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Homeschooling provides plenty of flexibility for a working mom, but there are some of us that require structure and a set schedule to properly fulfill each of our responsibilities. Meet Andrea, she is as busy as busy can be defined, as she explains in detail her working and successful homeschooling schedule.

My name is Andrea Hall and I am a certified online adjunct mathematics instructor for Odysseyware Academy and Georgia Virtual School as well as the executive director of EPIC Homeschool Network, Inc. a nonprofit whose mission is to enhance, enrich and empower home education in the community. I design courses and teach through my own company The Study Hall Education Consulting Company, LLC and recently launched The Study Hall Homeschool Academy. I am a busy, working homeschool mom who has been home educating my three children (ages 10, 7 and 5) for the past 6 years (I also homeschooled other children).

How Does it All Work?

Whew, what a juggling act! As I thought about that analogy I decided to research how do people learn to juggle balls. According to the Juggling Poet “Beginners often try to juggle 4 balls using the same pattern as 3, throwing from right to left and left to right at the same height and a steady pace. Assuming you have an even number of hands and an even number of balls, the cascade simply won’t work…First you need to learn to juggle 2 balls in one hand.“ It immediately made me think that if you are trying to juggle working and homeschooling you need to start of small. That is how I juggle it, and I don’t do it all at once. In a juggling act, while one ball is thrown into the air doing it’s thing, the juggler catches the other ball. I do one thing, let it go and do something else. I don’t try to hold both balls in one hand at the same time.

So how does this translate practically?

First, I took jobs that would be flexible with my family. I work as an online adjunct mathematics instructor. The key word here is adjunct. As an adjunct teacher I only have weekly online office hour requirements of a maximum of two hours per week. I can grade whenever I want in the day. I also don’t do these jobs at the same time. Odysseyware has my attention during the school year while Georgia Virtual School gets my attention in the summer. This works for me and allows my work schedule to be very fluid.

The Study Hall Homeschool Academy is an online academy that allows me to work with my kids as well as others while also earning a living. It will help me to streamline all the skills, gifts and talents that God has given me and my passion for teaching in one place. The goal is to remove all the other hats not related to homeschooling so that I can simplify my life. I work on this business every weekday.

I have found that having certain days dedicated to a specific hat helps and I also believe in blocking out my time. For example, Thursdays is always my EPIC Homeschool Network, Inc. day. This is when we meet with our homeschool group (EPIC Homeschool Network) or do our field trips. This is also when I work behind the scenes for my nonprofit, whether it is working on the website, looking for scholarship funds, meeting with our board of directors or planning our next activities. This all happens on Thursdays. Wednesdays is my working day for the online schools. This is when I hold my live online office hours for the online schools I work for and catch up on calling parents of students who I am concerned about. While there are certain tasks that are done everyday, I use the focus days to help me decide where I need to spend my spare time.

Every weekday I block out time for working 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., homeschooling from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and meetings 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. There were days when homeschooling only took one hour, however, now that my kids are older, it does take about three to four hours.

Click My Schedule At a Glance to access my full schedule.

How do you homeschool?

I typically teach all my kids by myself, however, my husband does help out with P.E. and I will occasionally enroll them in a class like swimming or a language class online. The biggest blessing as a working, homeschool mother is having an online curriculum. I have been playing around with other curriculum such as SonLight Education Ministries, Right Start Math, etc. (I’m the Eclectic Homeschooler) but I found that online curricula helps to prevent burnout. Since I need to work, I recently decided to put my two worlds together and this year I will be teaching my kids online along with a small group of other kids at The Study Hall Homeschool Academy.

Starting and being involved with a homeschool co-op has been beneficial in two ways. It allows my kids to have a day dedicated to fun learning activities and field trips every week. They know it’s coming so it helps with motivation. It allows me to get a break from the ordinary (although I am still in charge of the co-op it is still a different feel than working). I highly recommend it but I also suggest you dedicate one day in the schedule to it if possible to help you streamline your life. These activities are always on Thursdays. If it can’t be on Thursday, them most of the time, we don’t do it because it throws everything else on my plate off.

We have done extracurricular activities here and there, but they are done after the “school day” is over or online. For example, we did violin lessons… online during the school day and swimming lessons in the afternoon around 4:30 p.m..

Educational developer and homeschool mom — **Andrea’s kids**

What are the Challenges and Benefits?

There are challenges to working and homeschooling. One main challenge is to know when to say no and get used to saying no so that you can avoid burnout. It is hard for my go-getter, type-A personality to realize I cannot do it all so saying no was a hard step for me. The other challenge is balancing it all so that your kids do not suffer. A schedule really helps to keep things in order and while your schedule might not look like everyone else’s, have one that works for you. When all else fails and you have to drop the ball, don’t drop the family!

While working and homeschooling has its challenges, it has been a blessing to me and my family in two ways:

First, it has taught my children responsibility. As a working, homeschooling mother, I cannot do it all on my own. My kids take on a lot of the household chores. My oldest can prepare several meals, washes the dishes, cleans the bathroom and folds the clothes. My second oldest cleans the rest of the kitchen, the living room and play room. The baby helps clean up the living room and play room.
Second, it has taught me to trust in God. There have been several times when I felt I had no more to give but then God would remind me of 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV) “ ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Kids doing chores working homeschooling mom — **Andrea’s children doing their chores**

What are your best time management tips?

So how do I balance it all? The best time management tips I have is to first understand it is all about self-management. We cannot create more time, we can manage ourselves.

Second, I would implement a strategic planning block or power hour (whatever you’d like to call it). This is when you work on your business and plan your homeschool week without interruptions (like while the kids are taking a nap or having quiet time, etc.). I can get more done when I can focus. Schedule it the same time every week or every day if possible to make it a routine.

Third, I utilize both a written schedule and my google calendar. When someone wants to schedule something with me, I immediately open up the google calendar on my phone. Then, on Sunday morning when I do my strategic planning, I open up my google calendar and write down my appointments and plans for this week in my passion planner.

I hope you find this to be helpful as you are looking to juggle it all as a busy working homeschooling mom!

Andrea Hall

I pray that you find this Andrea’s schedule insightful. As always, “We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us” (Phil. 4:13), but we can’t do them all at once.