Homeschooling 101 Part II - Balancing Act...

I have been married for 12 years.  I have been a mother for 11 (if you count my pregnancy with Asher).  I have been homeschooling my kid(s) for 7 years.  You'd think that by now, I'd have it all together and know exactly what I'm doing all the time.  Unless they come into my house, most mom's I meet think I do have it all together.  I've been called an 'earth momma' by a good friend.  My step father tells me that I am patient with my kids.   Others say I have 'well behaved' children (these people clearly haven't seen my children when they are in their native habitat).

I lack any confidence in what these kind hearted people say about me or my children.  Seventy-five percent of the time, I feel frazzled, annoyed, disheveled, caffeinated (because how else am I going to stay awake?), and most of all scared out of my mind!  I never feel 'together', I have trouble following schedules, I'm constantly late even though I try really hard to be early to everything.  While my confidence in my children's education has grown a bit, I question my own sanity at least once daily.

I know a lot of mom's who work outside their homes (or inside) for pay.  I know several moms who homeschool while working for pay...  I don't know how these moms do it.  

Here is what a typical day looks like in my house during the school year:  

8:30 a.m. - Wake Up and breakfast, drink some form of caffeinated beverage.

9:00 a.m. - Start yelling at the children to get dressed and get their chores done.

9:30 a.m. - Threaten the children with restriction from video games and television unless they get their behinds on their chores and get their behinds into some clothing.

10:00 a.m. - Finally sit down to get started on school work, drink some form of caffeinated beverage.

11:00 a.m. - Throw some chicken nuggets into the oven for lunch then sit back down with the kids and their school work.

12:00 p.m. - Remember the chicken nuggets in the oven that are now smoking up the entire kitchen.

12:15 p.m. - Put in a new pan of chicken nuggets.

12:30 p.m. - Feed the nuggets to the children then get back on school work with the kids.

1:30 p.m. - Put the little ones down for their naps.

2:00 p.m. - Put Isaac back in bed after he sneaks out into the hallway.

2:30 p.m. - Finish school with the kids and recover the living room from the havoc wreaked by the little ones while we were working.  Caffeinated Beverage time again.

3:30 p.m. - Realize that I have taken out no meat for dinner and run to the freezer to find something.

3:32 p.m. - Smell a strange smell emanating from the play room and realize the dog has had an 'accident'.  Yell at Asher to clean up after his dog.

3:33 p.m. - Run upstairs to use the bathroom.  Then realize that we are going to be late for theatre class.

3:35 p.m. - Pull the babies out of bed and buckle them in their car seats.  Pull out of the drive way, only to back back into it to shut and lock the door.  Pull back out of the driveway only to realize I didn't crate the dog.  Drive around the block, back into the driveway and run back in to crate the dog.

4:10 p.m. - Arrive at theatre class 10 minutes late.

5:30 p.m. - Drive home from theatre class and realize I never took meat out of the freezer.

6:00 p.m. - Brown a frozen pack of ground beef and make spaghetti.

6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. - Eat dinner, Baths, bed time snacks, bed time...

9:30 p.m. - Yell at children to stop going to the bathroom and get to sleep.

10:00 p.m. - I do Laundry, Josh does the dishes, a bit of cleaning, computer and TV time for mom and dad.

12:00 a.m. - 1:00 a.m. - Get to bed so we can start the cycle all over again the next day! Though, Josh, God bless him, gets up at 4:30 to go to work!!  Amazing man I married, indeed.

Then the cycle starts all over again the next day with different times for classes or activities, but pretty much the same routine each day.  I savor the days when we don't do school work because that means, I might be able to play with the kids, get some nitty-gritty cleaning done or run some errands.  

We do school work usually four days per week, but the days vary because of our class/social schedule.  Sometimes we go Monday through Thursday, sometimes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.  There are weeks that we don't do school work at all - but as long as we get in our required 180 days that the state requires us to track, when we operate doesn't really matter.  

Balancing work (by that I mean house work, because I can't really relate to the kind you get paid for), school, and making sure the children are all attended to and happy, is not an easy task.  I've finally found a routine that means I won't have to do 14 loads of laundry in one day (who knew that doing laundry daily would reduce my amount of stress?).  

That brings me to another point...  When you are homeschooling your kids, it is almost a necessity that the working parent pitch in on the house work, in my opinion.  Homeschooling - especially when you have more than one child to teach and cart around - is a full time job.   I work really hard to make sure my children are educated - think about the work a school teacher does - it is a full time.  Add in the responsibilities of being a parent and caring for a household and it is tiring.  The least any working spouse can do is realize the enormity of educating their child in an affordable fashion (because homeschooling is so much cheaper than private schools) and appreciate the hard work the teaching parent does to get that done. I am so fortunate to have a spouse who works very hard both at work and at home.  

A homeschooling parent is not just a 'house wife' (or husband).  A house wife usually sends her children off to school on the bus (unless she has toddlers/babies) and has 6 hours in which to run errands, clean house and take care of her household business.  This is hard work as well, and I am not diminishing the work a house wife does, but add in teaching one or more children and the other responsibilities are going to suffer.  

There are some people who can do it all and not have to partake of 5 caffeinated beverages a day.  I am not one of those people.  I must have help and support.  Thankfully, I have it!  Do I have balance?  No...  I still get incredibly stressed and question myself every day.  I think that is a natural thing to do though.  Doubt and questions are healthy to a point.  I don't obsess any more about my children's capabilities and progress, but I do try every day to find balance between being mommy and being teacher.  Really, I am both at all times and that can be hard...