we often forget that while those public school kids have activities, they also have desk time to get their work done. This is a gift you can give your children that’s every bit as important as piano/art/Spanish/chess/dance/debate classes. Make it easy on all of you by organizing your life in a way that gives you time at home for school at the kitchen table and not just in the back of the van. Write it in such a way that you can spend at least an hour or two a week just playing with your children. Because playing with their mom? That’s about as important as you can get.