WFMW - 3 Tips for a More Efficient Homeschool Day

It has been 3 months since Rachel's birth, and I am slowly getting back into the swing of homeschooling. We did "homeschool lite" for the first few months after her birth - only doing a few subjects a day (or week!), but now we are back into our full-time schedule, and after a few false starts, it is going wonderfully! There are lots of things I can think of that can affect how smoothly a homeschool family's day runs, but I wanted to highlight the top 3 that I recently implemented that seem to have the biggest effect in our house:

1. Everyone must get up at the same time! For us, that time is 7:30 am. I get up earlier than the kids, but all kids must be up and getting their day started no later than 7:30. That way, we can all eat breakfast together and get started on schoolwork without being held up by stragglers. This has proven to be the only way to get our day started on the right foot. If everyone just gets up whenever, I feel like I'm making breakfast for 2 hours and school is haphazard to say the least! So everyone getting up on time, at the same time, has dramatically made our day more efficient. (This rule does NOT apply to Rachel - I let her sleep as late as she needs to!)
   


2. I must stay off the computer. Must. Other distractions are eliminated as much as possible as well (phone calls, etc).


3. We cannot leave the house! Yes, I know one of the many benefits to homeschooling is the flexibility - being able to do school when and wherever we please. However, for a while, I was running errands several days a week - and trust me, hauling 6 children to a store for 3 items is not a "quick" jaunt! Just the time it takes to get everyone ready, organized, out the door, into the car, and so on is mind-boggling - what could have easily been a 15 minute trip solo turns into an hour or more! It was really eating up our day. So now, I run shopping errands on Sunday afternoons or in the evenings, and we do field trips, nature walks, library trips and doctor's appointments on Fridays, which is a very light schoolwork day for us. For me, in order to really keep things running smoothly at home... I have to be at home!

Of course, in these rules, there has to be flexibility - taking a phone call when it's an urgent matter, leaving the house to bring a meal to a new mother, letting a sick little one sleep in longer... but I've learned that I can call myself "flexible" and really use it as an excuse for laziness and chaos! So overall, having these three guidelines in place are really necessary for us. They have made our homeschooling day soooooo much easier and efficient!!

I'd love to hear your thoughts! What things do you find most affect how efficiently your day runs? Please leave a comment and share! Also, check out other WFMW posts at We Are That Family!