Free Homeschool Planner: How Kids Can DIY Homeschool when Mom is Busy!

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

I moved last month and that craziness doesn’t play well with my goal to be totally organized for Christmas this year. My heart says put up The Tree! And my head says, um…have you SEEN your bedroom?

Yes, my heart looks like Joy and my head looks like Disgust.

If my kids went to school for seven-plus hours a day, five days a week, this would not be a problem. I could drop them off, head home, clean for a few hours, then write and nap and eat Paleo bonbons until it was time to pick them up.

But we homeschool.

Homeschoolers know what that means, but for everyone else:

I’m with my kids every day from the time they wake up until the time they go to bed; usually in the same room. Usually touching one of them.

Which is actually great—I love being with my kids all the time, and I can’t imagine shipping them off for the better part of every weekday…except at busy times like now, when I envy moms who have 40+ hours a week to take care of business while their kids are in school.

Why You Need an Emergency Homeschool Plan

Multitasking is a myth. You can do many things at once, but you won’t do any one of those things well. I’m right in there with the kids as we move through the school day.

For the next three days, I need those five hours a day I usually spend actively homeschooling. This emergency homeschool plan works for any mom who needs to do something that’s more important than being in charge of homeschool: have a baby, move, mourn, recuperate, take a mental health day.

The Emergency Homeschool Plan: How kids can DIY homeschool when mom is busy!

As you schedule your kids’ DIY homeschool days, remember these 4 tips:

1. Kids need meaningful school work.

Don’t just print off a bunch of stupid worksheets. My 9-year-old loves worksheets and she makes her own when I won’t make them for her, but worksheets you find online usually conform to public school curriculum guidelines, and homeschoolers are not rule followers.

2. Kids need meaningful housework.

Give your kids housework that will take the burden of the grunt work off of you so you can organize the crap out of that linen closet.

3. Don’t forget breaks!

My kids take a 10-minute break after every subject, whether that subject takes 5 minutes or an hour to cover. My one rule for breaks: they have to be up and moving the whole break, every break.

4. Give them a goal.

If I just hand my kids a list of websites or a stack of books to work through, they’ll power through, but they won’t have fun. The challenge to meet a goal—even a goal they’ll groan about— makes DIY school days more exciting.